Roza Tulyaganova, soprano, is a native of Uzbekistan and is currently an Assistant Professor of Voice and the Director of Opera at Mississippi State University. Since moving to the United States in 2000, she has traveled extensively, performing major and supporting operatic roles in cities across the country. These include engagements with Opera Las Vegas, Mississippi Opera, Hubbard Hall Opera, the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra, the Las Vegas Music Arts Orchestra, the Manhattan School of Music, Stony Brook University, the Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory, MSU Starkville Symphony, and more.

Dr. Tulyaganova’s solo operatic highlights include the title role in Lakmé, Mimí in La Bohème, Frasquita in Carmen, Musetta in La Bohème, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Livia in L’Italiana in Londra, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Lola in Gallantry, and La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi. Dr. Tulyaganova’s solo oratorio highlights include Schubert’s Mass in G Major, Brahms’ A German Requiem, and Handel’s Messiah.

As a director, Dr. Tulyaganova has directed multiple operas and operatic scenes. She has directed three full-length operas: Orphan Annie for the Remarkable Theater Brigade, Stone Guest for Stony Brook University, and Serse for the Manhattan School of Music. She was the Assistant Stage Director to Thaddeus Strassberger at Bard College Summerscape Festival in New York for their production of Oresteia by Sergey Taneev and for their production of Demon by Anton Rubenstein. Mr. Strassberger also invited her to assist him with the production of Phillip Glass’ Satyagraha in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

As a linguist, Dr. Tulyaganova is fluent in several languages and frequently works as a language coach. Most notably, she was the Russian coach for the American Symphony’s recording of Taneev’s At the Reading of a Psalm. Dr. Tulyaganova was an Italian language educator at Middlebury College’s distinguished summer program and worked as Dicapo Opera’s principal Russian language coach for the production of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta.

Dr. Tulyaganova is the founder of Shyps and Roses, a vocal ensemble devoted to the performance of traditional Russian folk and art songs. The ensemble was a winner of Artists International’s Chamber Music award and Long Island International Chamber Competition. Dr. Tulyaganova works frequently with contemporary composers, such as Octavio Vasquez, Julian Garguilo, Katerina Kramarchuk, and Edward Kalandarov. Recently, she recorded Intimation of Immortality, a contemporary piece for soloists, choir and orchestra by Michael John Trotta that will be nationally produced by Walton & GIA Music Publishing distributed by Naxos, 2022. She also recorded a song with the legendary Uzbek singer/composer Farrukh Zokirov.

In addition to Mississippi State University, Dr. Tulyaganova has taught voice at Stony Brook University in New York; McLennan Community College in Waco, TX; and The Tashkent National Music College in Uzbekistan. Dr. Tulyaganova holds an international studio and her students, are singing in many theaters such as the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia, Bolshoy Theater in Moscow, Russia, and the Bolshoy Alisher Navoi Theater in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Dr. Tulyaganova is the winner of multiple notable awards. These include being a two-time district winner at the Metropolitan National Council Auditions, a district winner of the 2002 NATSAA competition, a winner of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas concerto competition, and a finalist in the Meistersinger Competition in Graz, Austria.

Dr. Tulyaganova holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a Master of Music degree at the Manhattan School of Music, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University.

slade trammel, pianist Slade Trammell was born in North Carolina, where he began piano studies at an early age, giving his first public performance at age ten. Five years later, he was accepted as a pupil of David Brunell at the University of Tennessee.

At his concerto debut with the American Philharmonic Orchestra, critics noted his “technique and rhythmic excitement.” The Knoxville Metro-Pulse later praised his “mastery of tone…coaxing velvety ripples from the fast passages, and solid clear statements from the slower and simpler ones.” Mr. Trammell’s performances–across North America and Europe–continue to meet with such accolades. As a first prize-winner in the Grand Prize Virtuoso International Competition, he made his Italian debut in December 2018 with an appearance at the Teatro Studio, Parco della Musica, in Rome. Other highlights of past seasons include appearances in Cincinnati, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Paris, Salzburg, and Steyr, Austria, where he is a regular guest artist at Kultursommer Schloss Rosenegg. In 2020, in celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of women’s suffrage in the USA, Mr. Trammell gave the world premiere of Shadows Through the Lattice by Chicago-based composer Blair Boyd, great-grandniece of Harry T. Burn, whose vote was instrumental in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.

One of the last pupils of Earl Wild, Mr. Trammell was invited to perform at memorials to the legendary composer-pianist in Pittsburgh and Palm Springs. In August 2011, he had the honor of giving the European premiere of Wild’s Sonata 2000 while concertizing in Austria. He has also studied in New York under Ruth Slenczynska, herself a pupil of Sergei Rachmaninoff.

As a conductor, Mr. Trammell first appeared in public on the podium at the age of seventeen. Shortly thereafter, he was accepted as a pupil of Maestro Serge Fournier, a protégé of Charles Munch. In 2012, he graduated, with distinction in dechiffrage, from the European-American Musical Alliance Summer Institute in Paris.

Mr. Trammell currently serves on the music faculty of Roane State, having formerly served as Coordinator of Music at Hiwassee College.