Cameo Troupe of Lincoln singers

* * * * * *

JACQUELINE KROSCHELL - Cameo's Artistic Director, is a lifelong entertainer, singer, and actress with Broadway and off-Broadway credits including Man of La Mancha; A Christmas Carol; The Pirates of Penzance; Tamara and dozens of other productions who has toured nationally and internationally and recently played the leading role, Florence Foster Jenkins in Peter Quilter’s international hit, Glorious! She starred in Steve DePass's one woman inspirational work, Me, Myself, and GOD at Saint Peter's Church one of only ten Christian soloists statewide endorsed nationally by Christian Music Presenters. She sang the Mothers in Cameo's Amahl and the Night Visitors and Hansel and Gretel and sang Gilbert & Sullivan and opera leads in Cavalleria Rusticana, Otello, Beatrice and Benedict, La Boheme, The Mikado and Elephant Steps, to name a few, with New York City Opera, Lake George Opera, The Contemporary Opera of New York, the Stratford Festival Company, Lincoln Center and as a guest artist with over three dozen symphony orchestras, including the Rochester and Buffalo Philharmonics, the Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Denver and Milwaukee Symphonies and Canada's Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnepeg Symphonies and Ottawa's National Arts Center. Much in demand as a film actress, she played numerous roles in film this year. She delights in researching and reviving performances of vocal gems from the past which she calls L.I.G.H.T.S., Living History Through Song. Currently, her Abraham Lincoln, Lover of Music and Song is Endorsed by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission in Washington, D.C. and her previous projects have also received national recognition. Shecritiques and gives Master Classes statewide for Teen Arts Festivals and was named Artist in Education this year by the Sussex County Arts and Heritage Council. Listen to her in "Faith of My Childhood" in our Sound Clips. She also collaborates on musical jingles and you can hear one by going to the below:

http:cameoproductions.org/audio/JacquelineforShortenHomes.mp3

CARMEN ARTIS studied formally at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, MD. and continued private studies with internationally renowned mezzo-soprano, Antonia Kitsopolous. Her extensive credits in opera, oratorio and musical theatre include the New Jersey State Opera, Northwest Lyric, and Scranton IV Opera, as well as with the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Andre Previn and Michael Tilson Thomas. She has been a repeated guest soloist with the NJ Pops and has performed Off-Broadway both at Saint Peter’s Theatre and the Westbeth Theatre Complex. Among her musical theatre performances, she has especially enjoyed playing Aldonza in Man of La Mancha. Her specialty program, Spirituals to Ragtime to Jazz, was recorded live in early May of 1997, in a tour that included the Watchung Arts Center and Morristown’s Bickford Theatre. She and her husband, John Hammel, have performed their program, “Great American Songbook”, with such jazz notables as Regan Ryzuk and Rio Clemente in their tireless efforts to promote great American composers of popular song. Listen to her in "Wheels of a Dream" on our Sound Clips.

STEVE DEPASS - “America’s Singing Poet”, who is one of Cameo’s star performers, is a world renowned Master of Improvisation. Cameo presented Steve both at William McNiece Auditorium and Selective Risk Auditorium for STAND UP FOR NEW JERSEY! to celebrate National Arts & Humanities Month’s big kick-off occasion, national Standing Ovation Day, twice. Steve’s half hour appearance for New Jersey PBS New Jersey Live! Has been aired repeatedly, giving additional plugs to Sussex County each time its aired. DePass who has performed repeatedly at the White House, for the Queen of England, at Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, the London Paladium, was dubbed “America’s Singing Poet” by the late Nelson Rockefeller. Discovered as a child star in Broadway’s CARMEN JONES and BLACKBIRDS, he subsequently appeared repeatedly on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Tonight Show and on every major TV variety show, including co-hosting the Mike Douglas Show. Listen to him in "The IndividualSong" and in the "Voices of Summer" on our Sound Clips.

DOMENIC GUASTAFERRO - Baritone - has sung a variety of baritone roles with

Cameo Productions. He sang Melchior in Amahl and the Night Visitors, and the Father in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel in addition to touring in Cameo’s Musical America,Victor Herbert's Memory Album and Naughty Marietta, and conducting Cameo's award winning Liberty! He also served as both musical director/accompanist and Baritone for Cameo's Water Songs. He made his New York debut as featured singer of "The Impossible Dream" for thousands of visitors to Radio City Music Hall, followed by a career in every medium from the Goldovsky Opera to soap operas to a role in the film Arthur. He played opposite Julius LaRosa in A Broadway Musical, and in The Cradle Will Rock at the Village Gate. He's played baritone leads in Kiss Me, Kate, South Pacific, The Sound of Music, and opposite Jacqueline Kroschell in Man of La Mancha.. With an Ed. D. from Columbia University he is Supervisor of Music and Art for the City School District of New Rochelle, this past 4th of July, he was a featured soloist with the Westchester Chamber Orchestra. He praises the Lord as Musical Director for the Church of Saints Philip and James. He wed Jia Lily Kang in August.

