Composers & the Voice 2021-23
2021-23 Fellows
JEESUN CHOI - LIBRETTIST
Jeesun Choi (she/her) is a transnational Korean playwright and physical theatre artist. Her plays move through diaspora, (im)migration, and transnationalism to reveal the joy and agony of the human condition. Plays and projects include BUST (Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab), Lost Coast (Nashville Rep's Ingram New Works Lab), The Seekers (Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Semifinalist of Woodward International Playwriting Prize), Penny Thoughts (PRELUDE Festival), Dahlia (Lark’s New Voices Fellowship Finalist). She is currently the Nashville Rep's Ingram New Works Playwright, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab artist, Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, and a member of Ensemble Studio Theater/Youngblood. Her work has also been developed at Bushwick Starr, Fresh Ground Pepper, Red Eye Theater and more. She received the Artist of Exceptional Merit Award from the Asian American Arts Alliance in 2020. MFA Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre, Dell'Arte International.
ISABELLA DAWIS - LIBRETTIST
Isabella Dawis is a Filipina-American playwright and performer. As a librettist and lyricist, she is the recipient of the 2022 Kleban Prize, the 2021 Fred Ebb Award, and the 2020 Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award. Isabella currently holds a 2021-23 Composers and the Voice Fellowship with the American Opera Project. Her musicals written with composer Tidtaya Sinutoke include HALF THE SKY (5th Avenue Theatre Digital Radio Play/First Draft Commission, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Theater Mu's New Eyes Festival, Theater Latté Da's NEXT Festival) and SUNWATCHER (Civilians' R&D Group, Goodspeed’s Writers Grove, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Ancram Opera House Play Lab, Tofte Lake Center). Isabella’s writing has been supported by the Primary Stages Rockwell Scholarship, the Kurt Weill Foundation's Lotte Lenya Songbook, Musical Theatre Factory, Coalition of Asian American Leaders, and more. B.M. summa cum laude, piano performance, University of Minnesota, with vocal study at New England Conservatory. isabelladawis.com
TROY DEFOUR - LIBRETTIST
Troy Aaron Defour is a Toronto based, Caribbean-Canadian Writer and Producer. Troy’s burning passion for musical theatre began at an early age. He first gained experience as a Producer in regional community theatre before matriculating to a developing Librettist/Writer of original and adapted musical works for the stage. Troy has been blessed to be a participant of Obsidian Theatre’s 2018/2019 Playwrights’ Unit and has received grants from the Ontario Arts Council and Canadian Council for the Arts, for his exploration and development of new Canadian librettos focused on stories centralizing characters and experiences of the African-Canadian and pan-African diaspora. Troy is currently completing a challenging yet rewarding academic journey as a WordsPerson enrolled in NYU’s Tisch School of The Arts, Graduate Musical Theatre Writing MFA Program. Troy's goals include developing his voice as a writer, exploring and breaking into the world of opera and learning new advantageous skills for professional collaboration. Troy’s additional goals are to infuse soul, r&b, tuk, soca, reggae and rock into the traditional musical theatre and opera storytelling landscape.
GABRIELLE HERBST - COMPOSER
Gabrielle Herbst (b. 1986) (she/her) is a composer and vocalist seeking honesty and intimacy in her music. She’s received commissions from Roulette, the Jerome Foundation, Nouveau Classical Project, Duo Noir, Experiments in Opera, Fresh Squeezed Opera, and contributed to the opera Magdalene for PROTOTYPE Festival 2020, with residencies including Watermill Center, Atlantic Center for the Arts and Pioneer Works. Her compositions have been presented at National Sawdust, The Stone, Issue Project Room, HERE Arts Center, MATA, and Lincoln Center Atrium. Her album Sympathy was released on Software Recording Co. Tour highlights included David Byrne’s Meltdown Festival, London, Pop Kultur Festival, Berlin, Andy Warhol Museum, Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, The Great Escape, UK, The Wick presented by Pitchfork, and a series at Roulette with Missy Mazzoli curated by Meredith Monk. Her album, Empty Me, was eleased on Double Double Whammy. She graduated from Yale School of Music with an M.M. in composition.
