Finals Adjudicators

Classical:

Evangelia Leontis
Evangelia Leontis, soprano, has performed extensively on the opera, concert and recital stages. On the concert stage, she has been the soprano soloist in works by Berlioz, Britten, Handel, Haydn, Fauré, Rossini, Bach, Bizet, Mozart, Grieg, Orff, and Vaughan Williams with ensembles including Albany Pro Musica, the Keene Chorale, the Bennington County Choral Society, Greensboro Opera, the Greensboro Oratorio Society, the Newburyport Choral Society, Newton Choral Society, Clear Lakes Chorale, and Polymnia Choral Society. She has been seen on the operatic stage in roles including Woglinde in Das Rheingold, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Frasquita in Carmen, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Lucy in The Telephone, and Le Feu in L'Enfant et les Sortilèges with companies including Barn Opera, Tundi Productions, MassOpera, Opera del West, Longwood Opera, Riverside Theater Works, Odyssey Opera, and Opera Boston. Dr. Leontis holds the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts from UNC Greensboro, a Master of Music degree in vocal performance from Boston University, and a Bachelors of Music degree in vocal performance from the Eastman School of Music. She currently serves on the voice faculties of Keene State College and Vermont State University, and serves frequently as an adjudicator and clinician for high school and university programs throughout New England.. In addition to teaching voice, she is also a certified yoga instructor and loves introducing musicians to the physical and mental benefits of yoga and meditation. Also an avid proponent of art song, she serves as Administrative Director of Calliope’s Call. She lives in beautiful southern Vermont with her husband, twin toddler daughters, and dog. More information can be found at evangelialeontis.com.

JJ Penna
J.J. Penna has performed extensively with a variety of eminent singers, including Kathleen Battle, Harolyn Blackwell, Measha Brueggergosman, David Daniels, Denyce Graves, Ying Huang, Susan Narucki, Roberta Peters, Florence Quivar, and Andreas Scholl. He has held fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Center, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale Summer School of Music, Music Academy of the West, and the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program.
Penna is a recital and art-song coach at the New England Conservatory and in the Yale Opera program at the Yale School of Music. He also teaches at the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute, and Carnegie Hall’s SongStudio. Devoted to the teaching of classical song literature, Penna has been on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale Summer School of Music, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Westminster Choir College at Rider University, and the Vancouver International Song Institute.
He received his training under Martin Katz, Margo Garrett, and Diane Richardson.

Teresa Winner Blume
Soprano Teresa Winner Blume has been involved with NATS since her very first voice competition at age 16, and has gone on to enjoy a career as a professional singer and vocal instructor for twenty five years. Since 2015, she has served as Head of Voice at Walnut Hill School for the Arts, a boarding and day high school in Natick, MA. As teacher, program director, opera stage director and arts administrator, she leads a comprehensive pre-conservatory curriculum designed to train exceptional young vocalists in technique, artistry and stage craft. Her students gain national recognition at YoungArts, Schmidt, NATS and CS Music, and consistently earn admittance to top classical voice and theater programs including Curtis, Juilliard, Cincinnati Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, Northwestern, University of Michigan, Boston Conservatory, Oberlin and more. Next, she will be presenting masterclasses at the CS Music convention in May, leading a summer Voice Intensive at Walnut Hill in June, and teaching at the International Lyric Academy in Vicenza, Italy in
July.
As a professional artist, favorite solo engagements include the Boston Pops with Keith Lockhart (Bernstein’s Centennial Tributes, Holiday Pops), the North Carolina Symphony with Grant Llewellyn (Le Nozze di Figaro), and premiering the international performance art installation Lee Mingwei: Sonic Blossom, at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. She has performed opera, operetta and theater roles with companies including The Lyric Stage of Boston, Opera Carolina, and New England Light Opera. Concert solo work includes Carmina Burana, Poulenc’s Gloria, and the Requiems of Fauré, Mozart and Brahms. Her artistry has been recognized in such competitions as the Jesse Kneisel Lieder Competition (Winner), Lotte Lenya (2nd prize), New York Oratorio Society Solo Competition (semi-finalist) and NATS Artist Awards (National semi-finalist).
Originally from North Carolina, Ms. Blume earned a B.M. in Vocal Performance from University of Illinois, and an M.M. and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music.

