Classical Performance : Voice

Visit the WP Voice website

Program Features:

• Regular vocal master classes and workshops by outstanding performers and pedagogues in the vocal world across many genres.
• Solo and ensemble performance opportunities in Concert Choir, Chamber Choir, opera workshop, musical theater, jazz vocal ensemble, new music series, small chamber ensembles, and pop vocal ensembles. 
• Trips to New York City for performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, and other concert venues.
• All voice faculty members are members of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS); thus all voice students may participate in the State and Eastern Regional NATS Collegiate Auditions held annually.
• International touring opportunities for Chamber Choir.

Special courses and classes:

• English, French, German and Italian Diction for Singers
• Vocal Literature Courses
• Pedagogy and Business for Musicians 

Voice Faculty:

*Christopher Dylan Herbert, Vocal Area Coordinator
Dr. Christopher Dylan Herbert (baritone) is an Associate Professor at William Paterson University. He served as an adjunct faculty member here for two years before taking leadership of the Voice Program. He teaches one-on-one voice lessons, advises students, manages and coordinates the Vocal Program, and directs Opera Workshop.

As a professional vocalist, Dr. Herbert performs frequently throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and is a two-time GRAMMY® nominee. He has soloed with The San Francisco Symphony and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performed Ginastera centennial celebrations with International Contemporary Ensemble and the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and consistently presents Winterize – an outdoor adaptation of Winterreise with transistor radios.

He holds a B.A. in Music from Yale University, an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University, and D.M.A. in Voice from The Juilliard School. His current research focus is on the music of the eighteenth-century Ephrata Cloister of Pennsylvania. He is the baritone in the critically acclaimed ensemble New York Polyphony.

www.christopherdylanherbert.com

www.newyorkpolyphony.com

Hannah Carr, Voice
Originally from Ireland, Hannah Carr is (Interim) Director of Choral Activities at William Paterson University, NJ, following five years on the faculty at Kutztown University, PA. Hannah holds a BA in Composition from Trinity College Dublin, an Adv. Dip in Music Education from the Kodály Institute in Hungary, an MM in Conducting from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music and a DMA in Conducting from Rutgers University. Hannah is director of Cantigas, a Hoboken-based treble choir dedicated to internationally performing diverse music from around the world.

Hannah has worked with professional choirs as director of the University Church at Yale, Stratford Street United Church in Boston and with C4 Ensemble in NYC. With C4, Hannah was a featured conductor on C4’s debut album launch: Uncaged, which received rave reviews in the American Record Guide and Fanfare Magazine, and was featured by WQXR as “Album of the Week.” Hannah has won various prizes, including the Irene Alms Memorial Prize at Rutgers University, The Director’s Prize from Yale University, The Highest Bursary Award for Choral Conducting in 2009 & 2010 from the Irish Arts Council & The Gerard Victory Prize for Composition from Trinity College Dublin. Hannah is an artist-in-residence of Ireland’s Tyrone Guthrie Center and an active clinician, festival conductor and adjudicator in Europe and the US.

Darian Clonts, Voice
Tenor Darian Clonts, a native of Atlanta, Ga., joined the Voice faculty at William Paterson University in the Fall of 2021. He has been seen performing with companies across the US such as Cincinnati Opera, The Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater, The Princeton Festival, and The Atlanta Opera. Some of his operatic roles include The Witch (Hansel and Gretel), Mingo (Porgy and Bess), Hérrison (L’Étoile), Goro (Madama Butterfly), and El Remendado (Carmen). He holds a B.A. in Music from Morehouse College, and both an M.M. and D.M. in Voice from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He holds a certificate in Vocology, which is the science and practice of voice habilitation, and if necessary, rehabilitation. The main focus of his musical research includes opera and African American music, and he has lectured on his research at schools and institutions across the United States.

