You all Have Lied tenor and piano

HARRY CASTLE is a British composer, lyricist and music director, currently Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre at Boston University. He works at the intersection of musical theatre, contemporary classical, pop and jazz genres, and writes music as frequently at home in concert halls as it is in bars. Harry is particularly drawn to musical storytelling, and is especially interested in work that centers queer and marginalized narratives. Before joining the faculty at Boston University, Harry was Visiting Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre & Associate Music Director at Syracuse University, and holds degrees from Cambridge, Yale, and a DMA in composition from the University of Michigan.

Harry’s music has been heard at the BBC Proms, the New World Symphony, the Rhode Island International Film Festival, the National Centre for Early Music and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and has been performed by Eleni Katz, the University of Michigan Chamber Choir, the Marea Duo, the Albatross Duo, Margaret Lancaster, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble, and chamber ensembles of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Aurora Orchestra. His music is published by the Kurt Weill Foundation, North Star Music and Murphy Music Press.

“Bee! I’m expecting you! From Wagtail Dance soprano and piano

R. Michael Daugherty writes: “I believe I always wanted a life in music.  Before I was born my parents met Norb Ringholz, a pianist and jazz composer.  Norb wrote music and my mother supplied lyrics for several songs that I can sing to this day.  By the time I was four, I had decided I wanted to write music, too.  My taste in music moved to classical music when I started piano lessons with Zoe Elson Smyth, a white-haired lady in her sixties who claimed she was a grand student of Franz Liszt.  Under her guidance I gave my first public piano recital at age fourteen.” 

Dr. Daugherty holds a B.A. degree in musical and literary composition from Denison University, studying with Elliot Borishansky and M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in music composition from The Ohio State University studying with Marshall Barnes. 

His catalog of compositions contains over 375 works in a wide variety of forms, including over 100 choral works and 80 songs.  As a singer, he makes sure his choral/vocal works are text driven and reflect the strengths of the voice.

He retired after 35 years as a music theory instructor at Coastal Carolina Community College, Jacksonville, North Carolina, in June of 2011 and moved to Vero Beach, Florida, in March of 2015 with his wife Lorraine.  They both enjoy both living near the ocean and the cultural activities available along Florida’s Treasure Coast

Bird Songs tenor and piano

Raphael Fusco is an Italian-American composer, keyboardist, and conductor, praised as “one of the most outstanding composers of his generation” (El Mundo) and “a leader in the opera world today” (Operawire). His music blends historical traditions with contemporary innovation, creating immersive experiences across opera, orchestral works, art song, chamber music, and historical instruments.

His compositions have been commissioned by the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Cecilia

Chorus of New York, Opera Lucca, and members of the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera Orchestras. Premiered at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and international venues, his works include Le parole dei mesi (2023), An American Requiem (2022), La contesa canora (2022), and inSOMNIA (2021), described as “a multifaceted, atmospheric soundpainting” (Mittelbayerische Zeitung). His debut album, REMIXED (2019), was praised for its “stunning sonic ideas” (Jazz Corner).

Fusco has received awards from the NATS Art Song Composition Competition, the American Prize, the Ruzickova Competition, and the Aliénor International Harpsichord Competition. His works are published by Universal Edition Vienna, Verlag Ries & Erler, Prima la Musica, and Hinshaw Music.

As a pianist and harpsichordist, he has performed with the New York Philharmonic, American Ballet Theatre, and Branford Marsalis. A dedicated educator, he has given lectures and masterclasses at the Sorbonne, Manhattan School of Music, Escuela Nacional de Canto de Madrid, Strasbourg Conservatoire and Boston University. He is the founder of Opera Lucca’s Composer Institute and holds a doctorate from Kunstuniversität in Graz, Austria where his research explored empathy and expressive agency in vocal composition. www.raphaelfusco.com

“A NorthEast Storm” soprano and piano

Writing appreciatively of her “glistening, poignant music,” Gramophone Magazine has called Juliana Hall“a composer who savours lyrical lines and harmonies peppered with gentle spices.” Following a performance at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Times wrote that “Recital convention was stood on its head when Dawn Upshaw began her long-anticipated London programme … Her choice of American songs, however, did not suggest there was much to catch the listener’s imagination … Exceptions might be made for Juliana Hall’s beguiling Sonnet” and after a recital at the Library of Congress, the Washington Post reported her work to be a “brilliant cycle of songs.”

