Deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (NY Times) and “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out NY), Missy Mazzoli has had her music performed by the New York Philharmonic, Norwegian National Opera, Atlanta Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, the Cincinnati Orchestra, the National Symphony, LA Opera, Scottish Opera, eighth blackbird, Kronos Quartet and many others. In 2018 she became one of the first two women, along with Jeanine Tesori, to receive a main stage commission from the Metropolitan Opera, and has been nominated for three Grammy awards in the categories of Best Classical Composition (2023, 2019) and Best Classical Compendium. This year, Missy is the featured composer at Winnipeg Music Festival and the BBC Symphony’s Total Immersion Festival. From 2018-2021 she was Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and from 2012-2015 was Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia. In 2016, along with composer Ellen Reid, she founded Luna Composition Lab, a mentorship program for young female, nonbinary and gender nonconforming composers. Her works are published by G. Schirmer.

Korean  adoptee, Casey Robards (Ahn SuhJung) is a music director, pianist and vocal coach known for her sensitive musicality, expert collaborative skill, stylistic versatility and expressive conducting. A sought after collaborative partner, she has given recitals throughout the United States, Europe, Central and South America and Asia. She has been dedicated to the performance, research and promotion of music by Black composers and writers for nearly three decades, with a focus on the Negro spiritual as well as places of intersection between gospel, jazz and classical music. Her latest CD release is a project of art song settings of the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar with baritone Kenneth Overton.  Recent and upcoming recital collaborations include programs with Overton, Karen Slack, Latoya Lain, Angelique Clay, Colin Levin, Bernhard Scully (horn) and her piano duo partner and husband, pianist/composer, Anthony Patterson.

Robards is Music Director of Ensemble Concert 21, a chamber group devoted to the performance of contemporary music and the mentorship of young and emerging composers. In 2024-2025, Robards will conduct productions with Indianapolis Opera, Opera Columbus, El Paso Opera, and Soo Opera. She has worked as repetiteur for Santa Fe Opera, New Orleans Opera, and Kentucky Opera, and has conducted Three Decembers, The Scarf (South Bend Lyric Opera); Die Zauberflöte, La Bohème, La Traviata, Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica (Bay View, Michigan), Carmen (Wichita, Kansas) and Water Riot in Beta: A Cyberpunk Rock Opera (Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago).

Dr. Robards is the foremost expert on John D. Carter, the subject of her dissertation. Her faculty affiliations include University of Illinois (current), Indiana University, Oberlin Conservatory, Central Michigan University, and Bay View Music Festival. She received the Henri Kohn Memorial Award for outstanding achievement at Tanglewood Music Festival. Robards chairs the Sacred in Opera Initiative for the National Opera Association.

Alfrelynn J. Roberts is a celebrated and accomplished musician, performer, choral director, vocal coach and arts administrator whose work includes digital arts, voiceover, stage (opera, musical theatre, acting), and TV/Film. She is a multi-talented leader with versatile skills that have resulted in the success of many projects in local government, higher education, and nonprofits. She’s taught  music in college and high school and is highly respected for her vocal command and performance across the country and abroad.

A Dallas native, Alfrelynn attended public schools in Dallas and is a graduate of Booker T. Washington for the Visual and Performing Arts (formerly Arts Magnet High School). She earned degrees in vocal music performance from Hampton University (BA) and Northwestern University (MM). Alfrelynn has served as the Interim General Director for Fort Worth Opera (FWO), Associate Artistic Director/Chorus Master as well as Adjunct Voice Professor at Texas Wesleyan University. She currently serves as the Director of Artistic Planning & Operations at Portland Opera and Artistic & Choral Director for South Dallas Concert Choir (SDCC).

Over the past ten seasons as SDCC Artistic & Choral Director, Alfrelynn has conducted many concerts that have broadened the choir’s repertoire and included a wider array of musical genres with continued focus on the preservation of the Negro Spiritual. Under her leadership, SDCC has expanded performances to larger and more diverse audiences and have performed with locally, nationally, and internationally known musicians to include opening for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s In-the-Park Concert at Paul Quinn College, featured choir for the AT&T Performing Arts’ production Kathleen Battle’s “Underground Railroad: A Spiritual Journey” Tour, featured performers at the Dallas Mayoral/City Council Inauguration, Dallas Historical Society’s Juneteenth Celebration.

