Sull'Aqva Faculty & Staff

Francesca Paola Geretto is an accomplished singer, teacher, conductor and arts administrator. Recent performances include La Boheme (Mimi) and La Traviata (Violetta) at Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Cosi Fan Tutte (Fiordiligi) in Perugia, and both Le Nozze di Figaro (Marcellina) and Die Lustige Witwe (Praskowia) at Teatro Filarmonico in Verona. Francesca performed in Teatro Lirico in Cagliari’s productions of Suor Angelica (Sister Zelatrice) and La Campana Sommersa (Second Elf) and debuted with Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa in Le Nozze di Figaro(Countess), Carmen (Micaela), L’elisir d’amore (Adina), and Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Berta). At Trento’s Teatro Sociale, she performed Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Berta) and starred as Maria Rosaria in Rota’s Napoli milionaria in Lucca, Livorno and Pisa. Francesca was chosen by reknown soprano, Maria Devia, to sing Adina in L’elisir d’amore at the Teatro Concordia in Pordenone. 

In addition to opera, Francesca is a frequent soloist in oratorio and concerts. This season, she was the soprano soloist in Brahms’ Ein Deutches Requiem (Verona), Mendelssohn’s Op. 73 and Psalm 42 (Teatro Filarmonico) and reprised Pagotto’s Theósat the 52nd Geistliche Musik Festival in Bolzano. Her concert repertoire spans works from Haydn’s Missa Brevis and Rossini’s Petite Messa Solemnelle to Davide Liani's Easter Oratorio and Schoenberg’s Op. 8. Additionally, she has performed with the Friuli Venezia Giulia Orchestra, Orchestra of the Fondazione Santa Cecilia, Orchestra of Teatro Carlo Felice, Filarmonica Rossini Orchestra of Pesaro, Teatro Alfieri in Asti, and the Ferrara Symphony Orchestra in Treviso. Francesca was featured at the International Wagner festival in Bayreuth, the International Sacred Music Festival in Pordenone, the RaRo Festival in Arezzo and the Piccolo Festival del Friuli Venezia Giulia. Francesca was featured in the documentary, Beethoven quasi una fantasia, produced by the Benetton Foundation Studies and Research in Treviso, with the support of Rai, the Italian National Public Broadcasting Company.

Francesca was awarded with the "Waiting for Pulzella D'Orleans" prize in Milan at the Gallerie D'Italia, associated with the premiere at La Scala and won the Wagner Prize awarded by the Wagner Association of Venice. She received invitations from the Italian Embassy in Bulgaria and Baden-Bei, Wien (Austria) to present performances. She has been recognized by the Secretary of Defense of the United States, R. M. Gates, in Vicenza, for her outstanding contributions to the organization and performances given for the Combined Federal Campaign-Overseas.

As an educator, Francesca is currently on the faculties of the Fondazione S. Cecilia in Portogruaro (Venice), the "Piergiorgio Righele" Choral Conducting Private Academy, a founding member of Sull’Aqva (Venice) and founder of the "Four Seasons Festival," of which she serves as Artistic Director (San Michele al Tagliamento-Bibion). At these institutions, she offers training for choral conductors, vocal music teachers, and opera singers. She founded and directed the Vocalia Ensemble, an award-winning all-female vocal group, and conducted the Viriditas Vocal Group. She has taught at the International Festival in Portogruaro (Venice), the Jacopo Tomadini Conservatory in Udine and the Music Fest Perugia International Festival.

Francesca’s training includes a Diploma in Opera from the Arrigo Pedrollo Conservatory (Vincenza), a Master's degree at Cubec, the Italian Belcanto Academy in Modena, under the guidance of Mirella Freni, and completed additional studies in vocal pedagogy and music therapy at the "Società del quartetto" in Vicenza.

