Maitland Peters
Professional Level Singing Technique

Maitland Peters is currently in his sixteenth year as Chairman of the Voice Department at Manhattan School of Music. He is one of New York City’s most prominent and sought-after voice teachers, maintaining a studio of well over 100 professionals, while directing one of the largest and most prestigious faculties of voice in the world. His students sing on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the opera companies of Berlin, Munich, Paris and Glyndebourne, in leading opera companies across the United States and Europe, as well as on the Broadway stage. Notable singers from the Metropolitan Opera with whom Maitland Peters has worked include Brian Schexnayder, Pamela Coburn, Carol Yahr, Michael Sylvester, Allan Glassman, Mechthild Gessendorf, Wira Banyewich, Stephen West, Douglas Perry, Mark Lundberg, Marc Heller and Paul Frey. Stars from the Broadway stage include Stockard Channing, Stacey Logan, Burke Moses, Sherry Boone, Schuler Hensley, Martin Vidnovic, Steven Anderson, Jessica Grove, and Rebecca Eichenberger, as well as many young American professionals on the verge of major international careers. His students from Manhattan School of Music have sung at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Santa Fe, San Francisco, Seattle, and Houston and have participated in every major apprentice program, including Merola, Santa Fe, Central City, St. Louis, Chautauqua, Glimmerglass, Sarasota, Seattle, Portland as well as all the major vocal competitions in the U.S. and Europe. Mr. Peters was recently featured as one of three outstanding vocal technicians from the United States on the acclaimed DVD, You Are Your Instrument, recently released for international distribution. An award-winning baritone himself, with years of in-depth study of the human voice, Mr. Peters has had notable success in master classes as a creative innovator throughout the United States and Europe in the field of vocal technique. He has served as the artistic director of the Spoleto Vocal Arts Symposium in Italy, on the faculty of the National Opera Center, and frequently adjudicates for many international and national competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council, National Youth Foundation, and the International Contemporary Opera. He is proud to be the father of two beautiful children, Preston and Olympia.
 

William Esper
Professional Level Acting Technique

William Esper has been the head of his own studio in New York City since 1965, as well as director of the Professional Actor Training Programs at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University since their inception in 1977. He is a graduate of Western Reserve University as well as the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre, where he was trained as a teacher and actor by Sanford Meisner, and with whom he worked closely as a teacher and director for 15 years.

Mr. Esper was on the staff of the Neighborhood Playhouse for 12 years and Associate Director of the Playhouse’s Acting Department from 1973 to 1976. He has been a Guest Artist Teacher at Canada’s Banff Festival of the Arts, Workshops in the Performing Arts in Vancouver, British Columbia, as well as the National Theatre School of Canada, St. Nicholas Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois, and the Shauspiel Munchen Skool in Munich, Germany.

In 1975-76 he was Director of the Circle Repertory Theatre Company’s workshop in New York City. He has directed and acted both regionally as well as Off-Broadway and is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York.

Mr. Esper is profiled in the book The New Generation of Acting Teachers, published by Viking Press in 1987. He is a past member of the National Board of the National Association of Schools of Theatre and a former Vice-President and Board Member of the University Resident Theatre Association. He has lectured on acting at People’s Light and Theatre Company and the Screen Actors Guild Conservatory, New York City. SAG honored him with a Certificate of Achievement for his service to the profession. Among the professional actors with whom Mr. Esper has worked with include: Kim Bassinger, Jennifer Beals, Kristen Davis, Kim Delaney, Calista Flockhart, Peter Gallagher, Jeff Goldblum, Glenn Headley, Patricia Heaton, William Hurt, Christine Lahti, John Malkovich, Gretchen Mol, David Morse, Sam Rockwell, Michelle Shay, Paul Sorvino, Mary Steenburgen, Patricia Wetting, Richard Schiff, Dule Hill, Timothy Olyphant, Molly Price, Roger Bart, Tonya Pinkins, Dean Winters, Aaron Eckhart, Wendy Malik, and Tracee Ellis Ross.