Renée’s concert calendar this season has included appearances in Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Copenhagen, New York City, and Houston. During the pandemic, her performances on digital platforms included streamed online concerts for the Metropolitan Opera, the Kennedy Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, Renée appeared opposite Ben Whishaw in Norma Jean Baker of Troy to open The Shed in New York City. Later that year, she appeared in the London premiere of The Light in the Piazza, later bringing the acclaimed production to Los Angeles and Chicago. Renée earned a Tony Award nomination for her performance in the 2018 Broadway production of Carousel.

With 17 Grammy® nominations, Renée has recorded everything from complete operas and classical song recitals to jazz and indie rock. Her voice is featured on the soundtracks of Best Picture Oscar winners The Shape of Water and The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Her latest album is Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, with Yannick Nézet-Seguin as pianist. A collection of classical songs and specially commissioned world premieres, the album focuses on nature as both inspiration and casualty of humans.

In recent years, Renée has become known as a leading advocate for research at the intersection of arts, health, and neuroscience, giving presentations with scientists and practitioners around the world.  In 2020, Renée launched Music and Mind LIVE, a weekly web show exploring the connections between arts, human health, and the brain, amassing nearly 700,000 views, from 70 countries.

Renée is Artistic Advisor-at-Large to the Kennedy Center. She also leads SongStudio at Carnegie Hall, where she is a member of the Board of Trustees. She is Advisor for Special Projects at LA Opera, and Co-Director of the Aspen Opera Center and VocalArts at the Aspen Music Festival. Among her other notable awards are the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit, and France’s Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. www.reneefleming.com

Willems is best known for his #1 New York Times bestselling picture books, which have been awarded three Caldecott Honors (Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!; Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale; Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity), and his celebrated Elephant and Piggie early reader series, which has been awarded two Theodor Geisel Medals and five Geisel Honors.

Willems’s art has been exhibited around the world, including major solo retrospectives at the High Museum (Atlanta) and the New York Historical Society (NYC). Over the last decade, Willems has become the most produced playwright of Theater for Young Audiences in America, having written or co-written four musicals based on his books. 

He began his career as a writer and animator on PBS’ Sesame Street, where he garnered six Emmy Awards (writing). Other television work includes two series on Cartoon Network: Sheep in the Big City (creator + head writer) and Codename: Kids Next Door (head writer). Willems’s recent TV projects include the live action comedy special Don’t Let the Pigeon Do Storytime! and an animated rock opera special based on Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, which originally premiered on HBO Max. In April 2023, Willems celebrates the 20th anniversary of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! with the publication of Be the Bus: The Lost & Profound Wisdom of The Pigeon (Union Square Kids, April 4, 2023), a humor book for adults, and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! 20th Anniversary Edition (Hyperion Books for Children, April 4, 2023) including an exclusive board game. His papers reside at Yale University’s Beinecke Library.

In February of 2020, she was a semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. As an apprentice artist with Palm Beach Opera for the 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 seasons, she made her debut in their family production of Die Fledermaus as Rosalinde. She received her bachelors and masters in vocal performance from Houghton College where she studied with Kelley Hijleh and Mitchell Hutchings. Her other opera credits include Isabella Stewart Gardiner in the 20 minute opera American Apollo, written for the American Opera Initiative program with Washington National Opera, Suor Angelica in Puccini’s Suor Angelica with Si Parla! Si Canta in Arona, Italy, as well as concert productions of Die Zauberflote (Pamina), Cosi fan tutte (Fiordiligi), and Mazepa (Maria) with Russian Opera Workshop. She is a native of Philadelphia where she currently resides.

During the 2021–2022 season, she sang Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Saratoga Opera and was the mezzo-soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Camerata Notturna. As a young artist with Cape Town Opera, she sang Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, and the Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte. Recent concert engagements include Haydn’s Theresienmesse and Mozart’s Sparrow Mass with the New Choral Society, Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai and Mozart’s Coronation Mass with St. George’s Cathedral Cape Town, and Verdi’s Requiem with Dar Choral Society Tanzania. She is the 2022 winner of the Opera Index Vocal Competition. She won the Fleur Du Cap’s Best Performance in an Opera (Female) Award for two of her performances at Cape Town Opera; Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi in 2020 and Dorabella in Così fan tutte in 2021. She also received the 2020 Rising Star Encouragement Award in the Glyndebourne Opera Cup and received both the Ana María Martínez Encouragement Award and the Audience Choice Award at Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition in 2017. She holds degrees in music from Nelson Mandela University and the University of Cape Town.

Last summer, Pierce made his second appearance at the Glimmerglass festival as a Young Artist for the 2022 season where he reprised his role of Frank in The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson, covered Le Remendado in Carmen directed by Denyce Graves, and premiered the role of Cherubiel in The Glimmerglass Festival’s new opera Holy Ground. During his studies at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, he performed the role of Der Harlekin in Der Kaiser von Atlantis as well as covered Don Ottavio in their production of Don Giovanni. Pierce has received numerous prizes including an encouragement award at the Houston District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, a first prize Neva Pilgrim Award in the Civic Morning Musicals Competition and is the previous recipient of the William Warfield Scholarship Award.

