James Bailey, tenor.  Mr. Bailey has been with The Music Institute as a teacher for nearly a decade and has coordinated the program for the past three years.  A native of Baltimore, MD, he has sung leading roles with many regional opera companies including Greensboro, Annapolis, Summer Opera at Catholic University, and National Opera, based in Raleigh, NC.  Mr. Bailey has also been featured in secondary roles with the Baltimore, Washington National, and Des Moines Metro Opera Companies.  Mr. Bailey has concertized throughout the Baltimore-Washington area in various works by Haydn, Händel, Mozart, Rossini, Saint-Saëns, and Orff.  He is a recipient of a Master's Degree from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied voice with Phyllis Bryn-Julson.  Mr. Bailey also has an active private vocal studio.  He is the Artistic Administrator and a voice teacher for LPOI.

Renée Brozic Barger, dancer.  Renée Brozic Barger has been performing, teaching and making dances in the Baltimore/DC Metro Area for over twelve years. She is a founding director of movement/addiction, a dance-based multi-media performance company, and is currently the coordinator of the dance program at Howard Community College in addition to serving as Director of HCC's Arts Collective Dance Company. Most recently, she has taught, choreographed and performed internationally in the US, Canada, India and the UK.  She has been called "aristocratic and elegant" by the Oxford Times, and "brilliantly angular" and "fragile and powerful" by the Oxfringe Review. Recent collaborations of an improvisational and theatrical nature have been with the Basso Moderno Duo, Timothy Nohe, and Eve Muson.

In addition to performance-related projects, Brozic Barger has been increasingly focusing on arts advocacy work within Maryland as a member of Maryland Citizens of the Arts Emerging Arts Advocates, a group that endeavors to educate the next generation of Maryland arts advocates, and to provide advocacy training, professional development, and leadership opportunities to young advocates in the arts area.  She leads the movement, dance, and yoga and relaxation courses for LPOI.

Jennifer Blades, Acting Instructor.  Having been hailed as having a “juicy” and “colorful” tone as well as a “flair for comic mugging,” mezzo-soprano Jennifer Blades has been active in the Baltimore area for over a decade as a classical singer, performer in opera and cabaret, and as a director.  She has performed for Opera Vivente, the Wolf Trap Opera, Opera AACC, and the Young Victorian Theatre.  Ms. Blades had directed for Opera AACC, Peabody Outreach Programs, and the Peabody Chamber Opera.  Ms. Blades has been a featured soloist with the Handel Choir of Baltimore, the Harford Choral Society, the Bach Concert Series, Anne Arundel Community College’s Chorus and Orchestra, and Howard Community College’s Chorus and Orchestra.  Recital appearances include The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA; First Trinity Lutheran Church Concert Series in Washington, DC; Edenwald Towers, Roland Park Place, Charlestown's Our Lady of the Angels Chapel, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, and the Noonday Series at Old St. Paul’s Church in Baltimore.  Ms. Blades received a Masters of Music and Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory where she is a faculty member and stage director with the Opera Department. She teaches Acting for Opera and directs the Outreach Program's touring productions.  In addition to her solo and directing work, Ms. Blades sings with the Baltimore Opera, is on the faculty of the Anne Arundel Community College, and is artist-manager for the Mt. Vernon Voices.  Acting/Stage Deportment classes are taught by Ms. Blades.

Dr. Lorriana Markovic, Artistic Director, soprano, is an accomplished performer of opera, art song, and oratorio, specializing in the interpretation of Russian vocal music. Dr. Markovic received her D.M.A. in Opera/Vocal Performance from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she presented a three part recital series entitled “The Evolution of the Russian Romance Through the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries”. She is the recipient and winner of many awards and competitions including Vocal Arts Society Discovery Series in DC, Pittsburgh Concert Society, Concours d’Interprétation de Musique Tchèque et Slovaque in Montreal, a Russian Scholarship to study in Moscow from the University of Pittsburgh, and has been presented in recital by The Steinway Society by WQED-FM, Pittsburgh. 

Dr. Markovic has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Russia. Locally, she has performed at the Walters Art Museum, BlackRock Center for the Arts, Music in the Great Hall, and with the Opera Theater of Northern Virginia. Her roles include Fiordiligi, Giulietta, Tatyana, Tosca, Countess, Marschallin, Mimi, and Musetta.

