Guest Presenters

Alfreda Burke made her Carnegie and Orchestra Hall debut in Strauss ’ Elektra (Fourth Maid) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by Daniel Barenboim.  She has made solo debuts with the Chicago Symphony  at Ravinia under Erich Kunzel, Chicago Opera Theater, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, MSU Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Music Festival, Rackham Symphony Choir & DSO/Michigan Opera Theater, Todi Music Fest, Lancaster Festival, Auditorium Theatre, Chicagoland Pops Orchestra, Chorus Angelorum, WSCU, Harper Festival Chorus, Metropolis Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, WSSO, Wheaton Symphony Orchestra among others.  Ms. Burke’s oratorio, opera and concert engagements include the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts broadcast on WFMT-FM; Mozart Requiem, Mass in C Minor, Mass in C Major; Handel’s Messiah; Christianson & Anderson’s Too Hot to Handel; Mahler 2nd Symphonie; Poulenc Gloria; Rutter Requiem; Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem; Boulez’s Le Visage Nuptial under Pierre Boulez; Puccini’s Turandot (Liu); Menotti’s Amahl & the Night Visitors; Barber‘s Knoxville: Summer of 1915; Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess; Bernstein’s West Side Story; Kern’s Show Boat (Kennedy Center/National Tour, Auditorium Theatre),directed by Harold Prince; and World Premiere of Payne’s Lincoln’s Farewell.  She was featured in CSO’s Symphony Center Inaugural Festival and Radiothon.

Ms. Burke’s work in recordings, music video, television, radio, film and commercials includes:  soprano vocalist in Bobby Lewis release and Dawa movies (LA) soundtrack featuring Ramsey Lewis, James Mack and members of the CSO; Celine Dion and R. Kelly’s I’m Your Angel; profiles and broadcasts on CBS, NBC, WGN, WFLD, WCFC, WTTW (PBS), Odyssey, CAN-TV, satellite, municipal cable, and internet; features on WFMT, WBEZ, WMBI, WETN, WGCI, WYCA and WOSU; The Visit, The Visitors, Unconditional Love, U.S. Marshals.  Ms. Burke has made guest soloist appearances singing spirituals on the WTTW/Odyssey broadcast of 30 Good Minutes.  She has performed the National Anthem for the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Fire.

Alfreda Burke received rave reviews for a Community Concerts national tour with tenor Rodrick Dixon.  “...Burke sang with such deep and knowing pathos that the audience was kept in rapt silence until the end of the set.  ...Then Burke keened the achingly beautiful ‘Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child,’ with arching chromaticisms that enhanced the melodic line.”  Ms. Burke has released her solo debut CD, From the Heart (2002); upcoming season includes a duet CD/DVD release; Auditorium Theatre, Rackham Symphony (Fox Theater), Todi Music Festival, Umbria Music Festival (Italy) and two World Premieres in the making.  Ms. Burke received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Roosevelt University; and served as Alumna Ambassador for RU’s 60th Anniversary.  She is on the voice faculty of Wheaton College Conservatory and Chicago State University.

Rodrick Dixon’s dramatic stage presence and stunning vocal qualities have established him as one of the rising stars in opera, contemporary opera, oratorio, concerts and recitals.

In 2009, Mr. Dixon made his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut as Oedipus Rex and return to the Cincinnati May Festival. In 2008 for the Los Angeles Opera andPhiladelphia Orchestra,  Rodrick Dixon delivered a powerfully gripping performance as the Dwarf in the opera Der Zwerg conducted by James Conlon. OperaNews considered his portrayal of the Dwarf a triumph! In the spring and summer of 08’ at the Cincinnati May Festival, he performed the Beethoven 9th, appeared as Trabuco in the concert version of La Forza del Destino and reunited with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Millennium Park for a Gala Concert celebrating the city of Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid.

