Folks Operetta Board of Directors

Gerald Frantzen,  Artistic Director, Board President

Artistic Director Gerald Frantzen co-founded Folks Operetta in 2006 with his wife Alison Kelly. Mr. Frantzen worked on his Master’s degree at The New England Conservatory of Music.  He has worked on 17 translations of Viennese operettas, (eleven American premieres) with Folks Operetta dramaturg Hersh Glagov since 2008.  As a performer he has sung regularly with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and the Lyric Opera of Chicago chorus since 2003,  making his LOC solo debut as the Peasant in Eugene Onegin in 2008.  A regular soloist with the Handel Week Festival he received rave reviews from the Chicago Tribune for his portrayal of Grimoaldo in Handels rarely heard opera Rodelinda.  At the Festival he has also appeared as a soloist in the Messiah, Mozart Requiem, Bach’s Magnificat, and most recently performed the role of  Acis in Handel’s Acis and Galatea. He performed the role of Giove in  Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria on NPR’s World of Opera with the Glimmerglass Opera.  He also sang in  Acis and Galatea, and Salome with Glimmerglass Opera; Don Pasquale with Natchez Opera; La Rondine with Sarasota Opera, Arabella with Santa Fe Opera, and Don Giovanni with Ridge Light Opera. In the operetta world, he has performed leading roles in Madame Pompadour, The Rose of Stambul, Arizona Lady, Clo Clo, The Girl in the Train, Springtime, Mitislav the Modern, Peter and Paul in the Land of Nod, Thespis, Gypsy Love, Babes in Toyland, Yeomen of the Guard, Duchess of Chicago, Pirates of Penzance, Student Prince, The Merry Widow, and The Gondoliers. His international musical theater credits include Bishop Jekyll & Hyde in Bremen, Germany, Piangi in The Phantom of the Opera (Hal Prince, Director) in Hamburg, Germany, and The Russian in Chess in Bergen, Norway. Regional credits include  Parade (which won 8 Jeff Citations), Once Upon a Mattress, West Side Story, Grand Hotel and Brigadoon. He can also be heard with “The Three Waiters”, which won the award for Best Corporate Event of the Year in 2002, 2005 and 2009, and 2015. In recordings, he can be heard on the Naxos  Label on Folks Operetta’s 2011 production of The Rose of Stambul by Leo Fall. He will also be featured on the upcoming 2020 Naxos Label recording of Ball at the Savoy by Paul Abraham. He can also be heard on the recording Another Autumn,  A musical theater collection. ( Hamburg, Germany) He is a member of AGMA.

Alison Kelly, Co-founder, Board Vice President

Alison Kelly co-founded Folks Operetta in 2006. She created and directed the Children’s Operetta Workshop (COW). Alison Kelly has worked as a soprano performing in over 75 operas, operettas, and musicals. Her international roles include Christine in The Phantom of the Opera – Hal Prince, Dir. in Hamburg, Germany for 2 years. Some of her favorite Operetta roles include Zorika in Gypsy Love, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, the title role in Iolanthe, Yum Yum Mikado, Josephine in HMS Pinafore, Nicemis in the world premiere of Thespis, Giannetta in The Gondoliers, Kathie in The Student Prince, Hedwig in the American premiere of Springtime and Snow White in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Ms. Kelly’s opera roles include Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Marie in The Daughter of the Regiment. A few of Ms. Kelly’s musical theater roles include Maria in West Side Story, Fiona in Brigadoon, Polly Nichols in the world premiere of Ripper, Abby St. Clair in the world premiere of The Strange Affair of Dr. Crippen, Blanche Ingram in the Chicago premiere and Jeff recommended Jane Eyre, and Queen Anne in REX. An active concert soloist, Ms. Kelly has performed Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été, Fauré’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, and Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 with orchestra. Her television work includes scenes and interviews from The Phantom of the Opera on the RTL Network (German National Broadcast). Ms. Kelly received her Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music and her Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. She is a full-time member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and a member of AGMA and EMC.