 Suzanne Ramo is lauded by the San Francisco Chronicle for an ease with coloratura that one hears “blazing forth brightly” as well as her “lyrical phrasing sweetly rendered”. Recent performances include Brahms’ Requiem with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, recitals in Italy and Uruguay, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional del Paraguay. 

A frequent performer in the state of Texas, she has twice brought her crystalline soprano to Orff’s Carmina Burana with Ballet Austin, and returned to the Laredo Phil for the title role of Donizetti’s Rita and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. As Constance in Les dialogues des Carmélites with Austin Opera, she earned a nomination for an Austin Critics’ Table Award as best singer of the 2008-09 season. Declared “always a highlight of any Austin Opera production she joins” by the Austin American-Statesman, she has previously joined the company as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, Stella in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. She received a second nomination from the Austin Critics’ Table Awards for her performance in Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Texas Choral Consort in the 2013-14 season. She reprised the role of Violetta in La traviata with Amarillo Opera, a performance which was broadcast on PBS. Other Panhandle performances include Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Amarillo Symphony, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Chamber Music Amarillo.   

Operatic roles include Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Berkshire Opera; Musetta in La bohème; Violetta in La traviata, Micaela in Carmen, Madame Mao in Adams’ Nixon in China; and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte. With the San Francisco Opera, she sang the title role of The Ballad of Baby Doe, Der Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte, Woglinde in both Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung, and Der Waldvogel in Siegfried in addition to joining the company for its productions of Rigoletto, Falstaff, Der Rosenkavalier, and Semele. Also under the auspices of San Francisco Opera, she sang title role of La Calisto, Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring, and Elvira in L’italiana in Algeri in California as well as Violetta in La traviata on national tour with the Western Opera Theater.

A prolific interpreter of oratorio repertoire, she has joined the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under the baton of Nicholas McGegan for Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberge, Modesto Symphony for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Stanford University as guest soloist for Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Carmina Burana with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Panamá at the Alfredo Saint-Malo Music Festival, as well as the Strata Trio for Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen at Concerts at the Point in Massachusetts. Especially sought after for concert performances in Texas, she has sung acclaimed performances of Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder and Dubois’ Seven Last Words of Christ with the Laredo Phil, Handel’s Messiah and Poulenc’s Gloria with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Victoria Symphony, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Brazos Valley Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem with Musica Ecclesiae in Austin, and University of Texas Wind Ensemble, in addition to concerts of Broadway favorites with the San Antonio Symphony and Victoria Symphony.

In addition to performing, Dr. Ramo has been an Attaway Scholar at the Centenary College of Lousiana, where she presented her research on the Father-Daughter Relationship in Verdi’s Luisa Miller, Rigoletto and La traviata.

Dr. Ramo earned her Bachelor of Arts in Music from Whitworth University, and her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. She was a two-time participant with the Merola Opera Program and held a prestigious Adler Fellowship with the San Francisco Opera. Always seeking to enhance her performance and teaching skills, she completed Teacher Certification with OperaWorks in 2018. 

International teaching residencies include La Escuela Nacional de Arte Lírico in Uruguay, the Sol Mayor Festival Internacional de Música in Paraguay, and the Music Fest Perugia in Italy. Currently Associate Professor of Voice at Texas State University, she was previously Assistant Professor of Voice and Director of Opera at West Texas A&M University.

Photo credit:  Bret Brookshire

Twyla Robinson’s incisive musicianship, ravishing vocal beauty, and dramatic delivery have taken her to the leading concert halls and opera stages of Europe and North America. She has been heard in performance with the London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Berlin Staatskapelle, The Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, among many others. She has worked with conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, Franz Welser-Möst, Donald Runnicles, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Hans Graf, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Outside the realm of orchestral concert, she specializes in the operatic works of Mozart, Strauss, and selected Wagner and has been heard in venues that include San Francisco Opera, Opernhaus Zürich, Opéra national de Paris, Cincinnati Opera, San Diego Opera, Opera Colorado, Atlanta Opera, Arizona Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Boston Baroque. She has most recently been seen in performance with the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, where she performed Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony. Other recent appearances include the title role of R. Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos with Cincinnati Opera,  Sieglinde in Act I of Die Walküre with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, and Claude Vivier’s Lonely Child with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