J.E. HERNÁNDEZ - COMPOSER
Composer and cinematographer J.E. Hernández (b. 1993) is a Mexican-born, Houston-based composer focusing on elevating personal and cultural narrative through his work. J.E.’s music has been featured by distinguished ensembles and organizations such as the Kennedy Center for the Arts, Houston Grand Opera, Apollo Chamber Players, Foundation for Modern Music, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Contemporary Museum of Art Houston, the Brazil National Orchestra, and in a wide variety of films, both in the United States and abroad. He holds a degree from the University of Houston. Past teachers include Marcus Maroney and Gregory Spears. J.E.’s work focuses on both traditional and multi-disciplinary mediums, and he has collaborated with directors, choreographers, and playwrights. His interest in incorporating his cultural heritage from both his native Tabasco, Mexico, and Houston, Texas led J.E. to create Concertia, a non-profit arts organization for social causes. Its mission statement reads: “To empower social causes through the prism of new music and multi-media art,” resonating with his goal as a composer to engage communities at large.
RAQUEL ACEVEDO KLEIN - COMPOSER
Raquel Acevedo Klein is an active conductor, vocalist, and instrumentalist from Brooklyn, NY. Raquel has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, Town Hall, BAM, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Celebrate Brooklyn!, National Sawdust, Little Island, the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and elsewhere. She has premiered works and operas by Philip Glass, John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, Bryce Dessner, Missy Mazzoli, and George Lewis to name a few. She has recorded and performed with Glen Hansard, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, The National, Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, The Knights, NY Philharmonic, and International Contemporary Ensemble among others. In 2021, Raquel was a composer-in-residence at Arizona State University. Raquel also curated performances at Little Island and premiered Polyphonic Interlace: an original surround-sound music experience made entirely of her voice, recorded over 40 different layers. She also co-created a song cycle with Caroline Shaw and Angélica Negrón.
PAUL PINTO - COMPOSER
Paul Pinto is a composer, writer and multi-disciplinary performer who founded the music collectives thingNY, Varispeed and LoveLoveLove. During COVID times, Paul has written music for the Modulation (Prototype Festival), Antigone (Colgate University), Mad Forest (Fisher Center), and Tartuffe (Moliere in the Park), and co-created the online shows SubtracTTTTTTTTT, A Series of Landscapes, and Motivators with thingNY. He also created videos for his songs Just Love and Dr. Peetee, a collaborative video with Katelyn Halpern, one with Erin Rogers, and one with Kameron Neal. Now he’s writing a string quartet for the Rhythm Method, a new music-theatre for Quince Ensemble, and new songs, videos, sound experiences, and interactive games for thingNY’s new mail-based story. He’s also continuing his creation Whiteness for live medium, and he’s the guest artistic director of the 2021 Look+Listen Festival.
TIDTAYA SINUTOKE - COMPOSER
Tidtaya Sinutoke (ฑิตยา สินุธก) is a Thailand born, NYC-based composer. Composition credits include HALF THE SKY (The 5th Avenue Theatre's First Draft Commission & 20/21 Digital Season); SUNWATCHER (The Civilians R&D Group, Ancram Opera House Play Lab, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater Global Forms Festival); and DEAR MR. C (NYFA's City Artist Corps Grants). She was awarded the 2017 Jonathan Larson Grant, the 2020 Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award, and the 2020 Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award. Her works have been supported by the Composer-Librettist Studio at New Dramatists, Yale Institute for Music Theatre, Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, Johnny Mercer Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals, Robert Rauschenberg Residency, EtM Con Edison Composer-in-Residence, MTF's Makers Cohort, Drama League, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, and the Kurt Weill Foundation. A proud member of ASCAP, the Dramatists Guild, Maestra, MUSE, and Thai Theatre Foundation. BM: Berklee College of Music; MFA: NYU. tidtayasinutoke.com
ANIA VU - COMPOSER
Polish of Vietnamese descent composer and pianist, Ania Vu (née Vũ Đặng Minh Anh) writes music that explores the interplay between the words' sound properties and meanings, musical energy related to form, and varied notions of time. Winner of the Boston New Music Initiative’s 9th Annual Commissioning Competition (2021) and a prize recipient of the Megalopolis Saxophone Orchestra’s Call for Scores (2020), Ania’s music has been performed by the Daedalus and Mivos string quartets, TAK Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, and the Iridium Saxophone Quartet. Her music has been featured at several festivals, including Tanglewood, Tage Neuer Musik in Regensburg (Germany), and Red Note New Music Festival. Aside from being a composer, she is also an active pianist performing music of the standard and contemporary repertoire. Ania holds a B.M. from the Eastman School of Music and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania.
