Coaching and Accompanying Faculty

Keyboardist Terree Shofner-Emrich has established herself as one of Chicago's premier pianists as a soloist, ensemble player and accompanist. Shofner-Emrich joined the faculty at North Park in 1989 and served as director of the School of Music for seven years. She is pianist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and Symphony Chorus, where she has worked with many of the world's leading conductors. During her summers with the CSO at Ravinia, she has played with violinists Miriam Fried and Gil Shaham, and, most recently, with world-renowned bass-baritone Bryn Terfel. As coach/accompanist for the opera program at North Park, Shofner- Emrich has prepared Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Riders to the Sea" and the world-premier of Philip Seward's "Spreading the News," among others, and has also prepared musicals for the Theater Department.

George Tenegal was on the faculty at DePaul University for many years, where he taught piano, coached singers, and gave classes in Italian, French, German, Spanish, and English diction, and French Vocal Literature. He has coached and accompanied in many of the most prestigious vocal studios in Chicago and Italy. He has been the recipient of many awards and scholarships and was a prize winner in the IBLA International Piano Competition in Ragusa, Italy, in both the soloist and accompanist categories. He has appeared as soloist with numerous U.S. orchestras and has given many solo and ensemble recitals both here and in Europe, including appearances at Orchestra Hall and Ravinia. He has also frequently been heard on the "Live from Studio One" series on WFMT radio.

Currently Founder and Director of Orvieto Musica, Inc., an annual international chamber music festival in Italy and Artistic Director and Conductor of the Allegro Chorale and Orchestra in Texas, Nyela Basney has also recently appeared with the Springfield (MA) Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Opera Chicago. She goes to Bosnia this October to conduct the Sarajevo Philharmonic.
 
Miss Basney has had significant experience in the field of opera. For three years, she was staff pianist at the Juilliard School where she studied conducting with Vincent La Selva, "the best Verdi and Puccini conductor living today" (Opera Magazine). Recognizing her "extraordinary talent," Maestro La Selva appointed her Assistant Conductor and Chorusmaster for the New York Grand Opera, in which capacity she participated in 18 productions. Since 1982, she has provided professional role preparation and musicianship training for singers, in more than 55 roles from 25 operas. Most recently she served as Assistant Conductor for two productions with the El Paso Opera.

Miss Basney was invited by the United States Information Agency to serve as an Arts America Cultural Specialist in Uruguay in 1993 at the National School of Opera in Montevideo. In 1992 she was a fellow at the Conductor's Institute and was one of five conductors chosen to participate in the American Composers and Conductors Forum. In 1991 she served as Conductor and Opera Coach of the Sessione Senese per La Musica e L'Arte in Siena, Italy. Miss Basney conducted at the Aspen Music Festival in 1989 and 1990, where she assisted John Nelsonand premiered a work by Dan Welcher.