Our Music is One of Our Greatest Assets

Sonia Santana

Dr. Raymond Feener and Natalia Rivera

With the hiring of the husband and wife team of our Ministers of Music, Dr. Raymond Feener and Natalia Rivera (both teachers at University of Missouri - Kansas City) our music program was expanded to include a Choir and Special Solo Music presentations.

Below are much abbreviated backgrounds of Ray and Natalia.  For a complete listing of achievements of these two fine musicians, go to:

Raymond Feener
Assistant Professor of Voice at UMKC

Raymond has performed throughout the United States, Holland, Austria, and Italy.  He made his professional stage debut in 1995 with the Columbus Light Opera as Giuseppe in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers.  His International debut was with the Opera Theatre of Lucca in Lucca Italy in 1998 in the title role of Giuseppe Gazzaniga’s version of Don Giovanni.  Since that time he has made a home in the operatic, oratorio, concert and art song repertoire, and is known for his beautiful lyric voice and outstanding acting ability.

In 2000, Raymond was accepted into the Lake George Opera Festival Apprentice Program where he had the opportunity to work with Maestro Daniel Beckwith, stage director Mark Verzatt, and Metropolitan Opera coach Craig Ruttenburg, as well as perform several operatic scenes with fellow apprentice artists, cover the role of Guglielmo in Cosi Fan Tutti, and perform the role of Prince Yamadori in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

His solo, concert, and recital work has taken him across the country.  His lecture recital entitled, The Evolution of Everyman, is his own multi-media semi-staged production of Frank Martin’s work, Sechs Monologue aus Jedermann, using his own English translation as well as text from Hugo von Homannstahl’s play, Jedermann.

From 2001 to 2005 Raymond served as Assistant Professor of Voice at Ohio University where he taught applied voice, Opera Workshop, and directed the 80 voice male ensemble, The Singing Men of Ohio.

In 2002 Raymond served on the faculty at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria where he was a stage director for the AIMS Festival.  In 2003 Dr. Feener was selected as an intern for the prestigious NATS Internship which was held in Fredonia, New York, where he had the opportunity to work with several Master Teachers including Jerrold Pope and Judith Nicosia.  He recently had the privilege of hosting the 2006 Internship at the UMKC Conservatory of Music where he currently serves as Assistant Professor of Voice.

Natalia Rivera
Adjunct Assistant Professor and Coach/Accompanist at UMKC

Pursuing a career that embraces song recitals, chamber music, and opera, Natalia Rivera achieved early success at the age of fourteen when she won the Jesus Maria San Roma Concerto Competition in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and performed as soloist with the Puerto Rico Symphony.  She had previously spent five years studying in Naples, Italy with the Director of the Piano Department of the Conservatory of Naples, Nunzio Zappulla.  She completed successfully the fifth year placement examinations in piano and solfeggio at the age of thirteen.

After earning a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from the New England Conservatory and the Master of Collaborative Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, Ms. Rivera continued her studies in the Professional Studies program at the Juilliard School of Music.  Her teachers include Jeffery Kahane, Veronica Jochum, Brian Zeger, Margo Garrett, and Samuel Sanders.  She has also served as an accompanist in the master classes of John Wussman, Graham Johnson, Yo-Yo Ma, Regine Crespin, Craig Ruttenberg, Michael Eliason, Robert Merrill, Thomas Hampson, Simon Estes, Denyce Graves, Phyllis Curtain, Anna Moffo, and Pamela Frank.

In the summer of 1992 Ms. Rivera received a full scholarship to study with Martin Katz at the Music Academy of the West summer festival.  She was also one of four vocal coaches chosen to participate in the Merola Opera Program of San Francisco Opera.  During her two summers as an apprentice opera coach she was awarded the Jan Popper Memorial Award and the Otto Guth Memorial Vocal Coach Award.

As a vocal coach and pianist, Ms. Rivera has collaborated at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, with the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, and members of the Vienna Philharmonic; with the San Francisco Opera; the Santiago Opera in Chile; and the Bellas Artes Opera of San Juan, Puerto Rico.  She has performed recitals throughout the United States as well as in Italy, Austria, Japan, and at the prestigious Alice Tully Hall in New York.

Ms. Rivera was Instructor of Piano and Music Director of the Opera Workshop at Vassar College; Assistant Opera Coach at the Mannes Conservatory of Music; Assistant Professor of Vocal Coaching and Accompanying at Florida State University and Assistant Professor of Vocal Coaching at the Ohio University School of Music.  She has also served on the faculty of the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.