Faculty Accomplishments

Was a guest speaker together with librettist and producer, Cerise Jacobs, and composer, Jorge Sosa at Maastricht University's Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music Symposium on April 22, 2021. The session was titled, Alice in the Pandemic - An Opera for the Pandemic, and the Promise of New Possibilities.

Music directed  "SWELL", a multimedia event featuring live performance online, centered on texts by Melisa Tien, hosted by the HERE Arts Center in New York and promoted by the American Composers Forum. Featuring 10 original songs offering insights into the immigrant experience today in the U.S. Live performances ran from March 16 - 21, 2021 and will remain asynchronously available for the next 2 months. 

Created and produced "Identity Duets", a concert of 7 world premieres by composers of Puerto Rican heritage, as a joint artistic response to the pandemic. Performed by the Victory Players, the show premiered in joint presentation by New England Public Media and the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts,on January 23, 2021, and was presented again on March 7, 2021 by Pregones Puerto Rican Traveling Theater in association with BronxNET in New York City as part of the March is Music 2021 Series. 

Work with White Snake Projects and the Victory Players, on Cerise Lim Jacobs and Jorge Sosa Ortega's new opera "Alice in the Pandemic" has been recognized by the Library of Congress as an "exceptional work" that "embodies the artistic qualities and subject content we are seeking" for its Performing Arts COVID-19 Response Collection.  

Was a contributing partner for a successful Discovery Grant of $14,286 awarded by Opera America for the development of Mary D Watkins's Dark River: The Fannie Lou Hamer Story. The funding is for two years and will support development work to bring it to larger stages.

Discussed the curatorial possibilities in a Liberal Arts environment on "Maestro as Professor", a series hosted by Georgia Institute of Technology's Chaowen Ting and Kansas University's Carolyn Watson, on June 15th, 2020.

Was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts to serve on its 2020 Music Panel.

Created and produced "Dark River Community Singalong", a new resource for choral communities around the nation, based on "Dark River - the Fannie Lou Hamer Story" by Mary D. Watkins which was given its East Coast premiere at Mount Holyoke in 2014. Featuring historical commentary by Janice D. Hamlet at Northern Illinois University, the event premiered on July 28th, 2020 with the Pioneer Valley Symphony and Chorus, and was presented again on Aug 3rd, 2020 by the West Village Chorale in New York City.

Was featured on “Page to Stage”, a part of Cleveland Opera Theatre's "Opera For All Online" series. The show discussed his work in diversifying operatic programming and aired on July 1, 2020.

Work with the Mount Holyoke Symphony Orchestra was featured by American Opera Projects in an artist interview on June 19th, 2020 titled, "It's not the Police, It's not the Bullets, It's the Attitude; A Conversation with the Artists of Invitation to a Die-In".