2024 Featured Guest Artist and Opera Director
Jen Townsley
Jen Townsley is a professional voice instructor and soprano currently based in Kansas City. Originally from New York, Townsley holds a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from SUNY Fredonia, a master’s degree in Vocal Performance from Texas Tech University, and is currently working towards her doctoral degree in Vocal Performance at the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory of Music.
She has worked as a voice instructor for the past four years at Grand Prairie Fine Arts Academy in Dallas, Texas. Her students there have excelled in placement auditions for All-State Choirs, college music programs, and leading and supporting roles in DFW area musicals. Townsley also specializes in vocal pedagogy and stagecraft to ensure that her students can become creative, expressive and healthy vocalists. Previous directing and management credits include Moonlight Musicals’ "The Phantom of The Opera" (assistant stage manager) and "Sister Act: The Musical" (stage manager), Atlantic Music Festival’s 'Dido and Aeneas' (assistant director) and selected opera scenes (director), and Cedar Rapids Opera Theater’s production of Menotti’s "The Telephone" (director, and Lucy). Townsley is also passionate about community outreach programs geared toward providing musical opportunities for underserved communities. She is currently on the National Association of Teachers of Singing Fellowship Committee, which is creating fellowships for young aspiring singers from low-income families to have access to private voice lessons, music supplies and competitions.
Baritone
Evan J. Nelson
A native of Albany, Georgia, Baritone Evan J. Nelson is expanding his career as an accomplished performer across operatic, concert, and recital stages. Last Summer, Mr. Nelson was excited to attend the Aspen Music Festival and School as a Studio artist were he appeared as Simon Thibault in Jimmy Lopez’s Bel Canto. He also performed as a soloist with the Aspen Chamber Symphony where he sang an orchestrated Schubert Lieder under the direction of conductor Nicholas McGegen. Mr. Nelson’s operatic credits include the title role in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Mr. Gedge in Britten’s Albert Herring, Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and Prince Yamadori in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Mr. Nelson is a proud alumnus of young artist training programs such as The Chautauqua Voice Program, Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance, Opera Company of Middlebury, Opera on the Avalon, Opera in the Ozarks, and La Musica Lirica. Mr. Nelson holds degrees from both Florida State University and Binghamton University. He is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Voice Performance at the University of Missouri - Kansas City Conservatory.
Soprano
Lauren Stokke
Currently based in Kansas City, Lauren is a versatile young soprano actively pursuing the operatic stage. Acclaimed for her "stunning" stage presence and "agile" vocal production, she finds the stage to be a source of creativity and free expression. This fall she will appear as Nina in Massenet's Chérubin (UMKC Conservatory Opera). This summer Lauren debuted as Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Miami Music Festival), and earlier this year she presented Despina in Così fan tutte (UMKC Conservatory Opera).
Throughout her upbringing, Lauren was involved in art song, opera, musical theatre, competitive choir, jazz, and contemporary music. Raised in Memphis, she grew up surrounded by a vibrant musical presence teeming with rich culture and diversity, and has carried this unique influence with her in her pursuits as a classical musician.
Lauren is entering year two of her MM in Vocal Performance at the UMKC Conservatory studying under Dr. Aidan Soder. She previously pursued her undergraduate degree at the University of Memphis, where she received a BM in Vocal Performance. Previous mentors include Mo Zhou, Daniel Fung, Dr. Marc Callahan, Manny Perez, and Dr. Kyle Ferrill.
Mezzo-soprano
Gwendolyn DeLaney
Gwendolyn DeLaney is a mezzo-soprano from Boise, Idaho who currently calls Kansas City home. She is working on her master's at UMKC with Dr. Aidan Soder. This season she appeared as Hansel in Heartland Opera Theater’s
production of Hansel and Gretel, Second Lady in UMKC’s production of Die Zauberflöte and with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City as a chorus member in their productions of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci. Gwendolyn is also an active chorister and sings with the ensembles KC VITAs and Cardinalis. As an avid performer of new music, Gwendolyn is very excited to be a part of Scheherazade Music Festival's 2024 season where she will sing Don Giovanna in Three Little Pigs and premiere Elegía a La Muerte de Una Abeja. She will also take part in The Lyric Opera of Kansas City and No Divide KC partnership - Come as You Are - where she will be singing The Manager in the Kansas City premiere of Working Hard & Hardly Working. In July and August, she will be going to Michigan to sing Tisbe in Bayview Music Festival's production of La Cenerentola. When she isn't performing, Gwendolyn can usually be found with her nose in a book and spending time with her cat, Bones.
Pianist
Barbara Noyes
Barbara Noyes of Golden, Colorado can be found collaborating with musicians in a variety of genres from duo works and chamber music to opera, orchestral ensembles, and musical theater productions. As a collaborative pianist, she has performed at renowned venues such as Carnegie’s Weill Hall, the Granada Theater, Boettcher Concert Hall, among others. She has been invited as a collaborative piano fellow to festivals such as Music Academy of the West, Aspen, the Saarburg Chamber Music Festival, and the Collaborative Piano Institute. She is currently a collaborative pianist at the Meadowmount School of Music in upstate New York.
Alongside mezzo-soprano Claire McCahan, Noyes co-founded Horizon Duo, a voice-piano duo dedicated to the celebration of American art song and creative programming of contemporary and classic repertoire. Together, Horizon Duo competed at the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Awards (NATSAA) in New York City and the Franz Schubert & Modern Music Lied Duo competition in Graz, Austria.
Noyes holds Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in Collaborative Piano from the University of Colorado Boulder where she studied with Margaret McDonald and Alexandra Nguyen. She received her bachelor degree in composition from Willamette University and did additional study in piano performance and French at the Institut Catholique and the Sorbonne Université in Paris as well as IRCAM’S ManiFeste summer academy for composers. Previously the collaborative pianist for Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Noyes now serves as Postdoctoral Lecturer in Collaborative Piano at the University of Colorado Boulder.
An ardent lover of contemporary repertoire, Noyes’s doctoral thesis project culminated in a recorded album of André Previn’s art song repertoire, bringing to the concert hall Previn’s unheralded art song library.