Matthieu Cognet, Voice Coach / Staff Pianist
French pianist Matthieu Cognet is an active soloist and sought-after chamber player who has appeared in major venues and festivals in Europe and the United States, including Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, the Cultural Institute of Chicago, the Hemptinne Festival and the Festival Musicorum (Belgium), the Ruhrtriennale Festival (Germany), the Rushmore Music Festival, SD, the Festival Memphis in May, the Saint Georges Music Festival in Guadeloupe, and the Prades and Pianissimes Festivals (France). He recently collaborated in concert with internationally acclaimed Flutist Carol Wincenc and Grammy Award winner Bandoneonist Hector Del Curto.

He has been a soloist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Queer Urban Orchestra, Stony Brook University Orchestra, Indiana University Student Orchestra, and the Paris Sorbonne Orchestra. His recital and chamber music performances have been featured on Radio France, Italian Rai and Chicago WMFT Radio broadcasts.

Matthieu Cognet is a laureate of the Concours Musical de France, the Bloomington Travel Grant, Stony Brook Concerto Competition as well as the Forte and Entraide Française Competitions in New York City. He received degrees from the Paris and Brussels Conservatories, as well as the University of La Sorbonne (summa cum laude). He completed his Performer Diploma at Indiana University, while working extensively as the studio pianist of Janos Starker. In 2017, he graduated with his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University.

In addition to his performing activities, Mr. Cognet released his own arrangement of Maurice Ravel’s La Valse for piano solo under the label Lauren Keiser Publications/Hal Leonard. He is also the Artistic Director and Masterclass Director of the French-American Piano Society. He has recorded three albums: “Debut Recital”, “Mit Humor”(Odradek Records), to stellar reviews (Gramophone Magazine), and “Global Saxophone.” He is currently a Staff Collaborative Pianist at the Juilliard School and the French Diction Coach at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Hannah Comia, Voice Coach / Staff Pianist
A first-generation Filipino American, Hannah performs regularly as a collaborative and solo pianist. This past year she appeared at the CLA Berkshires summer Mozart festival, the Arabia-Kaikuu Festivaali, in recitals at Helsingiin Musiikitalo, Paavalinkirkko, and will return to the Civic Morning Musicals concert series in CNY.

As an academic, Hannah recently completed a fellowship with the American-Scandinavian Foundation, studying the relationships between art song and political independence in Finland and the Philippines. Prior to this, she focused on the life and compositions of African American composer Betty Jackson King, receiving the Graduate Dean's Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Work.

Hannah serves on faculty at William Paterson University, the Thurnauer School of Music, and as a pianist at St. Mary’s Church in Pompton Lakes. She has studied at William Paterson University, Syracuse University, Metropolia UAS, and the Sibelius Academy. www.hannahcomia.com/

Sarah Abigail Griffiths, Voice
Soprano Sarah Abigail Griffiths has been hailed for her “glowing tone, effortless facility and vivid expressivity” (Dallas Morning News), and has appeared as soloist and chorister with professional ensembles throughout the United States. She is a founding member of the baroque chamber ensemble, Armonia Celeste, heard on the Centaur label, and is featured singing Alice Parker’s song cycle Dickinson: On Recollecting in a 2017 recording for Gothic. She has performed U.S. premieres by Bob Chilcott and Thea Musgrave and world premieres by Katherine Hoover, Edward Smaldone, and Martha Sullivan. She holds degrees from the University of North Texas, Westminster Choir College, and Earlham College.

Jee Hyun Lim, Voice
Jee Hyun Lim (Lyric Soprano) is internationally acclaimed singing actress, concert singer, and vocal educator. She has sung over 25 operatic heroines with many opera companies in US and Canada such as Chicago Lyric, Seattle, New York City (Season Opening), Cincinnati, Spoleto Festival, Detroit, New Orleans, Atlanta, Minnesota, Vancouver, Montreal, just to name a few. She sang 40 performances at Royal Albert Hall in London and numerous times in Dublin, Belfast, Zagreb (Croatia), Bergen (Norway), Santiago, Tokyo, and her native town Seoul, Korea. Miss Lim sang Messiah 11 times at Avery Fisher Hall and more oratorios and recitals in Detroit, Minnesota, Atlanta, New York, and Chicago. Miss Lim was educated at Seoul National University, The Juilliard School (MM), and Juilliard Opera Centre and was the winner of the Sullivan Award and the Artist of the Year by Syracuse Opera. Currently she teaches voice at Lehigh University and William Paterson University.

