Parker Ramsay

Harpist Parker Ramsay’s career, unique in its integration of contemporary music and historical performance, defies easy categorization. Equally at home on modern and period harps, Parker is dedicated to invigorating the existing canon while delving into new and underperformed works. In 2020, the recording of his transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for the King’s College, Cambridge label was praised as “remarkably special” (Gramophone), “nuanced and insightful” (BBC Music Magazine), “relentlessly beautiful” (WQXR), “marked by keen musical intelligence” (The Wall Street Journal) and “a resounding success” (The Independent).

Nico Muhly

Nico Muhly, born in 1981, is an American composer who writes orchestral music, works for the stage, chamber music and sacred music. He’s received commissions from The Metropolitan Opera: Two Boys (2011), and Marnie (2018); Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Tallis Scholars, and King’s College, Cambridge, among others. He is a collaborative partner at the San Francisco Symphony and has been featured at the Barbican and the Philharmonie de Paris as composer, performer, and curator. An avid collaborator, he has worked with choreographers Benjamin Millepied at the Paris Opéra Ballet, Bobbi Jene Smith at the Juilliard School, Justin Peck and Kyle Abraham at New York City Ballet; artists Sufjan Stevens, The National, Teitur, Anohni, James Blake and Paul Simon. His work for film includes scores for for The Reader (2008) and Kill Your Darlings (2013), and the BBC adaptation of Howards End (2017). Recordings of his works have been released by Decca and Nonesuch, and he is part of the artist-run record label Bedroom Community, which released his first two albums, Speaks Volumes (2006) and Mothertongue (2008).

Alice Goodman

Alice Goodman was born in Minnesota in 1958 into a Reform Jewish family, and educated at Harvard and at Cambridge University. In 1985 she was approached by the director Peter Sellars to write the libretto for John Adams’ opera Nixon in China, a work which is now recognised as one of the major operas of the twentieth century. Another collaboration with Peter Sellars, John Adams, and choreographer Mark Morris produced The Death of Klinghoffer, which premiered in Brussels in 1991. This opera recounts the execution of the wheelchair-bound Jewish passenger Leon Klinghoffer by Palestinian terrorists on board the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro in 1984. Klinghoffer drew, and continues to draw, acclaim – and vocal condemnation from some quarters – for its sympathetic and humane portrayal of both the victims and perpetrators of political violence. In 1991 Goodman also translated The Magic Flute for Sellars’ production at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. More recently, Goodman has collaborated with the composer Tarik O’Regan on a cantata, A Letter of Rights, in 2015 for Salisbury Cathedral, with Peter Sellars and Benjamin Bagby on Fauvelat the Théâtre du Châtelet (March 2022), and with Nico Muhly on The Street, Stations of the Cross for harp soloist, reader, and choir (April 2022). In 1990 Goodman was received into the Church. She studied theology at Boston University School of Theology and Ripon College Cuddesdon, and was ordained in the Church of England in 2001. Since 2011 she has been Rector of three parishes in Cambridgeshire. Alice Goodman’s libretti were published as a NYRB Classic in May 2017, under the title History is Our Mother.

Hannah Spierman

Soprano Hannah Spierman’s most recent opera performances include Agathe in Weber’s Der Freischütz with Bronx Opera, and Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Julia Jellicoe in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Grand Duke with Utopia Opera, as well as soloist appearances with the Litha Symphony for Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, with New York Choral Society and Canterbury Choral Society for Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, and with the Garden State Philharmonic for Handel’s Messiah. A frequent performer with Bronx Opera, Hannah’s other roles with the company include Countess Almaviva, Musetta, Donna Elvira, Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff, Birdie Hubbard in Marc Blitzstein’s Regina, and lead roles in two rarely-produced works by Vaughan Williams: Alice Ford in Sir John in Love and Tormentilla in The Poisoned Kiss. With other New York-area opera companies, she has performed the roles of Mimì, Micaëla, Echo in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, Giorgetta in Puccini’s Il tabarro, First Lady in The Magic Flute, and the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Princess Ida. Upcoming performances include Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus with Oswego Opera Theatre. A graduate of the New England Conservatory, Hannah resides in The Bronx with her husband and frequent artistic collaborator, stage director Benjamin Spierman.

Monica Wyche

Monica Wyche is a NYC actor, hailing from South Carolina. Recent TV credits include recurring roles on FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL (Apple TV) and FOR LIFE (ABC), as well as roles on THE SINNER, FBI MOST WANTED, and Hulu’s upcoming SAINT X, among others. She is a kidney donor, a little league mom, and recovering PTA President.