RESIDENT ENSEMBLE OF SINGERS
Hailed by The New York Times as possessing "a deep reservoir of expressive devices", soprano JUSTINE ARONSON’s interpretations have consistently captured the attention of those producing new music, earning her premieres with composers including David Lang, Christopher Cerrone, Daron Hagen, and Ted Hearne.
Recent and upcoming engagements include appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, On Site Opera (New York, NY), Five Boroughs Music Festival (New York, NY), Carleton College, The Industry (Los Angeles), Eighth Blackbird, Mirror Visions Ensemble, Echo Chamber, Urban Playground, and Brooklyn Art Song Society, among others. Record releases include Daron Hagen’s album with the Lyric Fest of Philadelphia on the NAXOS label.
Previous season highlights include appearances with the LA Phil’s Green Umbrella series, National Sawdust, Beth Morrison Projects, Opera Philadelphia, Lucerne Festival Academy, Bang on a Can Summer Festival, The Bard Music Festival, The String Orchestra of Brooklyn, and the Metropolitan Opera Guild.
Praised by Opera News for her "relish and energy," mezzo-soprano MAX POTTER is an engaging artist known for her warmth of tone and dramatic presence.
This season Max makes her symphonic debut as the alto soloist in Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’ at the Washington National Cathedral, and returns to Opera Santa Barbara as Flora Bervoix in ‘La Traviata.’ She also makes her mainstage debut as Jenny Reefer in Virgil Thompson’s ‘The Mother of Us All’ and joins the workshop cast of Derek Bermel and Sandra Cisneros’ new opera ‘The House on Mango Street’ with the Chautauqua Opera Company. Max then returns to Salt Marsh Opera for performances of Puccini’s beloved comedy ‘Gianni Schicchi.’
The 2020 | 2021 season included Max’s mainstage debut with Opera Santa Barbara as Flosshilde in Wagner’s ‘Das Rheingold,’ in which she also covered the role of Fricka. Last season also included her debut of an innovative staging of Berlioz’s ‘Les nuits d’ètè’ with Opera Santa Barbara, the world premiere recording of Constantine Carvasilis’ song cycle ‘Epiphany,’ and a concert series with The Muse’s Project featuring a gala performance at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion for Governor Asa Hutchinson.
Equally at home on the concert stage, Max has shown her natural affinity for new works. Highlights include The Sacred Feminine, an innovative performance piece celebrating the work of Emily Dickinson through spoken word and art song, with New Camerata Opera, and Heggie’s ‘The Breaking Waves’ with Des Moines Metro Opera, which she performed in recital for the composer.
KOFI HAYFORD, Ghanaian-American bass, described as possessing an “impressive” (Brooklyn Discovery) sonorous,” (Meet Me at the Opera) and “stentorian bass voice” (National Herald) also produces a distinct sound - easily identified for its unique timbre. With over 30 different operatic roles under his belt, he is swiftly building his reputation as an accomplished bass by bringing an ‘exciting’ and ‘stunning’ sound to the stage. Kofi has performed with many prestigious organizations including: The Metropolitan Opera Guild, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, United Nations Symphony Orchestra, and many others. He is the 2018 1st Place Winner of the Tchaikovsky Music Competition (Albany, NY), 2017 NJ State Opera Guild Competition Finalist, and a 2007 Songfest Young Artist. Mr. Hayford received his Bachelor’s in Vocal Performance from the University at Buffalo and is a founder of the DictionBuddy mobile app.
