David Parks, tenor - performer and voice teacher

Teaching | Performance | Other Interests |

Melanie Wade, mezzo-soprano, is a double major in Music Education and Vocal Performance. She is a member of the Ithaca College Choir and volunteers as the assistant conductor of the Intergenerational Choir at Longview, an assisted living facility. At Ithaca College she performed with the IC Players as Charlotte in Christopher Durang's Beyond Therapy and in several scenes in the school's Opera Workshop. Melanie is president of the Lambda chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon—an international professional music fraternity. She is an executive board member of the Ithaca College American Choral Directors Association and the Inter-Fraternity Council. Melanie is also assistant conductor of Premium Blend, Ithaca College's all-female a cappella group. She is currently teaching the Immaculate Conception School's 6-8th Grade Girls Chorus. When she is not singing, Melanie enjoys playing Scrabble, eating cereal with fruit, and going to the beach.

NEWS: March 31, Melanie has won FIRST PLACE in the Sophomore Womens division
at the CYNFL NATS competition in Rochester, NY.

Bryan Plofsky, a bass/baritone, is a junior Musical Theatre Major from Livingston, NJ. He has performed
numerous times in Ithaca College productions. His mainstage roles include Ben in Etta Jenks,
Johnny Casino in Grease, Valentine in Twelfth Night, Soldier #3 in Owl Creek, and an Ensemble Member in
Seussical: The Musical. During Fall '07 Bryan sang a leading role in Ithaca College's production of The Full Monty.

Marian Sunnergren, soprano, is a senior double majoring in Voice Performance
and Music Education. She is enjoying her time here (but not the weather) and
feels that Ithaca College has given her wonderful opportunities to pursue both her
interests in performing and teaching. Marian successfully completed the junior
student teaching program last year, and has chosen to continue her study in teaching early childhood music as a volunteer music teacher for Headstart. She will also be student teaching during the last half of the semester in Skaneateles High School in Skaneateles, NY. Marian has performed twice in IC’s Opera Workshop, is currently performing in IC’s production of Handel’s Acis and Galatea, and recently placed into the finals of IC’s Concerto Competition. She has recently given her junior recital and is excited for her senior recital in the fall.

Marian has been lucky enough to tour with each performing ensemble of which she has been a member. During her first two years she toured with IC’s Women’s Chorale to Ireland and Boston. Now, a two year member of IC’s Choir, she has toured around Washington D.C. and is looking forward to their upcoming tour down the east coast to Atlanta. Marian is also a member of Ithaca’s premiere female a cappella group, Premium Blend.

In her free time, Marian enjoys making chili and cheering for the Philadelphia Eagles... and practicing, of course.

Opera 2007 at Ithaca College was Handel's
Acis and Galatea.

Studio members in the cast were:
Daniel Greenwood as Damon
Andy McCullough as Acis
Marian Sunnergren and Brian Long as storytellers.

Although, Isaac the Cat is not really a voice student at Ithaca College, he is the "mascot" of Dr. Parks' voice studio. Isaac is a lover of vocal music. His favorite singer is Paul Simon and his favorite CD is Graceland. When lessons are taught at Dr. Parks' house, Isaac listens and is very vocal with his "input".

You can listen to Isaac's composition for piano by clicking HERE. This is a long file 10MB, it will take a little while to download. Listen carefully for the artist's purring and one meow.

Brian Long is a Senior Vocal Performance major from Wasilla, AK.
He has participated in the Opera Workshop at Ithaca College for the
past three semesters with roles including Dancairo - Carmen,
Monostatos - The Magic Flute, and Basilio - The Marriage of Figaro.
As well, he has performed as chorus and Kromov understudy in the
Mainstage production of Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow. He has
also participated the last two summers in the Chanticleer in Sonoma
Choral Workshop in California. He has just recently given his Junior
Recital and has plans of auditioning for summer programs.

Click HERE to hear a selection from Brian's junior recital.

Lars Gabriel has continued his leave of absence from Ithaca College to sing opera in Germany. Last year Lars went to Chicago to audition for the role of Frosch, the drunken jailer, in Chicago Lyric Opera’s production of Die Fledermaus after his grandparents saw an audition announcement in the newspaper. Lars was one of about 30 men between the ages of 39 and 60 to audition. He was surprised to find that he was called back with the final group of seven in the audition.

Lars did his audition wearing a German officer’s trench coat and a fake mustache that he bought on the Ithaca Commons the day before his flight. During the audition to "aid" the character, he kept pulling things out of a brown paper bag to enhance his audition – until he ended up wearing a mustache, officer's coat, fur hat, and holding an empty schnapps bottle. The other actors showed more "developed" talents such as various acrobatics and “burping on cue!”

In the end the person with a good command of the language, but the wrong German dialect, proper age group, a great personality, and look for the character won the casting. However, Lars was cast as his understudy and diction coach, and, as such, Lars may be the youngest person ever to go on stage as Frosch.

Lars is excited to have the opportunity to "play in the big leagues."

Dan Greenwood is a tenor in the studio of David Parks and a junior musical theatre major at Ithaca College, where
he has been seen in many productions including Our Country's Good as Arthur Phillip, Grease as Roger,
The Merry Widow as Zeta, Urinetown: The Musical as Cladwell, and Twelfth Night as Priest. Dan has performed
as a chorister and featured soloist with the Princeton Festival in their productions of Sweeney Todd and
Madama Butterfly. He has also performed with the Ocean City Pops Orchestra (NJ) in their production of
Bye Bye, Birdie! as Conrad Birdie. Upcoming projects include Acis and Galatea as Damon and The Fantasticks
as El Gallo. After graduating Dan hopes to pursue his Masters in Vocal Performance with the eventual goal of having
an active career in both opera and musical theatre, kind of like Frederica von Stade, except with testosterone.
In his spare time Dan enjoys sailing, sea kayaking, cycling, reading, and watching Lost and Battlestar Galactica,
both of which are great sources of angst in his life. He is originally from Moorestown, NJ and now lives in Brewster, MA.

Thomas J Furey is a junior vocal performance major from Barnstable, Massachusetts. Thom has performed with the Chatham Chorale, The Chatham Chorale Chamber Singers and Woods Hole Cantata Consort as a soloist, primarily in oratorio and other sacred works. After graduation, Thom would like to pursue a career in oratorio performance and opera, as well as begin work on graduate studies in vocal performance and pedagogy, towards an eventual goal of earning a DMA in voice. This spring, Thom will be presenting a solo junior recital, featuring oratorio selections of Bach and Händel, Faure, Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn and others. In addition to singing, Thom is also an Ithaca College resident assistant and a Brother of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity.

Mark Van De Water is a junior Vocal Music Education major from Hamburg, (just south of Buffalo) NY. Before coming to Ithaca, Mark was originally an architecture major at University at Buffalo until he saw the light and decided to switch to music. Mark is an active educator and performer in the Ithaca area. He is currently teaching 2nd grade music classes at the Immaculate Conception School in Ithaca and is the Assistant Conductor of Ithacappella, Ithaca College's premier all-male a cappella group. He is a member of ACDA and also participates in the Intergenerational Choir, a musical collaboration between Ithaca College and the Longview Retirement Home. Mark enjoys playing jazz, classical and pop piano and studies with Dr. Andi Merrill. He is a member of the Ithaca College Chorus and studies conducting with Dr. Janet Galvan. His non-musical interests include photography, visual art, architecture, soccer and ultimate frisbee.

davidparkstenor@gmail.com