In 2007, Rodrick Dixon made his LA Opera debut as Walther von der Vogelweide in Wagner’s Tannhaeuser and performed excerpts of Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt and Schuloff’s Flammen for Recovered Voices.  He returned to the May Festival to sing Rossini’s Stabat Mater; appeared as Lenski in Todi Music Festival’s summer production of Eugene Onegin; and filmed the PBS special The United States Air Force 60th Anniversary: A Musical Celebration.  The rest of the 2007 season included duet recitals with Soprano Alfreda Burke for the Umbria Music Festival in Italy, concerts in Anchorage, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Tennessee, Detroit, Toronto, Dayton and Chicago.  He participated as a guest soloist for the Cincinnati Symphony’s New Year’s Eve Celebration.  

Mr. Dixon’s additional opera credits include Michigan Opera Theater’s and Todi Music Festival’s La Fille Du Regiment (Tonio).  He made his debut in Portland Opera’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Hoffmann); Columbus Opera’s world premiere Vanqui (Prince); Virginia Opera’s Porgy & Bess (Sportin’ Life).  In 1992, he joined the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists.  His Lyric Opera of Chicago credits include appearances in Don Quichote, Il Trovatore, McTeague, Un Ballo in Maschera, La Boheme, La Traviata, and Prince in the world premiere of The Song of Majnun.  As a Lyric Opera center member, he participated in The Rossini Gala atthe Ravinia Festival and a series of concerts at the Chatele Theater in Paris.  

Other notable symphony engagements include Rachmaninoff’s The Bells (Op.35) and Orff’s Carmina Burana for the May Festival.  He performed the Beethoven 9th Symphony and a concert of Opera & Broadway for the Vail Music Festival, under the baton of Marin Alsop. From 2001-2004 he made orchestral appearances with the Tenors Cook, Dixon & Young at Atlanta Symphony, the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Dayton Symphony, Denver Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, Chicago Symphony at Millennium Park; Elgin Symphony, Rackham Symphony Chorus and the Concordia Orchestra at Lincoln Center.  Mr. Dixon received rave reviews for his Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert broadcast honoring Roland Hayes on WFMT-FM/Chicago.  He has been presented in pre-concert recitals at the May Festival; completed a 30 city tour for Community Concerts (2000-2001) and a duet concert Following in the Footsteps (Hampton University) both with Soprano Alfreda Burke.   

Mr. Dixon’s most recent recordings (Sony/BMG), PBS Great Performances Cook, Dixon & Young Volume One released in (2005), Follow That Star Christmas CD (2003), Liam Lawton’s Sacred Land (2006) Rodrick Dixon Live in Concert (2008) and Chicago Olympic Bid Anthem “I Will Stand”  for the 2016 Games (2008).

A graduate of Harvard University, Michael S. Benninger, M.D., is the chair of the Head and Neck Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. Benninger has been very involved in regional, national and international medical organizations, serving on the board of directors of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS), and as its former vice-president and chair of the board of governors. He is a past-president of the American Rhinologic Society and the Michigan Oto-Laryngological Society, and past editor-in-chief of the
journal, Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, the largest peer-reviewed journal in the world for that specialty. He is the treasurer and on the executive council of the American Laryngologic Association.

Dr. Benninger has authored or edited five books, including his most recent book, The Performer’s Voice. He has also has written numerous book chapters and more than 125 scientific articles, focusing primarily on voice care and laryngology, nasal and sinus disease, and healthcare management. He has lectured extensively across the country and throughout the world. Dr. Benninger received his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He completed his residency at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

Anita Marie Greer serves as program manager for acute therapy services at Miami Valley Hospital (MVH). Greer joined the MVH staff in 1996 as a speech pathologist specializing in the treatment of brain injury rehabilitation, neurological disorders, swallowing disorders, and voice disorders. Greer served as the clinical coordinator of speech pathology at MVH from 2006 until 2010.

Greer received a Bachelor of Arts degree in voice performance in 1980 from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana, and a bachelor’s degree in music
therapy from Mount Saint Joseph College in Cincinnati. She earned a Master of Arts degree in music therapy and a Master of Arts degree in vocal pedagogy from Texas Woman’s University, and a Master of Arts degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Cincinnati