Jaman E. Dunn-Danger is a queer African American multidisciplinary orchestral conductor, vocalist, and instrumentalist. A Chicago native, they currently reside in Buffalo, New York, where they serve as faculty in both the vocal and orchestral fields at SUNY University at Buffalo, as well as the Artistic Director of Buffalo ...

Jaman E. Dunn-Danger is a queer African American multidisciplinary orchestral conductor, vocalist, and instrumentalist. A Chicago native, they currently reside in Buffalo, New York, where they serve as faculty in both the vocal and orchestral fields at SUNY University at Buffalo, as well as the Artistic Director of Buffalo Master Chorale. They are also active as a guest conductor, guest soloist, and clinician.

Mx. Dunn-Danger began their musical studies at the age of eight, starting with violin and adding viola at age seventeen. They began conducting informally at age twelve, with academic studies to begin in high school. To become a more well-rounded musician, they received a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance at The Ohio State University, under Dr. C. Andrew Blosser. They then earned a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting, under the instruction of Maestro Bruce Hangen at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

Mx. Dunn-Danger’s past professional accomplishments include being the former Assistant Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (2018-2022), Guest Conductor with Dance Theater of Harlem (2022), and Guest Conductor with Buffalo Opera Unlimited (2021 & 2022). In addition, they have maintained an active vocal career as a baritone in both oratorio and operatic repertoire.

A core tenant of Mx. Dunn-Danger’s approach is to make music accessible for everyone, regardless of skill level or background. They spend a large portion of their time giving back to the community through various master classes, workshops, and teaching positions. Additionally, they are actively committed to promoting musicians from traditionally under-represented backgrounds.

Outside of their professional career, Mx. Dunn-Danger spends their days with their wife and dogs enjoying all the beauty and wonder that New York State has to offer.

Haitian-American soprano Chantal Freeman is known for her luminous tone, thoughtful artistry, and compelling stage presence. A native of Chicago, she brings a warm authenticity to every performance, with a voice described as both elegant and emotionally resonant.

Chantal most recently was a 2024–2025 Resident Artist with the ...

Haitian-American soprano Chantal Freeman is known for her luminous tone, thoughtful artistry, and compelling stage presence. A native of Chicago, she brings a warm authenticity to every performance, with a voice described as both elegant and emotionally resonant.

Chantal most recently was a 2024–2025 Resident Artist with the MABC Emerging Artist Fellowship in New York City, where she performed the role of Tatyana in Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Her recent highlights include a featured performance in Anthony Davis and Jean Sorkin’s workshop of The Reef at Merkin Hall (Lincoln Center), as well as soprano soloist appearances in New York Choral Society’s Angel of Many Signs and the Buffalo Master Chorale’s 2023 performance of St. Cecilia Mass.

She made her New York solo debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall in the 2022 Mannes Sounds Festival Finale and has appeared with companies such as Chicago Summer Opera, AIMS in Graz, and Gilbert and Sullivan of Austin. In 2021, she premiered “Joy’s Aria” from H. L. Freeman’s American Romance with On Site Opera, a moment that affirmed her interest in underrepresented as well as new works.

A passionate interpreter of both operatic and concert repertoire, Chantal has performed as a featured soloist in major works including Haydn’s Creation Mass, Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël, and Angel of Light Cantata by Kevin Siegfried. Her vocalism and interpretive depth continue to earn her recognition: she was a finalist in the 2022 Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, a semi-finalist in 2022 with Joy in Singing and Young Concert Artists, and a 2021 Richard F. Gold Career Grant recipient from the Shoshana Foundation. Earlier awards include 3rd Place in Harlem Opera Theater’s 2019 Vocal Competition and finalist honors in the 2019 Marian Anderson Vocal Award Competition through the National Association of Negro Musicians. Chantal holds a Professional Studies Diploma from Mannes School of Music, a Master of Music from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Theology from Fordham University. Her training continues to be informed by a deep curiosity, generosity of spirit, and a commitment to vocal and artistic excellence.

Whether in recital, opera, or sacred repertoire, Chantal brings heart, clarity, and purpose to her music-making. She is especially drawn to storytelling that uplifts overlooked narratives and believes in the power of the human voice to connect across difference. As she steps into the next phase of her career, Chantal remains a sincere and ever-evolving artist, committed to crafting work that moves, challenges, and inspires.