June Marano-Murray, Voice Coach / Staff Pianist
June Marano-Murray received her Bachelor and Master Degrees in piano and accompanying from Manhattan School of Music where she was a recipient of the prestigious Harold Bauer Award. Credits include: Wolf Trap Opera, Lake George Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Central City Opera, Pepsico Summerfare, NY Opera Repertory Theater, and the Berkshire Choral Institute. She has been music director for opera productions at Asolo Opera in Sarasota, Florida, the Bel Canto Opera in New York, and performed and taught at the First International Summer Music Festival in Taiwan. A former Gramma Fisher scholarship recipient (which enabled her to study and perform at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria), she is a former lecturer at SUNY- Purchase, Music Director for Purchase Opera Theater, and for Mannes College of Music. As a member of the opera coaching staff at Manhattan School of Music, she also accompanied the Birgit Nilsson Master Class series for five years. She is a member of the American Guild of Organists, and serves as choir director/organist for the Second Reformed Church in Hackensack, New Jersey. She also is a free lance coach and piano teacher. She is also on faculty at the Manhattan School of Music.

Tami Petty, Voice
Dr. Tami L. Petty (soprano) is the 2014 Award Recipient of the Joy in Singing Prize. She made her 2010 Lincoln Center debut singing Rossini’s Petite Messe Solonelle at Alice Tully Hall. The New York Times praised Petty’s “powerful soprano,” and Classical Music Network declared, “Such a beauty and purity of tone is so rare that I could only listen in ethereal pleasure." Recitalist of the first rank, she has performed locally with Brooklyn Art Song Society, 5BMF, Caritas for St. Ignatius Loyola, Joy in Singing, and NYSTA. Winner of multiple career grants with special recognition from Marilyn Horne Foundation and Sorel Organization, and graduate of Eastman School of Music in Vocal Performance, Dr. Petty also teaches voice privately and at AMDA, and she serves as Director of Music in the East Village at Middle Collegiate Church where she oversees ecclectic music programming. Please visit www.TamiPetty.com for more information.

Charity Wicks, Voice Coach / Staff Pianist
Charity Wicks is a sought-after pianist whose work crosses all musical genres. She has an active career on Broadway as a Music Director/Conductor/Pianist with such shows as the Broadway-bound LEMPICKA, as well as with current and past shows including COME FROM AWAY, GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY, TOOTSIE, FROZEN, SPRING AWAKENING (original production), and many others. Her expertise in the development of new works (both musical theatre and opera) is frequently called upon, and she often collaborates with such organizations as The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, La Jolla Playhouse, The Public Theatre, and The American Opera Project. She maintains an active recital career, playing vocal recitals and chamber music throughout the metropolitan area, and is the Director of Music Ministries at Central Presbyterian Church in Summit, NJ. She holds a BM and MM from Temple University, and a DMA from The Manhattan School of Music in Piano Accompanying.

Sarah Elizabeth Wolfson, Voice
Sarah Elizabeth Wolfson (soprano) has demonstrated a remarkable ability to communicate with an audience, whether in recital, oratorio, or on the operatic stage. The New York Times called her “a keenly intelligent artist…[she sings] with luminous sound and impressively focused high notes.” A graduate of The Juilliard School, she has been seen in recital and concert at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fischer Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Miller Theater, Café Sabarsky at The Neue Galerie, Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, and with the New York Festival of Song. She has sung with The Metropolitan Opera, Opéra de Montpellier, The Santa Fe Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Opera North, Spoleto Festival USA, Aspen Music Festival, The Ravinia Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, The American Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Vocal Arts Society of Washington, DC. In addition to performing, Ms. Wolfson is a voice instructor who has taught vocal performance at Columbia University, performed masterclasses at various institutions across the US, and is currently on faculty at William Paterson University and Hofstra University. www.sarahwolfson.com.

* Full-time faculty