Thomas Meany is a  graduate of the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts, where he studied with Adeline Tomasone and Loren Lind, later studying with Harold Bennett in New York City.

Tom is currently a graduate assistant and a candidate for a Masters of Music from Rowan University  He has performed at the Aspen Music Festival, Summertrio Chamber Music Festival and the Puccini Opera Orchestra in Italy. Thomas has played master classes with leading flautist such as the late Murray Panitz, Chicago Symphony’s Donald Peck, Samuel Baron at New York University and Toshio Takahashi at the East Tennessee Suzuki Flute Institute. In addition to performing regularly with guitarist Michael Simmons and the Walnut Street Chamber Trio  Mr.Meany has performed in recital for the Matinee Music Club, the Philadelphia Cultural Council, the Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia, the Department of Recreation and Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour (PennPAT). He has played flute for the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Orchestra Society, the Haddonfield Symphony, and the Lansdowne Symphony. Mr. Meany is a Certified  Suzuki Instructor and has recently received  three consecutive scholarships from the Suzuki Association of the Americas. He teaches for Instrumental Music Programs and the Settlement Music School. He is the current Vice-President of the Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia. Tom playes a Brannen-Cooper Flute.

Richard A. Raub is a twice summa cum laude graduate of West Chester University, in Pennsylvania; he has also studied privately with Martin Katz in New York.  Mr. Raub has been on the faculty of The Academy of Vocal Arts for over twenty-seven years, where he has assisted the music director, coached singers and conducted operas. For several years, he served as assistant conductor, pianist, and supertitle operator at the Opera Company of Philadelphia (OCP), as well as supertitle operator for The Philadelphia Orchestra for several concert opera performances at The Academy of Music and Carnegie Hall. He was also a member of the music staffs of The Banff Centre for the Arts, The Grand Teton Music Festival, The Pittsburgh Opera Center, The Hollybush Festival, The Kent Blossom Festival, The University of the Arts, and Temple University.  As an opera conductor, Mr. Raub has conducted performances of Puccini’s Le villi, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Così fan tutte, Die Fledermaus, Don Pasquale, Richard Wargo’s The Music Shop, and Hansel and Gretel, at AVA, Artpark in Lewiston, New York, and the Kimmel Center. He served as assistant conductor for Opera Carolina’s production of Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree, and recently conducted the world premiere of Philadelphia composer Margaret Garwood’s The Scarlet Letter; he has also conducted Massenet’s Cendrillon at The Banff Centre and Don Giovanni at The Blossom Festival. This summer finds him returning for his third summer at The Crested Butte Music Festival, CO to coach the YAP singers and conduct Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi.

Mr. Raub has served as coach/pianist for The Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition and worked with Mr. Pavarotti as a recitative accompanist in OCP’s production of L’elisir d’amore and as backstage conductor for Luisa Miller and Pittsburgh Opera’s Tosca. For twenty-five years he has been the official pianist for The Metropolitan Opera District Council Auditions in Philadelphia and for the past six years for the Regionals held at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He has performed with José Carreras, George Shirley, Jerry Hadley, Richard Leech, and Indra Thomas. In demand as a pianist for recitals, Mr. Raub made his Carnegie Hall debut during its hundredth Anniversary with mezzo-soprano and AVA alumna Wanda Brister, and has accompanied Wilhelmenia Fernandez (AVA alumna and star of the film Diva) in recital and on television. Mr. Raub has also accompanied recitals by AVA alumni: Stuart Neill at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, John Packard (Dead Man Walking) at the Ravinia Festival, Richard Troxell (star of the film Madama Butterfly) at Salem College (North Carolina), and Penn State University, and Latonia Moore in the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, sponsored by the Opera Orchestra of New York.  Last summer, he was surprised with being awarded the coveted V.E.R.A. Award by The Voice Foundation, honoring his twenty year association with the world’s oldest and leading organization dedicated to voice medicine, science and education.

In February, Mr. Raub played a program of love opera scenes, and songs with tenor Stuart Neill and his wife, soprano Sandra Lopez for the Sunday Afternoons of Music at The Miami University in Coral Gables.

Click HERE to read an interview with our student Ethan Lee, who recently won the Greenfield Competition. Congratulations Ethan!