FACULTY

Joseph Santaniello

Program Director, Voice Teacher, Stage Director

Joe Santaniello Jr is a NATS-certified voice teacher and accomplished stage director with over 100 productions to his name. He is the owner and founder of Santaniello Vocal Studios and Rising Stars Performing Arts, two premier training centers for young performers in Fairfield County, CT and the Greater New York tri-state area.

Santaniello is a specialist in both classical and musical theatre repertoire and technique. He leads a thriving college-bound program, a subsidiary of Rising Stars Performing Arts, which prepares students for successful auditions and careers in the performing arts. Through a proprietary “quadruple threat” training method—focused on acting, singing, dancing, and musicianship—his students develop a comprehensive and competitive edge.

His students have gone on to study at top conservatories and universities including The Juilliard School, Boston Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, Carnegie Mellon, Eastman School of Music, and NYU. Many have also earned recognition as finalists in the Schmidt Vocal Competition, semi-finalists in The Jimmy Awards, and recipients of regional and national accolades.

Santaniello completed his own training in Voice and Opera at The Boston Conservatory under baritone Victor Jannett. His professional performance credits include Peter in Hansel and Gretel, Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus, Elviro in Serse, Guiseppe in The Gondoliers, Lorenzo in Capuletti e i Montecchi, and Brutus/Lucius in Cleopatra, a Life Unparalleled (Off-Broadway, Midtown International Theatre Festival, NYC). He also starred in the international tours of King Janos in Hungarian Nights in 2017 and 2019.

Through his visionary leadership and dedication to artistry, Santaniello continues to shape the next generation of performers and educators.

Joshua Conyers

Voice Teacher, Master Teacher

Grammy-nominated American Baritone, Joshua Conyers has been singled out by Opera News for his “deliciously honeyed baritone that would seduce anyone,” by The New York Times as having “a sonorous baritone” that “wheedled and seduced,” and by The Washington Post for having a “show stealing” performance. A native of Bronx, NY, he is known for his captivating performances and recognized as one of the leading dramatic voices of today. Mr. Conyers has performed with the most prestigious opera companies, symphonies, and concert halls in the world such as The Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, English National Opera, New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, and many others. As a concert soloist and recitalist, he has sung throughout the United States and Europe. His recordings include the Grammy-nominated X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, his debut solo album A Miracle in Legacy, Morgiane, ou, Le sultan d’Ispahan and Bernstein, Gershwin, & Copland: Works.

Mr. Conyers has a deep commitment to community engagement, giving masterclasses and seminars at several universities and organizations across the United States and abroad. Active in the community, Joshua is a member of the Young Professionals Advisory Board of the Newark Boys Chorus School, mentoring underserved young men of color who find their paths through music. Previously, Mr. Conyers was a voice teacher at New England Conservatory Preparatory School and Continuing Education in Boston, MA. Joshua received his BM in Vocal Performance and Professional Certificate from the UNC School of the Arts/A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, and his MM in Vocal Performance from Indiana University.

Victor Jannett

Voice Teacher, Master Teacher

A native of St. Louis, Jannett performed often with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, as well as the St. Louis Symphony, singing bass solos in such works as Bach’s cantata Ein Feste Burg and the Mandarin in a concert version of Puccini’s Turandot, which was broadcast on National Public Radio. In Boston, Jannett has performed with many local opera companies, including Boston Lyric Opera and Longwood Opera. He was the Duke of Nottingham in Boston Bel Canto Opera’s production of Roberto Devereux at Jordan Hall. At Harvard's Lowell House Opera, he sang the title role in Rigoletto and Junior in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place, in which, according to Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe, he “sang with a handsome ring in his voice" and was also "an uninhibited actor.”

Jannett was Daniel Webster in The Devil and Daniel Webster with Granite State Opera, a portion of which was performed on WGBH radio. His oratorio roles have included Elijah, Manoah in Handel’s Samson, Messiah, Bach’s Magnificat, and Haydn’s Creation. In the spring of 2010, as a guest artist with Guerilla Opera in its newly commissioned production of Rumpelstiltskin by Marti Epstein, he sang the role of the King. In three recent summers, while on the faculty of the Vocal Institute at Orfeo Music Festival in Vipiteno, Italy, Jannett performed Liszt’s Tre sonetti del Petrarca, as well as Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte and Samuel Barber’s Dover Beach with string quartet. Jannett sang Schumann’s Liederkreis and Four duets for mezzo and baritone by Brahms in a recital with Rebecca Folsom at Boston Conservatory.

Jannett was a student of the renowned voice teacher Edward Zambara while earning an artist's diploma in voice at St. Louis Conservatory. He attended the Franz Schubert Institute in Baden bei Wien and worked with many coaches, directors, and conductors over the years, including John Wustman, Stephen Lord, Colin Graham, Elly Ameling, Hans Hotter, Leonard Slatkin, and James Levine.

Patrick McGill

Music Theory Instructor, Voice Teacher, Voice Coach

American Tenor Patrick McGill is hailed as having a “clear, round intonation” and a “glorious sound” (Chronicle Journal). He received his Bachelors of Music in Vocal Performance from The Boston Conservatory (2014), and his Masters in Early Music Performance from McGill University (2017) where he studied with Ben Heppner and John MacMaster.

Since completing his studies at McGill, Patrick has been fortunate to sing at some of the most prestigious summer festivals in the United States and Canada, including time as a Fellow at The Tanglewood Music Center and at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

Since his time in University, Patrick has continued to perform in many major concert halls across North America including The Montreal Symphony House, Salle Bourgie, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, The National Arts Centre, Palais Montcalm, and Carnegie Hall. Although his focus has been early music, Patrick’s performance career has encompassed opera, art song, oratorio and chamber music. Past performances include Lurcanio in Handel’s Ariodante, Candide in Bernstein’s Candide, Normanno in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah and Israel in Egypt, Torquemada in Maurice Ravel’s L’heure espagnole, and Gabriel von Eisenstein in Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus.

Erin O’Meally

Voice Teacher

Erin O’Meally is an emerging lyric and coloratura soprano based in the San Francisco Bay Area, known for her versatile repertoire spanning opera, contemporary works, musical theatre, and Baroque performance. Hailing originally from the Jersey Shore, she earned her Bachelor of Music from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and completed a Master’s in Vocal Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2016. During her conservatory training, she delivered "show‑stopping" performances as Drusilla in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and as a featured soloist in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. Erin also honed her craft with OperaWorks' Advanced Artists Program and embarked on early professional engagements, covering roles in La Rondine and performing with Opera San Jose as "Annina" in La Traviata and with Lamplighters Music Theatre in Pirates of Penzance

Since completing her studies, Erin has distinguished herself in both concert and operatic settings across the Bay Area. She received First Prize in both the 2017 East Bay Opera League Competition and the Henry & Maria Holt Scholarship, along with Third Prize in the James Toland Tier II Vocal Competition. Lauded for her “dreamy and sensuous” tone and “irresistibly charming” stage presence, her credits include roles such as Mabel (The Pirates of Penzance), Helen (La belle Hélène), and Musetta (La Bohème), as well as soloist appearances in Pocket Opera’s La belle Hélène and The Fairy Queen . In April 2024, she was featured alongside pianist Priscila Navarro in a recital titled Unveiling Mosaics at Gonzaga University, where she showcased her skill across opera, artsong, cabaret, indie rock, and contemporary vocal works