Gran Wilson, tenor.  Mr. Wilson, a native of Bessemer, Alabama, has distinguished himself as an interpreter of the "bel canto" repertoire with a performing career spanning more than twenty-five years and four continents.  He has sung with companies such as the New York City Opera, Boston Symphony, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Australian Opera, Oper Frankfort, Netherlands Opera, Vlaamse Oper, Teatro di San Carlo Lisboa, Opera de Nice, St. Paul Symphony, Edinburgh Festival, Spoletto Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, and Mostly Mozart Festival.  He has appeared on PBS in "Live from Lincoln Center" with Dame Joan Sutherland and has been featured on NPR.  Mr. Wilson can be seen on Kultur Video and heard on the Delos recording label.  Maryland audiences have heard him perform with the Washington Opera, the National Symphony, the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, and most recently, Opera Vivente.  He has appeared in six productions with the Baltimore Opera including his 1984 debut in the title rol of Leonard Bernstein's Candide.  Mr. Wilson has resided in Baltimore since that season and currently is on the voice faculties of Towson University and the University of Maryland at College Park.

Ruth Drucker, soprano.  Viennese-born soprano Ruth Drucker has been an active performer and teacher both nationally and internationally.  She has been a soloist with both the Baltimore and National Symphony Orchestras.  She has also performed leading opera roles with the Harford Opera Theatre, Baltimore Chamber Opera, and Annapolis Opera, and has been soloist in oratorios with major choral groups in the Baltimore/Washington metropolitan area.  With her husband, pianist Arno Drucker, she has performed joint recitals in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.  She has also been a guest soloist with various chamber music groups such as Festival Chamber Players, Handel Choir, Towson Chamber Players, Contemporary Music Forum and others including performances of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Shostakovich's Seven Romances.  Ms. Drucker attended the Eastman School of Music where she received the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Music as well as the Performer's Certificate in Voice.  Further study on scholarship was with Lotte Lehmann at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California and the Academy for Music in Vienna and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria on a United States Fulbright grant.  Ms. Drucker has presented Master Classes in the United States, Canada, Indonesia and Europe and was Professor in Residence at Oldenburg University in Germany.  She was a vocal consultant at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies in Aldeburgh, England with several leading singers and interpreters.  Ms. Drucker has given Master Classes with Thomas Houser at Marywood University.  She co-edited a Collection of Art Songs by Women Composers, and has recorded for Orion and Golden Crest Records.  She was faculty member of the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland for twenty years and is Professor Emeritus at Towson University in Towson, Maryland.

Sheryl Woods, soprano.  Sheryl Woods has built a long and impressive resume since first garnering national attention as an Apprentice Artist at the Santa Fe Opera, when she stepped in to replace the leading lady in Le comte ory in 1978.  She has since sung in countless American opera houses including New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, San Diego Opera, Dallas Opera, and the Washington Opera, as well as the opera companies of Baltimore, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Central City, Chautauqua, and Lake George.  Her career has comprised over seventy-five roles in operas by composers varying from Handel and Mozart to the contemporary Argento, Berio, Picker, and Hegge.  On the concert stage, Miss Woods has been heard in Mendelssohn’s LOBGESANG with Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall and with the Richmond Symphony in Mahler’s SECOND SYMPHONY; in the MESSIAH with numerous orchestras including San Fransisco and Baltimore Symphonies, the HARMONIEMESSE with Baltimore Symphony; and with the Indianapolis Symphony, the San Jose Symphony, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, among others.  She also performed “An Evening of Gilbert and Sullivan” with the Boston Pops, which was telecast nationally over PBS as part of the GREAT PERFORMANCES series.  International credits include the Spoleto Festival in Melbourne, Australia, Teatro de la Zarzeula with the Orquestra de la Comunidad de Madrid, and both the Edinburgh Festival and the Israel Festival.  Miss Woods has won numerous professional awards, among them the Dealey Award in Dallas, the Diva Award at New York City Opera, “Artist of the Year” at the Washington Opera, and “Female Artist of the Year at Pittsburgh Opera.    She has recorded for CBS Records and for Chandos.