Behind-the-mic at the EWVS 2025:

Lorian Stein-Schwaber (EMT) is a Broadway veteran with over 25 years of performance experience on Broadway, National Tours, International Tours as well as principal opera roles with New York City Opera, Cologne Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera Nice, and Light Opera Works. She was a regular in Chicago Theater in productions with Steppenwolf Theater, Apple Tree Theater, Pegasus Playhouse, the Chicago symphonic pops and many others.

She left performing in 1991 after a run in the original company of Phantom of the Opera on Broadway to pursue teaching and developed Musical Theater programs for Sherwood Conservatory of Music and The Music Institute of Chicago. Then she served as co-director of the graduate opera program at Roosevelt University (CCPA). Later she was the lead voice teacher for North Park Universities Music in worship program, Guest artist /Professor of American Musical Theater at The Shanghai Conservatory in Shanghai China, and Professor of Voice and Musical Theater at Carthage College. As well as working with young professional performers who need to negotiate a variety of different genres.

The presentation “Estill in the Borderlands” discusses how to help performers negotiate that region between “legit” musical theater and Opera without somehow stepping over the border into the neighboring territory. It’s a little like living in the Alsace….not really France, not really Germany. Two languages, two different cultures side by side. Because of the organized structure of the Estill model it is a great way to establish those borders and stay within them in the context of performance.

★ Join us at the Estill World Voice Symposium 2025! Come experience inspiring presentations like this one — and so much more — live in Chicago from July 27–29, 2025. Get your tickets here and visit the official symposium page for all the details, including speakers, performers, and schedule. We can’t wait to welcome you!