As FWO Chorus Master, Alfrelynn prepared acclaimed choruses of Damien Geter’s An African American Requiem, Porgy and Bess (Gershwin), Aida (Verdi) and the world premiere opera El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego (Frank). She also prepared children’s choruses for Hansel and Gretel (Humperdink) and the world premiere opera, Companionship (Peters).  Alfrelynn curated A Night of Black Excellence and Winter Song, both concerts featuring internationally renowned opera artists as well as FWO Resident Artists.  Her role as Associate Artistic Director combined her love for opera and talent for organization administration.

An accomplished performer, Alfreynn performed Mother Abbess (Sound of Music), Barbara Jordan (Voice of Good Hope), Vendetta Armistead (Holy Fire), Mrs. Muller (Doubt), Mabel (Crowns), Suor Angelica (Suor Angelica), Berta (The Barber of Seville), 1^st Lady (The Magic Flute), Clara (Porgy & Bess), Queen (The Goose Girl Children’s Production), Mother (Hansel and Gretel) and Mrs. Nolan (The Medium).  She has also been the featured soloist with Kalamazoo Singers, Kalamazoo Bach Festival, American Institute of Musical Studies Orchestra in Graz, Austria, Indiana University South Bend Orchestra, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Battle Creek Symphony, and Grand Rapids Symphony. She performed for Prather Entertainment Group, What a Do, Farmers Alley and Kalamazoo Civic Theaters as well as Opera Grand Rapids, Michigan Opera Theater and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Her TV/Film credits include A Woman Called Moses: Harriet Tubman Documentary, Reagan: From Movie Star to President (documentary), The Man from Mars (winner of the 2016 Louisiana Film Festival Grand Prize), and Liberty’s Secret (independent film). Most notably, she was the featured soloist for Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Alfrelynn’s creative talents have evolved to include the innovative video production of virtual projects for organizations propelled online due to the pandemic. Initial video productions included virtual projects for organizations such as South Dallas Concert Choir, Fort Worth Opera, Texas Communities Foundation, St. Luke “Community” United Methodist Church, the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM), Metropolitan Kalamazoo (MI) Branch-NAACP, African American Education Archives and History Program, Dallas Alumnae Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., schools in Dallas ISD and the Plano (TX) Community Forum.  However, Alfrelynn’s first digital project, His Light Still Shines by Moses Hogan became the foundation for her new passion to tell compelling stories about pivotal moments and people in history as the backdrop to highlight the beauty, complexity and power of narration and music by African American composers. As a result, AJR Digital Arts (AJR+da) was born to create projects that utilize the power of music and visual art. AJR+da’s first production is The Men They Called George, a chronicle of the lives of the Brothers of the Sleeping Car Porters (later known as Pullman Porters). These men were the first All-Black unionized class of workers who negotiated a collective bargaining agreement with a major US company and ultimately changed the socio-economic structure of the Black community. This production is slated to premiere in 2026.

Alfrelynn works with numerous community and civic organizations. She is a member of St. Luke “Community” United Methodist Church where she served in the music ministry, as Vice Chair of Church Council and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees. She also served as a Board Member for City of Dallas Cultural Arts Committee (District 3), Kalamazoo Civic Theater, Michigan Sacred Music Festival, Murphy Darden African American Museum, Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society, United Methodist Church Metro District Building & Locations Committee. She is also a member of the American Guild of Musical Artists, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Dallas Metroplex Musicians’ Association, and the National Association of Negro Musicians where she serves as Second National Vice President.

She is the proud daughter of Dr. Alfred Roberts, Sr. and the late Mrs. Billie Kerl Roberts. Her siblings are Reverend LaTasha, an executive with the Environmental Protection Agency and Alfred Jr., an Administrator for Stockton Public Charter Schools along with her niece and nephew Alfred Jeremiah and Lailah Anaise.

Alfrelynn continues to “let her life do the singing!”