BILL TOUTANT As Dean of California State University Northridge, College of Arts, Media and Communication, Bill Toutant guides students in the pursuit of knowledge. As the co-host of The KCSN Opera House, he guides listeners in pursuit of operatic bliss. He is also an accomplished composer. His Small Suite for Piano is featured on the CD "New American Romantics" (North/South Recordings), and his Arcanae and Peregrinations II are included on the CD "Black Sea Idyll" (Capstone). Capstone's CD "Cassandra" features his Anagrams and Aphorisms for clarinet and double bass, and his Bagatelle I appears on the North/South CD "Elan." His music has been performed throughout the U.S. and the world, from Italy, Romania and France to Mexico and El Salvador. As the Administrative Director of the Romanian-American Music Days Festival in Constanta, Romania, he gets to share his love of music with people half way round the world. Every Wednesday night he shares his love and knowledge of opera - not to mention his humor and killer trivia - with listeners here at home.

DON CUMMINGS The former Director of Annual Giving at California State University Northridge, Don is by profession a fundraiser - but a music lover by all accounts. He became an operaphile while ushering at the San Francisco Opera during his student years at the University of San Francisco. "My very first night ushering was for a performance of Verdi's "Il Travatore" featuring the then-unknown Leontyne Price and Jussi Bjoerling," Don remembers, "I was a fan from that moment on." Don's love of opera really began before that. "I grew up as a babe in the crib, listening to the Saturday radio broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera," he recounts, "Opera was the only thing that would stop my crying." Now he leaves the crying to Jessye and Placido - and sometimes his co-host Bill Toutant - every Wednesday night on the KCSN opera house.