The luscious, deep voice of American mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves has graced nearly all the major world opera house stages and concert halls during her three-decades long career. The opera star was inspired to form The Denyce Graves Foundation in the beginning of 2021 as a means of elevating the lives and work of singers at all stages of their careers while, at the same time, honoring the history and contributions of those who had gone before.

Ronald J. Daniels has served as the 14th president of Johns Hopkins University since 2009.  Under his leadership, Johns Hopkins continues its preeminence in education, patient care, and innovative discovery, and has continued its more than 40-year span as the recipient of more competitively allocated federal research funding than any other university in the country.

Dean Bronstein came to Peabody after serving as president of the renowned St. Louis Symphony since 2008. During his tenure in St. Louis, Bronstein led efforts to reverse steep multi-year downturns in symphony attendance resulting in a 36 percent increase in ticket revenue and a 26 percent increase in annual philanthropic support.

A finance and risk management professional with in-depth experience and documented accomplishments, Marc Chazaud also pursues philanthropic initiatives in the arts and currently serves as the President of The Denyce Graves Foundation Board of Directors.

Elizabeth Futral is one of the world’s leading sopranos. With her stunning vocalism and vast dramatic range, she has embraced a repertoire that ranges from the Baroque to world premieres.

Paul Mathews is a composer of opera and chamber music. His published scholarship concerns orchestration and music of the early twentieth century. He has taught as part of the Music Theory Faculty of the Peabody Conservatory since 1998 .

Native Philadelphian Marvin Mills is organist at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Kensington, Maryland. He is also music director of the acclaimed National Spiritual Ensemble, and guest artist with the Ritz Chamber Players, based in Jacksonville, Florida.

Dr. Uzee Brown Jr. is a native of Cowpens, South Carolina. He is former chair of the Division of Creative and Performing Arts at Morehouse College and Executive Editor of GIA Publications’ Morehouse College Choral Series.

Marcia Lynn Sells was appointed in 2021 as the Metropolitan Opera’s first Chief Diversity Officer. Her charge is to work with all areas of the Met, including but not limited to Artistic, Human Resources, Marketing & Communications, Education, and Development to address systemic issues of inequity and build an equity, diversity, and inclusion program.

Melissa Wegner is the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the Laffont Competition. She is responsible for identifying, awarding, and developing the world’s most promising operatic talent.

Dr. Chelsey Green serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Recording Academy®. In this role, she sits on the Audit/Finance Committee, Executive Committee, Membership Committee, and Planning/Governance Committee; and provides assistance as requested by the Chair.

Raehann Bryce-Davis has been hailed by The New York Times as a “striking mezzo soprano” and by the San Francisco Chronicle for her “electrifying sense of fearlessness.”

Hadley teaches courses on jazz history, African American music, and ethnomusicology, and her research centers on the diverse musical legacies and impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Ms. Cooke has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Seattle Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, and Gran Teatre del Liceu, among others, and with over 80 symphony orchestras worldwide frequently in the works of Mahler. This season marks Ms. Cooke’s appointment at the Music Academy of the West as Co-Director of the Lehrer Vocal Institute.

Described by the New York Times as “one of America’s finest artists and singers,” Frederica von Stade continues to be extolled as one of the music world’s most beloved figures. Known to family, friends, and fans by her nickname “Flicka,” the mezzo-soprano has enriched the world of classical music for four and a half decades.

Margaret Baroody is a highly respected singing teacher and Singing Voice Specialist with over 45 years experience in these areas of voice. She is on the voice faculty of The Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University where she also teaches the first year graduate level Vocal Pedagogy class.

Steven M. Zeitels is the Eugene B. Casey Professor of Laryngeal Surgery at Harvard & Director of the MGH Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation. He has contributed to over 200 publications & videos, over 300 papers & lectures & has been a visiting professor at more than 30 institutions including Memorial Sloan Kettering, Columbia Univ. Medical School & University of Pittsburgh.

Lee Akst, M.D., specializes in treating the larynx (voicebox), in particular the treatment of voice and swallowing disorders. He is a leading laryngologist in office-based procedures such as vocal fold injection augmentation, pulsed KTP laser treatment, and laryngeal botox injection.

Kathleen DeLaurenti is the Director of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University’s Arthur Friedheim Music Library. She previously served arts librarian, open education coordinator, and scholarly communication librarian at the College of William & Mary.

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Soprano, Symone Harcum comes off of the 2022-2023 season with a successful string of roles and house debuts including the Glimmerglass Festival in the role of Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen, Almirena in Handel’s Rinaldo and Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Minnesota Opera.

Andrew Turner is a first-year Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist tenor in 2021-22. His roles this season included First Priest/First Armored Man in The Magic Flute, The Beloved in The Rose Elf, Policeman / The Man in In A Grove, Ramendado in Carmen, and Policeman/Buddy #1 in Blue. 

