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Welcome to Inspire's seventh season concert, "Sing, My Child". Tonight's collaboration is like nothing we've ever done before, featuring four commissioned choral arrangements and so many special guest artists!
Some of our youth musicians have each selected "stage names" which appear in the program below.
Artists
Richard Berg
Graham Bobby
Summer Bugbee
Anthony Collins
Catherine Gellene
Jake Gluckman
Eleanor Killiam
Edwin Kim
Christa Masson
Claire McConnell
Ari Messenger
Ian Miller
Cindy Miranda
Jasmine Powell
Carrie Quarquesso
Dan Rubins
Amber Fort Salladin
Charley Sullivan
Obi Taswell
Laura Werner
Special Guests
in order of appearance
Morgan
Morgan (she/her) is the songwriter of “Girls Rule!” and “Country Blind.”
Zippy
Zippy (he/him) is the songwriter of “Noodles!” and the writer and star of Hear Your Song’s first musical, “The Adventure of Zippy Junior.” Check him out on The Hear Your Song Podcast!
Cate
Cate (she/her) is the songwriter of “The Planetarium Aquarium” and “Swedish Fish.”
Our Team
Carrie Quarquesso | Executive Director
Amber Fort Salladin | Co-Artistic Director
Knox Sutterfield | Co-Artistic Director
Ari Messenger | Assistant Artistic Director
Josh Alexander | Treasurer
Board of Directors
Our Partners
Dan Rubins
Hear Your Song's Co-Founder and Executive Director Dan (he/him) is an educator, writer, and composer based in New York City. Dan believes in the power of kids’ voices and stories. He co-founded Hear Your Song as a sophomore at Yale University, where he earned a BA in English and Education Studies. After receiving an MA in Shakespeare Studies from King’s College London/Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and an MA in Elementary Inclusive Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, he went on to teach fourth and fifth grade in Manhattan and to design curriculum for the Metropolitan Opera’s Education Department. Dan also composes musical theater, operas, and choral music.
Sofía Campoamor
Born in Washington, DC, Hear Your Song's Music Director Sofía Campoamor (she/her) first started writing songs to make school projects more fun. This lighthearted approach to academics took her to Yale University where her senior songwriting project in music composition won the 2020 Beekman Cannon Friends of Music Prize. Sofía also took a year off from school to travel the world as the first woman singer and assistant music director in the Yale Whiffenpoofs a cappella group. She now lives in Brooklyn, NY, where she writes, records, and performs original folk-pop, teaches voice and songwriting classes, and sings with the Oratory Choir of St. Boniface. After six years as a Hear Your Song volunteer, she is so excited to be joining the team!
Diana Lawrence
Hear Your Song's Programs Manager, Diana (she/her) loves working across genres and disciplines to tell musical stories with folks of all ages. Her musical, Mill Girls, released a 2021 EP featuring Nikki Renée Daniels, Alysha Deslorieux and Val Vigoda. Her band, Diana & the Dishes, has shared the stage with artists such as Nellie McKay and Becca Stevens. Dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices, Diana has worked with Broadway Advocacy Coalition and Storycatchers Theatre, a company that creates original musical theatre with incarcerated youth. Outside of Hear Your Song, Diana sings with the cross-genre vocal trio, Artemisia, plays keyboard for Grammy Award-winning children’s artist, Tim Kubart, and tours as the Associate Music Director for the Off-Broadway musical Islander.
About The Composers/Arrangers
"Bongocat"
Bongocat is the songwriter of “Never Try to Hide Your Pain” as well as “In the Moment” (forthcoming).
"Com"
Com is the songwriter of “No Reason to Despair," as well as "What Are We Doing Here?,” and “Find My Way.”
"TT"
TT is the songwriter of “Dreamland.”
Shane Dittmar
Shane Dittmar (they/them) is a blind composer, musician, writer, and advocate who does everything loudly. As a songwriter, they combine moving and memorable melodies with witty, evocative, and often tongue-in-cheek lyrics that you can't help but sing. School, community, and professional choirs on three continents have performed their award-winning compositions. Their original musicals, with honest stories about lovable and under-represented characters, have been featured at Roundabout Theatre Company, 54 Below, and in concerts across the country. Shane is based in Brooklyn, where they work as an accessibility specialist, and has a passion for music education, a guide dog named Chevelle, and an infectious - and very loud - laugh.
Sarah Quartel
Canadian composer and educator Sarah Quartel (she/her) is known for her fresh and exciting approach to choral music. Deeply inspired by the life-changing relationships that can occur while making choral music, Sarah writes in a way that connects singer to singer, ensemble to conductor, and performer to audience. Her works are performed by choirs across the world, and she has been commissioned by groups including the American Choral Directors Association, the National Children's Chorus of the United States of America, and New Dublin Voices. Since 2018 she has been exclusively published by Oxford University Press, and she continues to work as a clinician and conductor at music education and choral events at home and abroad.
Ari Messenger
Ari Messenger (he/him) is a New York City born-and-raised baritone, violinist, arranger, and composer. He completed a dual undergraduate degree in Jazz Violin Performance at Peabody Conservatory and Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore before returning to New York City to work as a mechanical engineer and professional musician. Ari has been singing, arranging, and composing for Inspire since its inception in 2017, and was commissioned to compose an original work in partnership with Urban Word poet Aryaana Khan, which Inspire premiered in May of 2023.
While in Baltimore, Ari directed and arranged for a low-voice a cappella ensemble, The AllNighters, for which he completed nearly 50 arrangements seamlessly blending pop, funk, jazz, EDM, and classical influences. He was nominated for "Best Male Collegiate Arrangement" in the 2016 Contemporary A Cappella Awards and was awarded "Best Arrangement" in the 2015 International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella quarterfinals. Ari continues to arrange and compose while singing with both Inspire and Choral Chameleon (another NYC-based choral ensemble) and working fulltime as a senior mechanical engineer for a biotech company in Long Island City.
Jake Gluckman
Jake Gluckman (he/him) is a composer, arranger, and clinical research coordinator at Mount Sinai's Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment. He worked as Hear Your Song's first Programs Fellow from 2021-2022, and he is proud to have led songwriting sessions for over 100 kids and teens through Hear Your Song's programming. Jake is honored to sing in his first ever Inspire concert along with such passionate and talented artists, and he is thrilled to hear some of his favorite Hear Your Song pieces be sung by such incredible voices.
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