Seth Baer - Director of Global K-12 Summer and Visiting Artist Programmes

Bassoonist Seth Baer is a passionate performer and educator of music. He is a founding member of Decoda and an alumnus of Ensemble Connect, an exciting fellowship programme at Carnegie Hall focused on chamber music, education, and community engagement. Seth is a member of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and has performed throughout the United States and around the world including Japan, Italy and Germany. Seth went on to study music at The Juilliard School after graduating at the top of his class at Princeton University.

Matthew Patrick Morris - Lead Faculty

Matthew Patrick Morris has performed with the American Repertory Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Barbican Theatre on The West End, Les Bouffes du Nord in Paris, Piccolo Teatro in Milan, New York City Opera, The Kennedy Center, Santa Fe Opera, the National Tour of Scrooge: The Musical, on television in Law & Order, and in the feature film The Producers!

As the associate artistic director of SongFest, Matthew directed the vocal performance programmes and created a new curriculum, innovating tailor-made courses for complete singing-actors from undergraduate through professional levels. He is currently director of the Opera Workshop at Brooklyn College, teaches the Professional Development Workshop at Bard College Graduate Vocal Arts, and training to be an Alexander Teacher at the Balance Arts Center with Ann Rodiger. BM voice (Juilliard) and MM vocal arts (Bard College Conservatory).

Rachel Calloway

Mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway's upcoming and recent performances include appearances with American Composers Orchestra; John Zorn at the Guggenheim and the Louvre, Third Coast Percussion and Opera Philadelphia. Ms. Calloway created roles in Steven Stucky and Jeremy Denk’s The Classical Style at Carnegie Hall through which she became a finalist for the internationally recognized Warner Music Prize. She holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music and serves on the faculty of the University of South Carolina.

Amy Shoremount-Obra

Soprano Amy Shoremount-Obra made her much-anticipated Metropolitan Opera Debut in October 2014 as “First Lady” in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, a role which she reprised at the Met last fall (2017) in the Julie Taymor English version of the opera. Operatic engagements have included appearances with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Spoleto Festival Italy, Opera Las Vegas, The Savannah Voice Festival, Venture Opera, Odyssey Opera of Boston, Annapolis Opera, and Grand Harmonie. Ms. Shoremount-Obra was a 2004 National Semi-Finalist and NY Regional Winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and holds degrees from Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Voice at Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music.

Ann Rodiger

Ann Rodiger is the Founder and Director of the Balance Arts Center, New York City.  She is also the Director of the Balance Arts Center Alexander Technique Teacher Training Course.  She has been teaching the Alexander Technique for over 30 years in New York City, Berlin and Antwerp. She has taught at the Israel Vocal Arts Institute, Body-Mind-Voice-Berlin, Singing Course Beveren (Belgium), and been on the faculties of the  University of Hawaii, University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee among others. She is a specialist in Laban Movement Analysis. She has produced or co-produced Conference and Workshops: Freedom to: Move, Act, Play and Sing, Make Music and the Act of Writing. Ann has a B. S. from the University of Oregon and an M.A. from The Ohio State University.