Our Production Team
Russell Franks
Artistic Director & Stage Director
Russell has enjoyed an international career both as a singer and director. He has sung over forty major operatic roles and performed in over a thousand concerts. He has appeared as soloist with many orchestral, concert, and choral organizations such as the Bach Society of Greater Miami, Verbier Music Festival, Handel Choral Society of Orlando and the Miami Symphony Orchestra. He has served as set designer and stage director for Vero Beach Opera since 2011. He became Vero Beach Opera Artistic Director in 2022. Russell holds a bachelor’s degree in voice performance and church music from Stetson University and a master’s degree in voice performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He previously served as Director of Opera Theatre at Stetson University for many years.
Román Ortega-Cowan
Artistic Advisor
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. Upcoming is 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.
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 does so much for Vero Beach Opera! Her bio is coming soon.
Toni Lemoine
Costumes
Toni does so much for Vero Beach Opera! Her bio is coming soon.
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 started working for Vero Beach Opera when he became the Auditorium Director at Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center, a position he continues to hold. For Vero Beach Opera, he serves as Assistant Stage Manager. "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.