Production Team
Román Ortega-Cowan
Artistic Director
Román Ortega-Cowan is an operatic baritone who was born in Havana, Cuba. He trained in the operatic tradition both in Cuba and in Europe under such maestros as Stracciari, Bastida, Iglesias and Hubert de-Blanc. In 1960, Román immigrated to the United States and joined the financial institutions industry.
Throughout his career, Román always found time to participate in his real passions: music, opera, and vintage car collecting. Román has performed leading roles from La Traviata, Carmen, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, The Marriage of Figaro, The Barber of Seville, Rigoletto, La Serva Padrona, among others, both in the United States and abroad. In Florida, he performed with Richard Tucker and Raina Kabaivanska in Manon Lescaut and with William Lewis in Romeo and Juliet with the Orlando Opera Company.
Roman has served as officer and director of various boards of service and civic clubs and was president of the original Vero Beach Rotary Club. He retired briefly in the mid-1980s as a successful senior executive, then spent substantial time working as a consultant to major financial-related private sector enterprises in the Pacific Rim, Mainland China, the Caribbean and South America. In 1988, he collaborated in the formation of Vero Beach Opera Guild, and along with the help of many passionate opera-lovers, has transformed the Guild into what is now Vero Beach Opera, Inc., for which his personal motto is “the best is yet to come.”
Starting in 2004, through his efforts as Vero Beach Opera’s Artistic Director, Román and Vero Beach Opera have worked with contemporary opera stars including Metropolitan Opera Stars Deborah Voigt, Marcello Giordani, and Paul Plishka. He served on Deborah Voigt/Vero Beach Opera Foundation Board of Trustees and The Marcello Giordani Foundation Board of Advisors.
Gregory Buchalter
Music Director
Gregory became Vero Beach Opera's Music Director in 2023. He has been an Assistant Conductor at the MET Opera for many years. In fact, the position of “Maestro di Banda” was created for him there, and he worked extensively with the MET Opera Chorus. At the MET, he prepared several world premieres including John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, Philip Glass’ The Voyage and John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby. He served as Music Director of Opera Fairbanks and Opera Camerata of Washington. Highlights include conducting Salome at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Die Fledermaus at the Vienna Volksoper, Mozart’s Entführung aus dem Serail at the Spoleto Festival, Cosi fan Tutte with the Mediterranean Opera Festival in Italy, and Eugene Onegin with the New Opera World Festival in Moscow, as well as the American Premieres of Mercadante’s I due Figaro, Von Winter’s Das Labyrinth, and Donizetti’s Olivo e Pasquale in New York, Idomeneo at New England Conservatory, Rigoletto with Opera Orlando, Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire and Tosca for Florida Grand Opera, and he conducted a tour of Madama Butterfly with Opera Lirica d'Europa and with Varna International, where he is Music Director. Recent performances include Pagliacci with Florida Grand Opera, the Mozart Requiem with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra and the Verdi Requiem, Don Giovanni, Hansel and Gretel and La Cenerentola with Varna International.
Nicholas Muni
Opera Designer, Producer and Stage Director
Nicholas Muni has served as Professor of Opera at CCM, AVA and Bard Conservatory of Music and as Artistic Director for several companies: More Than Musical, Ltd, a new opera company in Hong Kong (2017-2019), Cincinnati Opera (1996-2005) and Tulsa Opera (1987-93). His productions have been seen at San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, and Victoria State Opera in Melbourne, among many other companies. In Europe he has directed for the Prague National Opera, the Kurt Weill International Festival, Stadttheater Giessen, Opera Ireland, Theater Erfurt, Tirolerlandestheater in Innsbruck and Stadttheater Bern. His revival of Jenůfa at the Canadian Opera Company in 2003 received Canada's prestigious DORA award for best theater production of the year. More recently, his productions of Norma for Florida Grand Opera received “2016 Best Opera Production Award” for the Miami Cultural Association, and La Tragédie de Carmen, Florencia en el Amazonas and Impressions de Pelléas received 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards, respectively, in Division 5 from the National Opera Association; Impressions de Pelléas was awarded 1st Place in The American Prize opera competition in 2019. Significant past productions include the U.S. stage premiere of Das Liebesverbot at Glimmerglass Opera, La Finta Giardiniera & L'amico Fritz at San Francisco Opera Merola; a new adaptation of Carmen at Boston Lyric Opera; Cardillac at Opera Boston, U.S. Stage premiere of El Amor Brujo/La Vida Breve at Manhattan School of Music. Recent, noteworthy projects include: a new singing translation, adaptation and stage direction of Hänsel und Gretel for Hong Kong Grand Opera, where he will also unveil his new adaptation and stage direction of Die Zauberflöte in November, 2025; a new adaptation and translation of Orphée aux Enfers and Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi at Berlin Opera Academy, Norma at Calgary Opera, The Dallas Opera and Florida Grand Opera, The Kiss of Tosca and La Traviata at More Than Musical, Ltd. (Hong Kong), Lucia di Lammermoor at The Academy of Vocal Arts, The Seven Deadly Sins at Tanglewood Music Center, Don Giovanni at Opera Philadelphia and San Diego Opera, Elektra at Michigan Opera Theater; Powder Her Face at Odyssey Opera in Boston, and Don Pasquale at San Francisco Opera Merola Program. For more information, please visit Nic’s website: www.nicmuni.com
Manny Perez
Artistic Consultant
An accomplished and sought-after voice teacher and artistic consultant, Manny Perez has discovered, taught and mentored some of the top vocal talents emerging today, maintaining vocal studios in Miami and New York City. His students pursue and have achieved national and international careers and have graced many of the world’s greatest stages including the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Florida Grand Opera, as well the Teatro Solis in Uruguay, La Scala, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, The Royal Opera House, Teatro Colón de Buenos Aires, Ópera de Oviedo, and Teatro Comunale di Bologna.