Pianist José Meléndez is in demand as a vocal coach, conductor, and collaborative artist. His professional engagements have taken him to Europe, South and Central America, Asia, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and throughout the mainland United States.

Liz Montgomery Craig is an NY-based yoga teacher and student of Ayurveda. As both a dancer and poet, Liz draws from a lifelong study of and fascination with movement and words when crafting her classes.

Ron Baker is the founder of a School of Self-Mastery in NYC, as well as a Bioenergetics therapist, healer, speaker and author. Ron has had the opportunity to guide thousands of clients from around the world through a unique process of personal transformation over the last 25 years.

Francesca Zambello is the Artistic Director of the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center. She is also an internationally recognized director of opera and theater.

Julia Cooke was named Artistic and General Director of Opera Baltimore (formerly Baltimore Concert Opera) in 2019, having originally served as a founding board member and then as Executive Director. In her current role, Julia leads artistic programming and casting, fundraising, long-term and strategic planning and business management.

Carlos Simon is a native of Atlanta, Georgia whose music ranges from concert music for large and small ensembles to film scores with influences of jazz, gospel, and neo-romanticism.

As a multi-genre recording artist and instrumentalist, Damien Sneed is a pianist, vocalist, organist, composer, conductor, arranger, producer, and arts educator whose work spans multiple genres.

Commended as having snappy energy and a terrific ear for detail by Milwaukee Magazine, and as bestowing “stylish support” by the Baltimore Sun on Schumann Cello Concerto Recording, Korean-American Conductor, Jun Kim has extensively conducted orchestras in North America and Europe.

Ryan Taylor serves as President and General Director of Minnesota Opera, particularly interested in the advancement of emerging artists, and in the health and development of arts organizations for whom he leads strategic planning to improve creative environments for artists, staff, boards, and communities.

American baritone Eric Greene’s current and future engagements include BENNY “KID” PARET in Terence Blanchard’s Champion Metropolitan Opera, ESCAMILLO Carmen Liceu Barcelona, return to London as NICHOLAS LOFTE in Itch, a new opera by Jonathan Dove, as well as join the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for Rigoletto on tour to Japan.

Estes has worked as a voice, humanities, and foreign language professor at Iowa State University, Boston University, and Wartburg College. He has also established several foundations including the Simon Estes Iowa Educational Foundation; The Simon Estes Music High School near Cape Town, South Africa; and the Switzerland-based Simon Estes International Foundation for Children.

Neil Shicoff, internationally recognized as one of the pre-eminent tenors of his generation, is one of the most vocally exciting, thrilling and sought-after tenors of our time.

Soprano Simone Brown was born in Stamford, Connecticut but has lived most of her life in Silver Spring, MD. Her mother says, “She knew how to sing before she could speak”.

Hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, mezzo-soprano Mary Burke Barber, “reveals [her] powerfully rich voice of regal warmth and strength” (critic Patrick D. McCoy). She has performed internationally, having made her debut with the Singapore Lyric Opera Orchestra in 2015.

An artist and activist, African-American tenor, Aaron Crouch has been described by the Huffington Post as “riveting vocally and as an actor.” Originally from Bowie, Maryland, he is a graduate of the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying under the guidance of Mikael Eliasen and Jonathan Beyer.

Originally from Baltimore, baritone, Daniel Rich is in his first year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera. This season, he covered the Count of Lerma in the company’s revival of Don Carlo and made his Met debut as a Waiter in Der Rosenkavalier.

Ed Tetreault is currently the manager of the Recording Arts & Sciences department of the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, and has extensive experience in the field of audio recording.

Dr. Adashi’s compositions are grounded in the classical tradition and imbued with soul and pop influences ranging from Nina Simone to Björk. Tim Smith of The Baltimore Sun has written: “it’s not easy to straddle genres; Adashi does so with naturalness and expressive impact.”

Before soprano April Haines joined the Metropolitan Opera Chorus in 1995, she saw the world touring with Porgy and Bess, which returns to the Met stage for the first time in almost 30 years.

A Metropolitan Opera company member since his debut in 1995, GRAMMY® Award-winning bass Richard Bernstein has appeared with the MET in over 500 performances and over 125 international live broadcasts to date, which also includes 19 Live in HD performances broadcast in cinemas worldwide.

Sherrill Milnes is universally acclaimed as the foremost operatic baritone of his generation. With his powerful voice, commanding stage presence, and rugged handsomeness, he received the kind of adulation that is usually reserved for tenors.

American soprano Aundi Moore has quickly established herself as an exceptional talent with her recent appearance as Strawberry Woman in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Porgy and Bess last season.

Richard Troxell’s beautiful lyric tenor voice has been thrilling audiences in leading roles in opera houses and on concert stages around the world for over 25 years.