An active interpreter of Art Song, Opera and new music, MARIO DIAZ-MORESCO (baritone) is garnering attention for his versatility and strong stage presence. Mr. Diaz-Moresco studied at the University of Colorado, the University of Southern California and recently completed the Professional Studies Diploma program at Mannes The New School, where he is a student of Diana Soviero. He has been a young artist with Central City Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Chautauqua Opera, a Stern Fellow at Songfest, and this summer will be a vocal fellow at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute. Highlights from recent seasons include recitals with pianist Spencer Myer on California’s “InConcert Sierra” series, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Series in Chicago and the Rocky River Chamber Music Society of Ohio, in addition to Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Baritone in Hydrogen Jukebox, William in The Fall of the House of Usher, playing the lead role in Robert Ashley’s Dust, which was named one of the 10 best classical music performances of 2017 by the New York Times, and premiering the song cycle The Wanderlusting of Joseph C. by Joan La Barbara at Roulette, a performance that was repeated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
JASMINE MUHAMMAD (soprano) is a versatile vocalist, bridging the genre gap at every turn. Most recently Jasmine appeared as Hattie in Pittsburgh Opera’s world premiere of The Summer King in their 2016-17 season. During her successful three year tenure as a Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist, Jasmine appeared as Rodelinda in Handel's Rodelinda and Micaëla in Bizet's Carmen (2015); the High Priestess in Verdi's Aida, First Lady in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Eliza in Muhly's Dark Sisters and Mimi in the student matinee of Puccini's La Boheme (2013-2014). Jasmine has sung background vocals for John Legend with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and performed with Warren Haynes on the Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration Tour as well as background vocals for Chaka Khan, Anthony Hamilton, Kelis, John Batiste, and more. Jasmine's vocals are also credited on albums by Kevin Morby, Karen O Jasmine is a winner of the 2015-2016 Sullivan Foundation Award and 2015 Harlem Opera Theater Competition. Jasmine holds a masters and bachelors degree in voice from Manhattan School of Music and Roosevelt University.
Tenor, AAREN RIVARD (he/him) is a Maine native praised for a "full and clear" sound. He has appeared with prominent companies such as Pensacola Opera, Opera Colorado, Chautauqua Opera, Central City Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Opera Maine. His favorite roles performed include Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Tito in La clemenza di Tito, and Bénédict in Béatrice et Bénédict. Mr. Rivard has a growing list of concert credits as well, including Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Requiem, various Bach Cantatas, Whitbourn's Magnificat, and Orff's Carmina Burana. He received his degrees from the University of Southern Maine and Wichita State University. His musical work has been recognized by various organizations, such as the Naftzger Association's Vocal Prize and Central City Opera's prestigious Moriarty Award. He makes his role premiere as Ernesto in Don Pasquale in 2022. Aaren is excited to create and collaborate with this group of inspiring artists!
Instructors
GUEST INSTRUCTORS
Michael Korie
Libretto Writing, 2021-Present
Norman Ryan
Publishing, 2021-Present
Jessie Montgomery
Composition, 2021-Present
Bill Holab
Notation, 2021-Present
Paul Moravec
Composition, 2021-Present
Mentors
David Cote
Librettist
Blind Injustice, Three Way, The Scarlet Ibis
Missy Mazzoli
Composer
Breaking the Waves, Proving Up, Song From the Uproar
Richard Wesley
Librettist
The Black Terror, The Mighty Sirens, The Gents
Huang Ruo
Composer
An American Soldier, Sun-Yat Sen, M. Butterfly
Nkeiru Okoye
Composer
Harriet Tubman, Invitation to a Die-In, Black Bottom
Kristin Kuster
Composer
A Thousand Acres, When There Are Nine
Tobias Picker
Composer
Emmeline, Dolores Claiborne, Thérèse Raquin
David T. Little
Composer
Dog Days, JFK, Soldier Songs
Kimberly Reed
Librettist / Filmmaker
As One, Today it Rains, Hometown to the World