Mezzo Soprano, Daveda Browne, a resident of Piscataway, New Jersey and native of St. Kitts and Nevis, is a professional Mezzo-Soprano performing artist, and a Change Management Vice President at Goldman Sachs. She earned her Master of Arts in Vocal Performance at the John J. Cali School of Music ...

Mezzo Soprano, Daveda Browne, a resident of Piscataway, New Jersey and native of St. Kitts and Nevis, is a professional Mezzo-Soprano performing artist, and a Change Management Vice President at Goldman Sachs. She earned her Master of Arts in Vocal Performance at the John J. Cali School of Music and received a dual degree, Bachelor of Arts in Music and BS in Biochemistry, from Lehigh University. Daveda began singing at the age of 10 in her first home country, St. Kitts & Nevis, at the Mount Carmel Baptist and Estridge Moravian churches. Her first solo rendering was of Kirk Franklin’s Lean On Me. It was later at the age of 17, right before the beginning of her undergraduate career at Lehigh University that Daveda fell in love with and began studying Classical music and Opera. Known for her beautiful, rich voice and captivating presence, Daveda has performed and continues to perform all over the world, including Japan, China, France, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Kenya and Brazil. Daveda has performed, to name a few, at the METropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center David Geffen Hall, Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Apollo, and Paper Mill Playhouse, and with the National Chorale at Lincoln Center, America Spiritual Ensemble, and Choral Arts Society of NJ.

Her performances include the full, staged solo roles of Amneris from Verdi’s Aida, Mother Marie from Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites (in English), The Mother from Menotti’s Amahl & the Night Visitors, Mrs. Nolan from Menotti’s The Medium, Criada from Jairo Duarte-Lopez’s and Michaela Eremiasova’s Bodas de Sangre, Baba the Turk from Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Clarina from Rossini’s La Cambiale di Matrimonio, and Medoro from Handel’s Orlando, and chorus roles in Fire Shut Up In My Bones (MET Opera 2024), Champion (supplementary chorus debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago 2024), X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (extra chorus debut at the METropolitan Opera 2023), Mile Long Opera, Show Boat, and Hunchback of Notre Dame. Some notable memories include her being named a 2024 Premiere Opera Foundation semi-finalist,a 2017 Harlem Opera Theater competition finalist, being granted the opportunity to sing for his holiness Pope Francis at the United Nations Headquarters, being awarded the Teufel Choral Scholarship, Edgar T. Choral cup and Williams Prize at Lehigh University, and 1st place at the NATS-NYC competition, and 4th at NATS Regionals 2016 Eastern Division.

Praised by Opera News as a “vocally charismatic” performer with a “golden tenor”, Martin Bakari continues to distinguish himself as a dynamic artist in a wide array of musical and theatrical genres. A 2018 George London Competition award winner, Mr. Bakari’s 2023-24 season included Charlie Parker in Charlie Parker’...

Praised by Opera News as a “vocally charismatic” performer with a “golden tenor”, Martin Bakari continues to distinguish himself as a dynamic artist in a wide array of musical and theatrical genres. A 2018 George London Competition award winner, Mr. Bakari’s 2023-24 season included Charlie Parker in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird (Indianapolis Opera), Mime in Das Rheingold (Seattle Opera), the tenor soloist in Messiah (Oratorio Society of NY – Carnegie Hall) and Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus (Grant Park Music Festival), Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance (Kentucky Opera), Goro in Madama Butterfly (Opera Philadelphia), Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette (Vashon Opera), Sellem in The Rake’s Progress (Lakes Area Music Festival), and both Dr. Caius in Falstaff and Wilson (cover) in the premiere of Jake Heggie’s Intelligence (Houston Grand Opera). Mr. Bakari’s 2024-25 season includes Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Indianapolis Opera), Greene Evans in the premiere of Jubilee (Seattle Opera), Goro in Madama Butterfly (Utah Opera), Gastone in La traviata (Seiji Ozawa Music Festival – Japan), Michael in the premiere of Dave Ragland’s Steele Roots (Atlanta Opera), Bootleg Joe in a workshop of Will Liverman and DJ King Rico’s The Factotum (Portland Opera), and the tenor soloist in Messiah (Boise Philharmonic, Calvin Oratorio Society) and Carmina Burana (Lubbock Symphony Orchestra). Future seasons include his debut performances and recording with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, his debuts with Nashville Opera, Music of Remembrance, and Lyric Fest, and his returns to Seattle Opera, Opera Colorado, Dayton Opera, and the Boise Philharmonic.