JOHN HAMMEL has a range that stretches from Broadway to the Opera House and has appeared with the New Jersey State Opera, Northwest Lyric, Trenton Civic, and Scranton IV Opera as well as Off-Broadway at the John Houseman, Saint Peter’s Theatre and Westbeth Theatre Complex. He’s appeared at Morristown’s Bickford Theatre in the dual lead roles of Jupiter/Amphitryon in their production of Olympus on my Mind and as Richard Henry Lee in their award winning production of 1776. He’s been featured as soloist at Carnegie Hall and sung with the New Jersey Pops in performances throughout New Jersey from Atlantic City to Cape May. He and his wife, Carmen Artis, concertize regularly throughout the Northeast in programs of opera and musical theatre selections. He hosts an eclectic weekly radio program, for over thirteen years, on WNTI - 91.9 FM, www.wnti.org, North New Jersey out of Hackettstown, NJ. Listen to him in "Wheels of a Dream" on our Sound Clips.

KAREN LUNDRY - Lyric-Coloratura Soprano a resident of Montclair, NJ, recently made an impressive debut with the Montclair Operetta Club as Heidi in Stephen Sondheim's Follies, following the release of her second CD, "Airs, Arias, and Alleluia" (her first CD was "My Very High Ab and other Favorite Notes"). She has been featured soloist at Radio City Music Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra, the Trinity Church Concert Series, Bargemusic, Bel Canto Opera, and toured Greece, Portugal, Italy, Morocco and Portugal as soloist with the International Chamber Orchestra. Early in her career, she was selected to be soprano soloist for the Margot -Fonteyn-Rudolph Nureyev Gala Series at New York's Uris Theatre. With Cameo's Musical Britannia, she appeared in the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. She toured the Far East as leading coloratura with the Opera Theatre of New York, playing leading roles in Don Pasquale, Rigoletto and Beatrice and Benedict. She performs a popular classical cabaret with pianist Stephen Phebus in the New York City area. Please visit her web site at www.karenlundry.com !

MARTIN YAZDZIK - Conductor / Pianist - studied with Britain’s Sir Colin Davis, and was engaged as a coach at Brussel’s famed opera house La Monnaie. This led to conducting at numerous German opera houses, while studying with Roumania’s Constantin Bugeanu. Elmar Otthenthal engaged him to conduct Phantom, Les Miserables and Cats at Austria’s Theatre an der Wien, and for eight years he conducted and created new productions for the opera house in Aachen, Gemany. American engagements included Tulsa Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Baton Rouge Opera, Seattle Opera, and New Jersey State Opera.

CAROL MIDDLETON - Musical Director / Pianist was born and educated in Mississippi before furthering her studies as an operatic soprano and accompanist/musical director in the New York area. Her first performance for Cameo was with Jacqueline Kroschell for the 100th Anniversary Luncheon for the Chinkewunska Chapter of the D.A.R. in May. She’s performed as Musical Director for Mary and Regan Ryzuk’s Enchanted Players of Boonton, NJ, for productions of The Sound of Music, Once Upon a Mattress, Cinderella, Charlie Brown and the backer’s auditions for their new musical, Jack the Ripper, which has been optioned for a London West End production. Her long list of Musical Director credits for many companies includes such shows as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Little Shop of Horrors, Children of Eden, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and sell-out performances of The Music Man for the Jefferson Players.

Cameo Troupe of Lincoln Singers

FATHER JOHN SHEEHAN, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, currently Chairman of the Xavier Society for the Blind, and Chaplain for the New York Athletic Club and the Notre Dame Club of New York. He also assists at St. Malachy’s Church, the Actors’ Chapel. He is a member of Actors’ Equity, the Lambs Club, and a number of theatrical and musical organizations around New York. Most recently, he served twelve years in Nigeria (where he was awarded a double chieftaincy) and 27 months in the Marshall Islands. Before entering the Jesuits, Father John worked professionally in theatre and broadcasting, and enjoyed unusual jobs, including driving for a stunt driving team, running his own public relations firm, managing dinner theatres and catering services, and flying and jumping out of airplanes. Born in Manhattan, he has lived in 8 different countries and speaks several languages badly. He has performed at Radio City Music Hall, with the Light Opera of Manhattan, Arena Stage in Washington, DC and with a number of dinner theatres and touring companies. He has given concerts in 15 different countries, was Cantorial soloist at a Jewish Temple for 2 1/2 years and has three CD’s available. He cannot believe that God will let him die before he gets to do a Broadway show.

Press Play For Audio