Commercial Music:

Charlie Christenson
Dr. Charlie Christenson is an associate professor of music in Berklee College of Music's Voice Department. As a vocalist, keyboardist, and songwriter, he is equally at home playing, singing, and improvising in a wide array of contemporary styles, particularly rock, R&B, folk, and jazz (all of which are represented in the working bands which he has led in Minneapolis, Miami, and New York). His recordings can be found on Spotify and Apple Music, released independently and through the New York–based label Biophilia Records.

Prior to joining the Berklee faculty, Christenson taught at the University of Southern Maine, the University of Miami, and for six years served as the head of the Voice Department and director of graduate programs at the McNally Smith College of Music (St. Paul, MN). He holds degrees in Music Education and Jazz Voice Performance from Lawrence University (Appleton, WI), the Manhattan School of Music (New York), and the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music (Miami, FL).

Jamon Maple
Jamon Maple, a distinguished tenor and voice specialist, is currently an Adjunct Professor of Voice and Associate Director of the Contemporary Vocal Workshop at New York University. His impressive career began in Texas and has reached global acclaim, particularly in South Korea where he made significant television appearances on shows like ‘Fantastic Duo’ and ‘I Can See Your Voice.’ He has released popular Korean ballad singles such as ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ and ‘My Only Rhyme.’ Maple’s contributions to Korean music extend to songwriting and performing at major events, including a presidential event in Seoul. His educational endeavors include leading masterclasses internationally, with a notable focus on practical application and tools for pedagogical concepts in vocal efficiency, sustainability and longevity.

Zakiyyah
Zakiyyah is an artist-activist who utilizes music and visual media to explore themes that centralize marginalized communities via her production company, Black and Bold Productions. She is well-versed in Opera, Jazz, Hip-Hop, and R&B. In addition to having taught voice through the Hamilton-Garrett Music and Arts Academy and currently through Harvard's Holden Voice Program, Zakiyyah offers workshops on arts-activism and serves as a mentor and co-facilitator through the Harvard Ed Portal's Artist Pipeline program.

Musical Theatre:

Jose Delgado
An Associate Professor of Theater at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, José Delgado is an award-winning music director, accompanist, and vocalist who has performed, recorded, accompanied for and/or co-taught master classes with such musical luminaries as Jason Robert Brown, Alan Silvestri, Seiji Ozawa, the Boston Pops, and Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as numerous schools throughout the greater Boston area including Harvard University, Boston Conservatory, Emerson College, and Boston College. As an arranger and composer, Delgado has accompanied and/or had his original works performed by Tony, Grammy, and Obie award-winning Broadway and recording artists including Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks), Darius de Haas (Children of Eden), and Laura Michelle Kelly (Mary Poppins). He was also recently involved with the Boston pre-Broadway production of Moulin Rouge as the vocal coach for Sahr Ngaujah (Toulouse-Lautrec).

Zipporah Peddle
Zipporah Peddle is an Assistant Professor of Voice at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She previously served on the theatre faculty at Missouri State University where she created a program of CCM style and pedagogy courses for the BFA Musical Theatre program. She led private voice studios in Boston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Toronto, and regularly provides masterclasses on voice technique, style, and pedagogy. Ms. Peddle has presented her research at the NATS National Conference, PAVA Symposium, and the Voice Foundation Symposium, and others.
Zipporah sang in nearly 3000 performances as lead vocalist in Cirque du Soleil's top selling production show, O. She has performed in musicals, concerts, cabarets, new musical workshops, tours, and recitals, at venues throughout the United States and Canada. She toured internationally with the professional choir The Nathaniel Dett Chorale, and has worked as a production vocalist and guest entertainer for various cruise lines. Most recently, she appeared in Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert with the Boston Pops at Tanglewood.
Ms. Peddle holds an M.M. in Vocal Performance from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a B.M. from Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada. She is a PAVA-Recognized Vocologist.