Other recent engagements include Charlie Parker in Yardbird (Atlanta Opera, Arizona Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, New Orleans Opera, Dayton Opera), Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance (Virginia Opera), the tenor soloist in the premiere of Paul Moravec’s A Nation of Others (Oratorio Society of NY – Carnegie Hall), Messiah (Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Symphoria), and Carmina Burana (Symphony San Jose, Cecilia Chorus of NY – Carnegie Hall), Pong in Turandot (Opera Colorado), Triquet in Eugene Onegin and Jalil/Wakil/Guard in the premiere of Sheila Silver’s A Thousand Splendid Suns (Seattle Opera), recitals of Paul Laurence Dunbar songs (Seattle Opera) and German Lieder (Sound Salon – Seattle), Prince Claus in Mark Adamo’s Becoming Santa Claus (Chicago Opera Theater), Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville (Intermountain Opera Bozeman), Goro in Madama Butterfly (Dallas Opera), a United Kingdom recital tour (Mirror Visions Ensemble), Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro (Seattle Opera, Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival), The Cartography Project (The Kennedy Center/Washington National Opera), Ferrando in Cosí fan tutte (Syracuse Opera), Mingo in Porgy & Bess (Atlanta Opera), Peter the Honeyman in Porgy & Bess (Seattle Opera, Fort Worth Opera), Tamino in The Magic Flute (Opéra Louisiane), Beppe in Pagliacci (Raylynmor Opera), Philip Glass’ In the Penal Colony and a double bill of David Lang’s The Difficulty of Crossing a Field and The Little Match Girl Passion (Portland Opera), La traviata and Le nozze di Figaro (Cincinnati Opera), The Summer King (Pittsburgh Opera, Detroit Opera), Murasaki’s Moon and Morning Star (On Site Opera), The Long Walk (Utah Opera, Pittsburgh Opera), The Source (LA Opera/Beth Morrison Projects), and Ellen Reid’s dreams of the new world (PROTOTYPE Festival). Mr. Bakari also premiered and recorded Grigory Smirnov’s song cycle Dowson Songs (Naxos) which was featured by Opera News as a “Critic’s Choice” recording.

Since 2016, Mr. Bakari has joined NY Harlem Productions for tours of Porgy & Bess as both Sportin’ Life and Mingo, which have marked his German debuts at Semperoper Dresden, Staatsoper Hamburg, Deutsches Theater München, Alte Oper Frankfurt, and the Kölner Philharmonie, his Israeli debuts in Haifa and Tel Aviv, and his Italian debut at Bari’s Teatro Petruzzelli.

As an Emerging Artist at Virginia Opera from 2014 to 2016, Mr. Bakari sang in productions of HMS Pinafore, Salome, Orpheus in the Underworld, La bohème, Roméo et Juliette, and Der fliegende Holländer. Other 2016 performances included Roméo et Juliette (Opera Carolina), Carmina Burana (New Hampshire Philharmonic), and Le nozze di Figaro, Daniel Catán’s Il postino, and Philip Glass’ The Witches of Venice (Opera Saratoga).

Other notable new music credits include the leading roles of Wissam in Tobin Stokes’ Fallujah (The Kennedy Center), Hazel Motes in the premiere of Anthony Gatto’s Wise Blood (Walker Art Center/New Focus Recordings), Marcellus in James Dashow’s Archimedes (Neuma Records), and Lorenzo in William Bolcom’s Lucrezia, Grivet in Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin, Katz in Stephen Paulus’ The Postman Always Rings Twice, and a national tour of Wynton Marsalis’ Abyssinian Mass (Blue Engine Records/Sony).

Chosen by James Levine to sing in a Tanglewood production of Ariadne auf Naxos, Mr. Bakari spent two summers as a Tanglewood Fellow during which he also sang John Harbison’s Full Moon in March and a double bill of Milhaud’s L’Enlèvement d’Europe and L’Abandon d’Ariane directed by Mark Morris. Of his performance in Full Moon in March, The New York Times wrote, “Bakari mastered completely the high-tension and occasionally melodic vocal writing.”