Hall’s music has been presented by more than 700 singers and pianists in three dozen countries on six continents, as well as in nearly every U.S. state. Her compositions have been heard at the 92nd Street Y, Concertgebouw Recital Hall, the Morgan Library & Museum, Ordway Music Theater, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, in addition to numerous festivals, including the Bitesize Proms, London Song, Norfolk Chamber Music, Ojai, Oxford International Song, and Source Song Festivals.

As part of educational programs, Hall’s vocal works have been studied and performed at the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar and the Tanglewood Music Center. Hall has had the honor of composing works for dozens of singers, among them Stephanie Blythe, Anthony Dean Griffey, Zachary James, David Malis, Randall Scarlata, and Kitty Whately. Juliana Hall’s vocal works are published by the E. C. Schirmer Music Company.

To Make a Prairie voice and piano

Composer Timothy Hoekman has written in many genres and has works published by Theodore Presser, Colla Voce, Plymouth Music Company, Recital Publications, and Classical Vocal Reprints. He was recently announced as the winner of the Delta Omicron 2025 Triennial Composition Competition for his Bagatelles for Clarinet and Piano, and in 2002 he was the MTNA-Shepherd Distinguished Composer of the Year for his song cycle To Make a Prairie, commissioned by the South Dakota Music Teachers Association. Other commissions have come from the Rawlins Piano Trio, the Coastal Carolina Chamber Music Festival, and Georgia Southern University, among others. His works have been recorded for Albany Records, Azica Records, and Mark Records.

Hoekman is Professor Emeritus of Vocal Coaching and Collaborative Piano at Florida State University, where he taught collaborative piano, coached graduate voice majors, and taught a variety of language and vocal literature classes for singers and pianists from 1984 to 2022. He is a highly experienced performer, teacher, and coach, having performed as soloist and collaborative pianist in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Europe. He was on the music staff of Glimmerglass Opera (now called Glimmerglass Festival) in Cooperstown, NY, from 1988 to 2011 and has also worked for South Georgia Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Opera Grand Rapids, and the Peter Harrower Summer Opera Workshop. From 2012 to 2024, he served as a lieder coach for the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.

“My River Runs to Thee” mezzo-soprano and piano

CLIFFORD W. KING is an award-winning Salt Lake City-based composer. Recent commissions and premieres include Cantorum Chamber Choir, Wasatch Chorale, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington D.C., Opera Contempo, Salt Lake Chinese Choir, and NEXT ensemble. Clifford is the composer for the popular podcast and YouTube series “Profiling Evil” and his work has been performed worldwide. In 2022 he founded and is the Artistic Director of the Rocky Mountain Chamber Choir - Virtual Singers, a collective of professional musicians dedicated to performing and recording new works by living composers. Clifford’s music is published by Hinshaw Music and Carus-Verlag. He loves slightly out-of-tune pianos, bighorn sheep, and rooibos tea.

“Lament” from To Eat of Love soprano and piano

Jonathan Mitchell is a Chicago-based composer. He graduated from Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music in 2019 with a Bachelor of Music in Composition. Since then, he has composed music and led curricular development for the educational app MusiQuest.

Jonathan has had works performed by various players at the Blair School of Music; by Harvard University’s Choral Fellows, under the direction of Carson Cooman; by La Banda de Conciertos de San José, under the baton of Thomas Verrier; and by vocalists and instrumentalists associated with the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music (GLFCAM). He has also worked as a musical arranger and workshop leader with El Sistema Nacional de Educación Musical (SiNEM), an organization based in Costa Rica.

Outside of composing, Jonathan spends his time listening to classic soul music, referring to himself in third person, and trying to find pants that fit.