Carol Winston
Piano & Voice Instructor
Originally from San Francisco, Soprano, Carol Winston, studied at University of California, Santa Barbara, earning a B.A. in Music.
Carol has been teaching voice and piano lessons to students of all ages since 2010. She was on the voice faculty at Idyllwild Summer Arts Festival in 2005. Carol began her vocal training in high school, where she sang in music heater productions and with choirs. She began opera training in college and continues to perform with regional opera companies.
Carol has worked with various companies, including Los Angeles Opera, Orange County Opera, Guild Opera, and Southland Sings, bringing educational opera and music theater to elementary age students throughout Los Angeles, Orange, and San Bernardino Counties. Outreach roles include “Marie” (Daughter of the Regiment), “Gretel” (Hansel and Gretel), “Little Missy” (Mission Nutrition), “Sugah” (Indy Jo) and “Ginger” (The Night Harry Stopped Smoking). She played the title role in “Little Red Riding Hood,” and originated the title role of “Estrella” in Guild Opera’s bilingual children’s opera. She began studying piano at age 10.
Recent operatic roles include “Violetta” in La Traviata, “Diana” in Orpheus in the Underworld, “Susanna” in Le Nozze di Figaro, “Adele” in Die Fledermaus “Frasquita” in Carmen and “Zerlina” in Don Giovanni with San Gabriel Valley based opera companies. A fan of Zarzuela (Spanish Operetta), Carol sang
Duchess Carolina” in Luisa Fernanda and “Marte” in Duron’s Salir el Amor del Mundo at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica and has performed in Zarzuelas
with the Jarvis Conservatory in Napa.
A Gilbert and Sullivan specialist, Carol toured nationally with Opera a la Carte as “Mabel” in The Pirates of Penzance, “Yum-Yum” in The Mikado, “Gianetta” in The Gondoliers, the title role in Patience and “Laeticia” in The Zoo. She was the soprano soloist for Ballet San Jose in a ballet version of The Pirates of Penzance.
Solo concert work includes Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart’s, Exultate ubilate, Mozart Requiem, Mozart Vespers, Beethoven Chorale Fantasy, Bruckner Te Deum and Vivaldi Beatus Vir.
Leilani Jones Wilmore
Tony Award Winner- Voice Instructor
Leilani has a passion for working with youth in the performing arts and has been teaching private Voice Lessons for 15 years.
As an African American artist, born and raised in Hawaii, Leilani caught the performing bug in kindergarten and sang, danced and acted her way through college, graduating from University of Hawaii at Manoa with a B.A. in Music Theory.
Following her dreams to New York, she got her first big break originating the character of Chiffon in the original cast of Little Shop of Horrors. Leilani won the 1985 Tony, Theatre World and Drama Desk Awards for her performance on Broadway in the Hal Prince musical, Grind, starring opposite Ben Vereen. She is featured on the Broadway cast albums of Little Shop and Grind. Her career as an actress-singer-dancer-coach spans over four decades and she has performed in musical theater on and off Broadway in the United States, Canada, Japan and Great Britain.
Moving to Los Angeles, marriage and children redirected her performing arts energy into volunteering with youth. As a parent of two musical children, she found herself directing and producing large-scale school and Girl Scout productions and becoming a volunteer musical theater vocal director at Bridges Academy, a school for special needs and gifted students. She created a children’s choir at her church, where her son served as the accompanist and her daughter was a vocalist and instrumentalist for 12 years.
She was a member of the faculty of the Idyllwild Arts Academy summer musical theater program for 6 years. Leilani currently serves on the Board of Directors for both the A Noise Within theater and the Lineage Performing Arts Center.
For the last 20 years, Leilani has also worked as a Voice Over artist for Commercials, Animation, Video Games and Audio Description for the blind and low vision community. She has recorded audio narration tracks for many television shows and over 200 movies.
Manoela Wunder
Violin • Viola • Cello • Guitar • Bass • Mandolin • Ukulele • Composition
Skylight is pleased to welcome Manoela Wunder as an online instructor. As a violinist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer, she brings a rich and versatile musical background to our teaching team.
A native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, violinist Manoela Wunder has established herself in Los Angeles as an exceptionally versatile and eclectic artist. Classically trained, she has a strong passion for improvisation in jazz, blues, and rock genres and is an active composer and arranger for string ensembles and jazz bands.
Manoela’s chamber music and solo experiences have been extremely prominent. Notable live performances and recordings include Janelle Monae, David Foster, Katharine McPhee, KYGO, Renee Fleming, The Tenors, Common, Deltron 3030, Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra, Frank Ocean, Marco Antonio Solis, Gloria Trevi, and a Quincy Jones benefit with Lang Lang. She founded an electric rock string quartet, the Electric Angels, which regularly perform at private events throughout LA and the entire country. In addition, Manoela has been featured in films, TV shows and commercials such as Will and Grace, Apple, Microsoft,
Suburgatory (ABC), Qwerty (best soundtrack at the Nashville Film Festival), Spaghetti Storm, The Composer, and The Monstrosity. Most recently she toured around the world with Adrian Younge.
Ms. Wunder has performed with a wide range of orchestras and chamber groups in New York, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles as well as Europe. Her music has been heard in the most prominent halls across the country, including Alice Tully Hall (NY), Symphony Center Chicago, Hollywood Bowl, The Forum, Greek Theatre, and Walt Disney Concert Hall (LA). She is a multiple prizewinner of competitions in the United States, Europe and South America and has been a guest at many prominent festivals throughout her career. In Brazil, she has been coaxed back to her hometown to perform as a soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Rio de Janeiro, in the most prestigious halls of the city and on national television.
Manoela holds a Bachelor of Music from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College (NY) in Violin Performance and a Master of Music degree with distinction under scholarship from DePaul University in Chicago.