Owens is a former soloist at Theater St. Gallen in Switzerland, where his roles included Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, Marcello in La bohème, Valentin in Faust, and the baritone soloist in Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, among others. He sang Colonel Ricci in Sondheim’s Passion at the Théâtre du Chátelet and joined the Grand Théatre de Genève for concerts of well-known operatic repertoire. He was a frequent guest with the New York Festival of Song and an extra chorister at the Metropolitan Opera. He received his bachelor of music degree from Brigham Young University and his master of music from Rice University.

Owens enjoys the challenge of interpreting contemporary works and sang Charlie in Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers alongside legendary mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade. He recently recorded an album with his wife, soprano Madison Leonard, and pianist Artem Belogurov titled To the Thawing Wind: Songs of Paul Edward Gay.

This upcoming summer, she will return to Opera Neo as an Apprentice Artist performing the role of Aspasia in Mitridate.

In 2021, Tülüoğlu began competing and has placed as a finalist in the Opera Mississippi John Alexander National Vocal Competition and Music International Grand Prix competition. In 2022, she won 3rd place at the AIMS in Graz Vocal Competition and was a finalist in the MIOpera Competition.

Tülüoğlu is a graduate of the Maryland Opera Studio with her master of music in opera performance. Notable engagements she performed with the opera studio includes Mrs. Coyle in Britten’s Owen Wingrave alongside the National Orchestral Institute, and Arminda in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera.

Tülüoğlu earned her bachelor of music degree in vocal performance at the New England Conservatory where she made her operatic debut as Damigella in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea. Her enthusiasm for score study expands to music theory, as Tülüoğlu worked with published musicologist, Deborah Stein, in completing a minor in music theory with a focus on Schubert Lieder during her studies at NEC.

These follow recent other commissions from the likes of New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and performances from Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and American Ballet Theatre.

A “young composer on the rise, with an ear for social justice” (NPR), Simon’s latest album, Requiem for the Enslaved, is a multi-genre musical tribute to commemorate the stories of the 272 enslaved men, women, and children sold in 1838 by Georgetown University, and was nominated for a 2023 Grammy Award® for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Released by Decca in June 2022, this work sees Simon infuse his original compositions with African American spirituals and familiar Catholic liturgical melodies, performed by Hub New Music Ensemble, Marco Pavé, and MK Zulu.

Acting as music director and keyboardist for Grammy Award®–winner Jennifer Holliday, Simon has performed with the Boston Pops Symphony, Jackson Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony. He has also toured internationally with soul Grammy®–nominated artist Angie Stone and performed throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia.  

Simon earned his doctorate degree at the University of Michigan, where he studied with Michael Daugherty and Evan Chambers. He has also received degrees from Georgia State University and Morehouse College. He is an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Music Sinfonia Fraternity and a member of the National Association of Negro Musicians, Society of Composers International, and Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society. He has served as a member of the music faculty at Spelman College and Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia and now serves as Assistant Professor at Georgetown University. Simon was also a of the 2021 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization to recognize extraordinary classical Black and Latinx musicians, and was named a Sundance/Time Warner Composer Fellow for his work for film and moving image.

Regionally, she has performed at the Gulfshore Playhouse, Virginia Repertory Theatre, where she received an RTCC Award for her work as Celie in The Color Purple. In 2021 she received a Berkshire Theatre Award for her portrayal of Nina in Nina Simone: Four Women at Berkshire Theatre Group. She has hosted theatreWashington’s Helen Hayes Awards three times and has been named one of “12 DC Stage Dynamos” by The Washington Post and one of “DC’s Biggest Theatre Stars” by Washington Magazine. She is a resident company member at Factory 449 in DC, Everyman Theatre in Baltimore, and an Artistic Associate at Ford’s Theatre. Currently, she can be seen as the Emmy–nominated host for WETA Arts on PBS.

As a conductor with a focus in new and cross-cultural work, Hanlon led the world premieres of works by Gregory Spears, Jack Perla, Jeeyoung Kim, as well as the Mariachi operas Cruzar la cara de la luna (Houston Grand Opera), El pasado nunca se termina (Lyric Opera of Chicago), and El milagro del recuerdo (Houston Grand Opera). He returns to Minnesota Opera this fall with his new orchestration of Cruzar.

David often works with Wolf Trap Opera, which recently premiered his orchestration of Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon, praised by Opera News for its many“charms” and its “savory, nearly Straussian shimmer.” His other Wolf Trap commissions include the children’s opera Listen, Wilhelmina! which was recently revived by Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Hanlon also serves Wolf Trap Opera as its head of music staff, and Washington Concert Opera as its assistant conductor and chorus master.

She is a long-time collaborator of author/illustrator Mo Willems and has worked as the producer, dramaturg, and/or director on his musicals, interactive engagements, and other live and televised performance work. Alrutz is currently the dramaturg on Mo Willems’ artistic residencies and productions with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and HBO Max. She is also a professor and associate chair at The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Theatre and Dance where she writes and teaches about Theatre for Young Audiences, Applied Theatre, and Digital Storytelling.