Staff Bios
STEVEN A. DAIGLE, artistic director, is an emeritus professor of opera and former artistic director of the Eastman Opera Theatre program at The Eastman School of Music. He has served as part of the artistic staff for more than 300 lyric theater productions and called over 400 professional operatic performances as a production stage manager. Daigle’s experience as a stage director encompasses over 180 productions and a wide range of lyric theater repertoire. Productions include collaborations with legendary Broadway composer Charles Strouse, Pulitzer Prize-winning composers Robert Ward and Carlisle Floyd, and conductors Louis Lane, Robert Spano, and Evan Whallon. While at the Eastman School of Music, Daigle created a lyric theater stage directing curriculum and MM in opera directing degree track. The opera theater program at Eastman has included residency and collaborations with Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel, Jake Heggie, Gene Scheer, Robert Ward, Carlisle Floyd, and Charles Strouse. In his last ten years as artistic director, Eastman Opera Theatre has engaged ten living composers to participate in projects and productions within the program. Composers include Anthony Davis, Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel, Jake Heggie, Lori Laitman, Missy Mazzoli, Ben Moore, Kevin Puts, Kate Soper, and Errollyn Wallen. With OLO, Daigle has served on the technical or artistic staff for over 150 productions and directed 100 titles. As artistic director with OLO, he has expanded the offerings to include traditional musicals and introduced over 70 new titles to the company’s unique repertoire. Daigle has served on the faculty of Kent State University, the Oberlin Conservatory, and on the faculty of the Oberlin in Italy summer program in Urbania. In the spring of 2006 he received the Outstanding Alumnus award from Southeastern Louisiana University. From 2008–13 and 2017–18, he served as chair of the voice and opera department at the Eastman School of Music. In May 2015, Steven received the Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Rochester. In May 2023, he received the Inclusive Excellence Award from the Eastman School of Music. Steven is an avid luthier and a member of the Guild of American Luthiers.
LAURA NEILL has been the executive director of Ohio Light Opera (OLO) since 1998. OLO, as the Resident Professional Company of the College of Wooster. Ms. Neill’s primary work is to facilitate OLO’s vision and mission both as an educational component of the College of Wooster and an internationally renowned professional lyric theater company. Ms. Neill works closely with the Wooster community and greater Wayne County to celebrate and promote the company’s annual summer season. She works in strategic planning for the College of Wooster. Ms. Neill works full year with the company and oversees the budget, marketing, fundraising, and personnel, and has overall responsibility for the daily operations of the company. She works closely with the artistic and music directors of OLO and maintains a relationship with the Ohio Light Opera Board of Directors and her colleagues at the College of Wooster. Ms. Neill received her Bachelor of Arts from the College of Wooster and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota.
MICHELLE FRAZIER, business and box office manager, is excited to be back at OLO for her ninth season. Michelle is a 1994 graduate of Mount Union College, where she studied accounting and business administration. She has spent the majority of her professional career in the consumer packaged goods industry in various capacities. During those years, Michelle worked in sales and marketing with Kraft Foods, Inc. and The J.M. Smucker Company, where she was manager, category development. Michelle’s hobbies are working out and flipping houses. Working as business and box office manager for OLO not only allows Michelle to work in a field that she loves, but it also allows her to utilize her previous business experience. Michelle lives in Wooster with her English bulldog Benson Butch Barkeley Frazier, while her son Mason Frazier golfs for Cleveland State University and her daughter Maddie Rae Frazier attends The College of Wooster.
