Speakers & Performers

Robert Porco

Robert Porco has been recognized as one of the leading choral musicians in the U.S., and for nearly 40 years he has been an active preparer and conductor of choral and orchestral works, including most of the major choral repertoire, as well as of opera. In 2011 Mr. Porco received Chorus America’...

Rosephanye Powell

Dr. Rosephanye Powell has been hailed as one of America’s premier women composers of choral music. She has an impressive catalogue of works published by some of the nation’s leading publishers, including the Hal Leonard Corporation, the Fred Bock Music Company/Gentry Publications, Oxford...

Greg Pratt

Greg Pratt is a founding member of Ensemble Companio as a tenor and serves on the Board of Directors. Professionally, he focuses on Health Policy as Finance Counsel in the New York State Senate with the Independent Democratic Conference.  He was a tenor with the Cornell University Glee Club, has...

Sherri Prentiss

Sherri Prentiss is the vice president of marketing for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, and Cincinnati May Festival, where she oversees marketing, branding, audience insight, and sales. She has led initiatives that bring vibrancy to the urban core and further connect...

Kate Prescott

Prescott & Associates is a strategic marketing and research firm specializing in the arts. Kate has extensive corporate and non-profit experience in marketing and research, with an emphasis on branding, audience development, and marketing/communications strategies. Prior to starting her own...

Catherine Roma

Catherine Roma (DMA Choral Conducting, College-Conservatory of Music, 1989) believes choral singing is a path to justice, inclusion and love.  Roma founded her first women’s choir in 1974 (Madison, WI), founded Anna Crusis Women’s Choir in Philadelphia (1975), and founded and directed MUSE,...

Diana V. Sáez

A leading specialist in the field of Latin American music and an accomplished choral conductor, Diana V. Sáez is the founder and artistic director of Cantigas, a chamber choir whose mission is to increase awareness and appreciation of the many rich styles of Latin American and Spanish choral...

Fahad Siadat

Fahad Siadat is a performer and composer specializing in contemporary and experimental music, particularly improvisation and the use of extended vocal techniques. As a composer, he focuses on music for the voice, but has written for such ensembles as The New Century Players, TOCCATA Symphony...

Jordan Sramek

Jordan Sramek (tenor) is founder and artistic/executive director of The Rose Ensemble and enjoys an active career as a performing musician, scholar, teacher, and arts entrepreneur. Jordan studied early vocal performance and harpsichord at the College of St. Scholastica and has spent time...

Steven Sunderman

Steven Sunderman is the executive director of the Cincinnati May Festival, recently hailed as “America’s Premier Choral Festival.” During his 30-year career at the May Festival and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the May Festival has enjoyed a financially sound history of twenty-four consecutive...

André J. Thomas

André J. Thomas, the Owen F. Sellers Professor of Music, is Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Choral Music Education at Florida State University. A previous faculty member at the University of Texas, Austin, Dr. Thomas received his degrees from Friends University (BA), Northwestern...

John William Trotter

John William Trotter has conducted more than a dozen professional choirs and orchestras throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. In 2013 he began working with the professional ensemble Chicago a cappella, described by the Chicago Tribune as "the city's liveliest, most...

Gretchen Upholt

Gretchen is a senior consultant with FMA, a national consulting firm focused on helping nonprofits strengthen their financial and operational health. In that role, Gretchen splits her time between playing an active role as trainer, coach, and curriculum developer for FMA’s cohort training...

John Wright

Tenor John Wesley Wright holds degrees from Maryville College and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he earned an M.M. and D.M.A. in performance studies. A native of Rome, Georgia, he works as associate professor of music at Salisbury University (...

Cincinnati Children’s Choir

The Cincinnati Children’s Choir is celebrating its 23rd season serving young singers from Southwestern Ohio, Northern Kentucky and Southeastern Indiana. Each year, the program impacts over 1000 Greater Cincinnati children in grades one through twelve. Presently, the program involves children in...

May Festival Chorus

The May Festival Chorus has earned acclaim locally, nationally, and internationally for its musicality, vast range of repertoire, and sheer power of sound. The Chorus of 140 professionally trained singers is the core artistic element of the Cincinnati May Festival, as well as the official chorus...

Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati

Founded in 1979, for over 30 years Vocal Arts Ensemble (VAE) has brought the power of spectacular, powerful and thrilling choral performances to audiences of all generations.

Because of its small size, as well as the distinctive venues chosen each year across the area, VAE is uniquely...