In addition to the George London Competition, Mr. Bakari has received major awards from the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, Orpheus Vocal Competition, Tanglewood, the Juilliard School, and Boston University. He has since been engaged by Palm Beach Opera and has also appeared with Madison Opera, Opera North, Eugene Opera, Opera Ebony, Little Opera Theatre of NY, Pine Mountain Music Festival, and the Harlem Chamber Players.

Mr. Bakari is an alumnus of the master’s degree program at Juilliard, the B.M. and Opera Institute programs at Boston University, and the study-abroad program at London’s Royal College of Music. In addition to the numerous opera and musical theatre roles he performed while in Boston, he was an active concert soloist with performances including Elijah (Symphony Hall) and a solo concert of Italian arias (Salem Philharmonic Orchestra). A Filipino-African American, Mr. Bakari is featured as the cover story of FilAm Magazine’s June 2022 issue.

The American bass-baritone, Holden James Turner, studied Music Performance, Voice at the Ithaca College (2015-2019). During his studies there, he was Choral Scholar: Bass-Baritone at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ithaca, New York. He currently studies for his Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance and Music Education ...

The American bass-baritone, Holden James Turner, studied Music Performance, Voice at the Ithaca College (2015-2019). During his studies there, he was Choral Scholar: Bass-Baritone at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ithaca, New York. He currently studies for his Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance and Music Education at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, where he is a voice student of Nicole Cabell. He is a member of the Eastman Chorale (Director: William Weinert), and choral scholar at Asbury First United Methodist Church in Rochester (since 2022).

Holden Turner most recently appeared as Bass Soloist in Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Finger Lakes Choral Festival. He has soloed with the Rochester Oratorio Society on multiple occasions, including their series of Schubert’s Masses. He was a Young Artist at Songfest in the summer of 2017, and has worked with great artists including pianist Martin Katz, soprano Roberta Alexander, and artists of Opera Noire. His singing has been recognized by organizations including the Rochester Philharmonic League and The New York Summer School of the Arts, and in competitions sponsored by the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Wendy K. Moy directs the Oratorio Society and serves as Chair of Music Education and Associate Professor at Syracuse University. She is also the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Chorosynthesis Singers, recipients of the 2024 American Prize in Choral Performance—Professional Division. Their album, Empowering Silenced Voices, released on Centaur ...

Wendy K. Moy directs the Oratorio Society and serves as Chair of Music Education and Associate Professor at Syracuse University. She is also the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Chorosynthesis Singers, recipients of the 2024 American Prize in Choral Performance—Professional Division. Their album, Empowering Silenced Voices, released on Centaur Records, features new music centered on socially conscious themes and has been praised for its artistic depth and advocacy.

Dr. Moy has served as Conductor of the Bellevue Chamber Chorus and Director of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus, where she appeared with the Symphony to conduct Charles Frink’s John Henry and Handel’s Messiah. Equally at home in the orchestral world, she began playing the violin at age four and later studied orchestral conducting with Eric Hanson and Kenneth Kiesler. She went on to coach and conduct with the Cascade Youth Symphony.

A sought-after guest conductor, she recently headlined the Festival Paraibano de Coros in João Pessoa, Brazil, and served as orchestral conductor at the Festival Internacional de Música de Campina Grande in Brazil. She has also conducted the Massachusetts and Rhode Island All-State Choirs.

Her honors include the 2024 Paul and Veronica Abel Award for Choral Performance (Civic Morning Musicals) and 3rd Place in the American Prize in Choral Conducting—Professional Division. Dr. Moy holds a Master of Music Education from Westminster Choir College and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of Washington. For more information, visit www.wendymoy.com.

Founded in 1975, the Syracuse University Oratorio Society is a large chorus comprised of Syracuse University students and community members that regularly performs choral-orchestral masterworks with the Syracuse Orchestra. The Oratorio Society is directed by Dr. Wendy Moy.

Founded in 1975, the Syracuse University Oratorio Society is a large chorus comprised of Syracuse University students and community members that regularly performs choral-orchestral masterworks with the Syracuse Orchestra. The Oratorio Society is directed by Dr. Wendy Moy.