MICHAEL BOROWITZ, music director, is currently in his 15th year as associate professor and music director of the Turner-Fischer Center for Opera at LSU, where this season he conducted performances of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Brandt and Beber’s Kassandra, Menotti’s The Medium, Françaix’ Paris, à nos deux! and Candey and Svich’s La Casa de Bernarda Alba. Next season he will lead performances of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, and Chabrier’s L’Étoile. As artistic director with Opéra Louisiane, he led performances of Saint-Saëns’ Hell’s Bell, Borzoni and de los Santos’ The Christmas Spider, and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. His recordings include Offenbach’s Bluebeard, Kern’s The Cabaret Girl, Herbert’s Mlle. Modiste (also released on DVD), Gilbert and Sullivan’s Ruddigore and Patience, a DVD of Kálmán’s The Duchess of Chicago, and with soprano Lisette Oropesa, a recital entitled Aux filles du désert.
WILSON SOUTHERLAND, associate music director, is in demand throughout the United States, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. He made his conducting debut to high acclaim with Philip Glass’ Les enfants terribles at North Carolina Opera in 2012 and was the principal conductor for Eastman Opera Theatre’s production of She Loves Me in 2013. Wilson recently made his Kodak Hall debut (Rochester, NY) conducting Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas. After first appearing as rehearsal pianist at OLO from 2006–08, Wilson has since traveled the world: he served as pianist, coach, assistant conductor, and recitalist at Opera Africa in Pretoria, South Africa, the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, Les Azuriales Opera in France, AIMS Graz in Austria, Si parla, Si canta in Italy, and The Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman. He was one of 24 singer/pianist duos worldwide chosen to compete in the Wigmore Hall International Art Song Competition in London. Stateside, Wilson was a principal coach for Seattle Opera’s Young Artist Program, as well as an associate conductor/pianist at Opera Omaha, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Birmingham, Opera Memphis, Spoleto USA, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. For six years Wilson was the senior coach and primary pianist under Lorin Maazel at the Castleton Festival, and he went on to accompany the esteemed conductor-violinist in recital at the Kennedy Center. A former faculty member of Vanderbilt University, Wilson was chosen to perform on Juilliard’s Vocal Arts Honors Recital in Alice Tully Hall. He ushered in the 2014–15 season as associate conductor, head coach, and language specialist for La Rondine at The New Israeli Opera, featuring Angela Gheorghiu. In the fall of 2015 he joined the faculty of the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, where among his coaching and performing duties he conducted Sondheim’s A Little Night Music for the UA Opera Theatre. In 2016 Wilson joined the faculty of the Eastman School of Music as assistant professor of opera, where he conducted the revised world premiere of Jake Heggie’s Out of Darkness in 2017 under the composer’s guidance. He has given masterclasses at Vanderbilt University (TN) and Roberts Wesleyan University (NY). He holds degrees in piano from Vanderbilt University and The Juilliard School.
JACOB ALLEN, associate artistic director, returns for a 17th season with OLO as director of Guys and Dolls and Me and My Girl. As a member of the artistic team, Jacob is responsible for all casting for the summer season and also participates as a performer with the company. Earlier OLO directing credits include How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Arizona Lady, Hello, Dolly!, The Student Prince, South Pacific, The Pajama Game, Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, The King and I, Guys and Dolls, and 2011’s “Triple Bill.” OLO veterans may remember Jacob as Frosch in Die Fledermaus, Hale Underwood in Oh, Lady! Lady!!, Mordred in Camelot, The Prince in Jubilee, Horace Gripps in The Cabaret Girl, Benny in The Desert Song, and Jimmy Jack John Bondy in The Duchess of Chicago. Jacob, a native of Oxford, ME, serves as professor and chair of the Department of Theatre & Dance at the University of Memphis. He holds performance degrees in acting and voice from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI, a graduate degree in stage direction from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied under OLO artistic director Steven Daigle, and a doctoral degree in performance from the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music. As a director and performer, Dr. Allen has worked extensively throughout the Midwest and New England. Recent productions include The Wedding Singer, West Side Story, Oklahoma!, Titanic, Chess, Fiddler on the Roof, Children of Eden, The Phantom of the Opera, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Bat Boy, The Winter’s Tale, and She Loves Me. As a teacher, he is fascinated by the challenges faced by young singers in their development as theatrical performers, and is dedicated to the integration of acting and singing.