Over the last few years, Manny’s students have been finalists and award winners in The Cardiff Singer of the World, Operalia, the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, the Paris Opera Competition and more.
Manny earned his degree in Music Education and Vocal Performance from the University of Miami. While singing with the opera chorus of the Greater Miami Opera (now Florida Grand Opera) as a student in 1981, he performed alongside idols including Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. He later became a member of the Board of Directors of the Florida Grand Opera for over 10 years.
Rachel Lebon
Stage Manager
Rachel grew up in Vero Beach. She studied at the University of Central Florida and earned her B.M.E. in Music Education, and B.S. in Psychology. She majored in voice and discovered opera in her extensive music history classes. "I fell in love with the drama and passion behind all of the music as well as the set and costume design involved in every production," she says. She was introduced to Vero Beach Opera through her husband, John LeBon, who is the VBHS Performing Arts Center director and our Assistant Stage Manager. She began working with Toni Lemoine and Paula Andreozzi in costumes. She worked backstage for our 2023 L'Elisir d'Amore and served as Stage Manager for our 2023 Rising Stars Vocal Competition. She is now our permanent Stage Manager, and our Administrative Director. Her two favorite operas are Carmen and Don Giovanni. "Carmen has such raw and powerful music and always invokes a wide spectrum of emotions," she says. "Don Giovanni was the opera that first captured my interest. I was thrilled to stage manage Vero Beach Opera's 2024 production of Don Giovanni and be a part of making it come to life."
Dr. Anthony Baron
Chorus Master
Dr. Anthony Baron currently serves as Chorus Master for Vero Beach Opera. In addition to this role, he serves as Director of Music at Trinity Episcopal Church and School. Previous appointments include being on the teaching faculties of Nazareth College, University of Rochester, Cranbrook Schools, and Saint Edward’s School. Previous performing credits include leading roles in Le nozze di Figaro, Dialogues of the Carmelites, La Traviata, among others. He is the 2013 Music Teacher’s National Association National Young Artist Winner in Voice. Anthony is a graduate of Westminster Choir College and the Eastman School of Music.
Paula Andreozzi
Costumes
Paula works endless hours as Costumes Co-Manager for our productions, and is our Vero Beach Opera Bookkeeper.
Toni Lemoine
Costumes
Toni serves on the Board of Directors, works endless hours as Costumes Co-Manager for our productions, and serves as Chair for A CLASS ACT: Opera in the Classroom. She brings her teaching experience, her joy for life, her love of students, her talent for costuming, AND even her extensive costume collection to the classrooms as well!
John LeBon
Assistant Stage Manager
John was raised in Port Saint Lucie. He earned his Bachelor of Art in History from The Florida State University, with a minor in Business. He first discovered opera when I found a VHS tape of Amadeus that belonged to his father. "I was instantly hooked because, though I had heard opera before, I didn't understand the human element to it," he says. "After learning more about Mozart's life, as historically accurate or inaccurate as the movie was, I felt a real connection to the music. Luckily, that connection has developed into a full love for opera," he says. "The Vero Beach Opera is one of my best and most valued clients," he says. "It's a joy to bring these operas and concerts to life with them." His favorite opera is Don Giovanni by Mozart. "Watching the Commendatore scene as a kid was intense and really stuck with me for all of these years," he says. "Imagine my surprise and delight when I was told we were performing Don Giovanni last year! That whole tech week and performance was absolutely amazing."
Carol & Joe Palowich
Competition Registrars
Carol & Joe do so much for Vero Beach Opera! Bio is coming soon.
Bob Webster
Competition Secretary-Audit
Bob Webster grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania and Sparta, New Jersey. He earned his BS in Mathematics from Virginia Tech. He and his wife Joanne joined Vero Beach Opera in 2009 through the Silvertones choral group under direction of our marketing director Tania Ortega-Cowan. "We were comped seats and the rest is history," he says. "Our Silvertones experience inspired us to join Vero Beach Opera, and we soon learned about the efforts Vero Beach Opera members put into the season's opera, concerts, and competitions, and so we volunteered to help." His favorite operas are (comedy) Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and (tragedy) Puccini's La bohème. Bob is responsible for overseeing our Rising Stars Competition scoring system and auditing of competition scoring. "And whatever else I can do to help," he says.