Hersh Glagov, Dramaturg, Board Member  

Hersh Glagov is a language specialist, translator, dramaturg, violist, and orchestra member of Folks Operetta. He has worked on 19 English translations with Artistic Director Gerald Frantzen since 2008. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago.

Corrine Yaccino, Board Member

“Corky” is the non-performing Board member. Her specialty is in the business end of operations,
with Accounting being her particular field of expertise. She is the former Senior Accountant for
a major local municipality. She also previously served as Vice President of the Board of
Directors for Alliance Financial Credit Union until it merged with another credit union. Corky is
presently working in the Finance Department for a privately-owned local business.
She has been involved with Folks Operetta since 2008 when her daughters performed in their
Children’s Operetta Workshop (COW) for the first time. Corky became a parent-volunteer for
their various COW shows through the years and hopes to get them up and running again as
soon as possible.

Katherine Petersen,  Board Secretary

Katherine Petersen is an Assistant Professor of Voice at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago where she teaches Pedagogy, Song Literature, Studio Voice and Diction for Singers. She holds a DMA in Voice Performance from Ohio State University, a MM in Pedagogy and Performance from Westminster Choir College. During her time at OSU, Katherine was head of the Swank Voice Lab for Research and Pedagogy and taught several courses including Voice Pedagogy and Advanced Measurement Techniques for Voice. She was a participant in the 2018 Voice Pedagogy Summit II at the University of Southern California and the 2017 NATS Intern Program in Toronto; she was co-host of the International Voice Pedagogy Summit I at Ohio State University in 2015, as well as co-host of the NATS Summer Intern Program in 2014. She has presented research for the 2020 Central Region NATS, the Hawaii International Conference for Arts and Humanities (2019), the Chicago Chapter of NATS (2018), the International Congress of Voice Teachers (2017), and the Pan American Vocology Association (2017). Katherine has been a board member with the Chicago Chapter of NATS for three years and currently serves as the Director of Auditions.

Based in Chicago, Katherine performs regularly with Folks Operetta, the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, Chicago Opera Theater, and Transgressive Theatre-Opera. Recent roles include Bessie Throckmorton in Merrie England, Brigitta in Iolanta, Contessa in Marriage of Figaro, Counsel to the Plaintiff/Trial by Jury, Lady of the Lake/Masque at Kenilworth, and Sylva Varescu in Csardas Princess. Previous regional performances include appearances with Opera Columbus, Bay View Music Festival, and the Russian Opera Workshop. Highlights of previous roles include Musetta in La bohème, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Francesca in Rachmaninoff’s Francesca di Rimini, and Micaëla in Carmen. Concert repertoire highlights include soprano soloist in Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer 1915, Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas brasileiras No.5, and Handel’s Messiah.

Katherine Petersen is an engaging soprano specializing in the performance of 21st Century repertoire for voice/saxophone and Russian Art Song. Her recent collaborations with Decho Saxophone Ensemble (https://www.dechoensemble.com/new-page) include performances at the International Saxophone Symposium (2020) and an ensemble residency at the Lionel Hampton School of Music at the University of Idaho. Her doctoral dissertation “Russian Repertoire: Developmental Perspectives” investigates the paucity of Russian Song Repertoire in the American voice studio and recital hall.

William Roberts, Board Member

William Roberts is a noted Bass Baritone. He made his professional debut as Basilio in Opera Carolina’s 2009 production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Since then he has performed with Tri-Cities Opera, Lake George Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Circle Cleveland, and St. Petersburg Opera. Favorite roles include The Four Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann (TCO, St. Pete), Gandalf/Smaug in The Hobbit, and General Polkan in The Golden Cockerel (Sarasota Opera). Locally, Mr. Roberts has performed as Boni in The Csardaś Princess (Folks Operetta), Tony in The Most Happy Fella (Theo Ubique) for which he was nominated for a Jeff Award, and Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus (Light Opera Works). He is a chorister with Lyric Opera of Chicago and a member of the Church of the Atonement’s Schola ensemble. He is a member of AGMA.