She balances her performing with an appointment as Assistant Professor of Professional Practice at Texas Christian University, where she maintains both private and university voice studios and is a faculty member with TCU Opera. She serves as Master Teacher for the resident and apprentice artists at Fort Worth Opera and is Managing Director of Fort Worth Opera’s international voice competition, The Marguerite McCammon Voice Competition.

Photo credit:  Chris Ocken

 With over 85 roles in his repertoire, Corey Trahan is an active performer, educator and stage director in opera, oratorio, music theatre, operetta and recital venues. Known for his comic timing, versatile voice, and onstage charisma, he is being seen and heard internationally in repertoire ranging from operatic classics to modern musical theatre.  

In 2023-24, Corey will stage direct productions of La Canterina, Amahl & the Night Visitors, The Tragedy of Carmen (Fort Worth Opera’s Resident Artists), Into the Woods, La Voix Humaine, Bluebeard’s Castle, Gianni Schicchi (Amarillo Opera) and performed the role of Spoletta in Puccini's Tosca (Amarillo Opera). In summer 2024, Corey will join the faculties of the 2024 Fairbanks Summer Music Festival (Alaska) and a new training program, Sull'Aqva, in Venice, Italy.  

During the 2022-23 season, Corey performed Snout in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Des Moines Metro Opera) and was guest soloist for the Louisiana Delta Ballet.  Corey staged directed productions of Hansel and Gretel, Dido and Aeneas, The Magic Flute, Little Red Riding Hood, and presented a lecture recital entitled “The History of Broadway in 90 Minutes” (Dallas).  Additionally, he performed the baritone solos in Durafle’s Requiem with Mississippi College.  In summer 2023, he presented “The Singing Actor” workshop at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Corey began the 2021 season with a debut at Pensacola Opera as Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore.  In June 2021, he directed a production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and returned to Des Moines Metro Opera for their 50th Anniversary Season production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In addition to performing, Corey has experience teaching on the collegiate level. He completed a two-year assignment as the Biedenharn Endowed Chair in Music at the University of Louisiana. Corey was also Chair of Music Theatre at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand for two years and for four years,  an Associate Professor of Theatre/Coordinator of Musical Theatre at Northwestern State University. Currently, Corey is Director of Opera at T.C.U. and a member of the Vocal Arts Faculty and Faculty Senate.  Additionally, he is President of the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of N.A.T.S. and President of TCU’s Gamma Epsilon Society (Pi Kappa Lambda).  

Corey's academic degrees include the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas, the Master of Music degree from the University of Houston and the Bachelor of Music degree from Louisiana State University. He has been an apprentice with Lake George Opera, Central City Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Amarillo Opera, Shreveport Opera and the Seagle Music Colony. Corey is a current member of the American Guild of Music Artists, Actor’s Equity Association and National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Photo credit:  Ellen Appel

Following his debut with the Philadelphia Opera Company, tenor San-ky Kim’s career led to Europe, performing in Helsinki, Biel, Bern, Amsterdam, Brussels, Ghent, Lisbon, and Prague before settling in Germany. At the Czech National Opera in Prague, San-ky essayed all of Mozart’s lyric tenor heroes, as well as Italian Bel Canto roles of Rossini and Donizetti. San-ky has performed more than 40 major tenor operatic roles throughout the world. San-ky has taught at TCU since 2005 and his research focuses on modern European Art Song repertoire. San-ky served as a Fulbright Scholar visiting professor at Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania during 2015-16 academic year, culminating with the publication of “Anthology of Lithuanian Art Songs,” which is the first such publication in English that provides pronunciation keys and translations of the songs.