Sing for Hope Project Leaders are respected leaders in their fields who help to conceive and coordinate Sing for Hope’s arts outreach programs.  Our Project Leaders are Volunteer Artists from the Sing for Hope roster who have participated in Sing for Hope programs for a minimum of two years and demonstrate:

• notable achievement in their respective artistic field(s)
• exemplary commitment to Sing for Hope’s mission of using art as a catalyst to benefit schools, hospitals, and communities

If you have been a Sing for Hope Volunteer Artist for 2 years or more and are interested in applying to be a Project Leader, please contact us for more information.

JENNIFER AYLMER

American soprano Jennifer Aylmer has quickly developed a sterling reputation for her beautiful voice, compelling stage portrayals, and sensitive musicianship. The New York Times has hailed her for her, “awesome accuracy,” while The Chicago Sun-Times has recommended that listeners, “bask in the aural delight of Aylmer’s dazzling shifts from regal command to cool insouciance and fatally attractive seduction.” Jennifer is frequently engaged at the Metropolitan Opera.  She first became involved with Sing for Hope in 2005, performing in its annual fundraiser in Houston, TX for Bering Omega. As a Sing for Hope Project Leader, Jennifer coordinates programs at The Mount Sinai Medical Center and supports logistics for benefit concerts.

JOHANNA BRICKEY

Johanna Brickey comes to Sing for Hope with a multifaceted background in the arts, public relations, special events and the hospitality industry. Johanna’s prior experiences include serving as the Coordinator of Special Events at Per Se restaurant and working at Spotlight Communications, a boutique public relations firm with clients in the entertainment and lifestyle industries. While receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University, Johanna founded the Carnegie Mellon Arts Alliance, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for student artists to share their passion for outreach and the arts with the greater Pittsburgh community.

TITUSS BURGESS

Tituss Burgess was born and raised in Athens, Georgia where he grew up in the church and sang around the city with his mother (when he is home, he still does!) As an only child, he entertained himself by banging on the nearest piano. Having graduated from the University of Georgia with a BA in Music, he has starred in The Little Mermaid and Guys and Dolls on Broadway.  Tituss became involved with Sing for Hope when a friend who created Artists Striving To End Poverty brought him on board. As a Sing for Hope Project Leader, Tituss has organized masterclasses and workshops for Sing for Hope’s educational outreach program and volunteers to promote Sing for Hope.

PATRICK CARFIZZI

Patrick Carfizzi‘s recent notable engagements include Paolo in Simon Boccanegra with The Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera, Brander in Berlioz’ La damnation de Faust with The Metropolitan Opera, Taddeo in L’italiana in Algeri with Dallas Opera, Dr. Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Canadian Opera Company and Papageno in Die Zauberflöte with Houston Grand Opera.  Performing and coordinating events for the elderly and disabled from an early age, Patrick developed an interest in arts activism and believes in the power of artists engaging with communities.  As a Sing for Hope Project Leader, Patrick has organized masterclasses and performances for Sing for Hope’s educational outreach program.

HEIDI LAUREN DUKE

Director/Choreographer Heidi Lauren Duke has staged work in nine states and four countries. Notable productions include Falstaff (Boston Opera Collaborative), Luisa Fernanda (Palm Beach Opera) and The Rape of Lucretia (Project Opera of Manhattan). Ms. Duke often collaborates with master directors Bernard Uzan, Chuck Hudson, and Massimo Gasparon. At the University of Cincinnati, Heidi Lauren pioneered “Shakespeare and Song” performances at local schools and senior homes. Trained as a singer, Heidi Lauren regularly volunteers with Sing for Hope as a performer/teacher in local hospitals and schools; as a director she has staged several events, including the annual Bering Omega AIDS Services Gala Concert in Houston, Texas.

BLYTHE GAISSERT

Mezzo-Soprano Blythe Gaissert has established herself as a fresh, young artist in great demand in the United States for opera, concert and recital engagements. This Texas native has received great praise from critics for her rich sound and intense, dramatic interpretations of operatic roles.  As a Sing for Hope Project Leader, Blythe has organized masterclasses and workshops for Sing for Hope’s educational outreach program.

ELIZABETH HILLEBRAND

Critically acclaimed as “a lively and feisty romantic lead, with a voice that soars”, soprano Elizabeth Hillebrand has been entertaining audiences in the United States, Israel, Switzerland, and Italy with her bright, clean vocal lines and empathic characterizations. Elizabeth began her philanthropic work in 2003 by organizing and singing in a benefit for the Arkansas Children Hospital while on tour in the region and continues to share her gift for music and love of helping others.  As a Sing for Hope Project Leader, Elizabeth leads fellow volunteers through bedside performances at Coler Hospital and The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

LESTER LYNCH

Juilliard Opera School graduate and Ohio native Lester Lynch is recognized for a voice that is commanding, rich and vocally nuanced. A prominent Verdi baritone, he has been praised for being “magnificently forceful,” by The New York Times, and for demonstrating “a seamless legato from one end of his range to the other and a facility for shaping coloratura for dramatic effect,” by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.  As a Sing for Hope Project Leader, Lester organizes logistics for benefit concerts and volunteers to promote Sing for Hope.

DJORDJE NESIC

Pianist Djordje Stevan Nesic‘s career includes recital, concerto, chamber, collaborative and vocal coaching work. He has appeared in recitals and concerts at the Mann Performing Arts Center, Zankel Hall at Carnegie, Lincoln Center, the Ravinia Festival Rising Star Series, the University of Richmond, the Trinity Church, and Christ and St Stephens.  Djordje hopes that his arts activism will contribute to complete eradication of cancer and AIDS during his lifetime. As a Sing for Hope Project Leader, Djordje organizes logistics for benefit concerts.

GEETA NOVOTNY

Geeta Novotny is an award-winning mezzo-soprano who has performed principally on stages as varied as Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and the Aspen Music Festival.  Geeta has also sung lead vocals on film soundtracks and has a career as a principal stage and film actor.  She is also a published music journalist.  Geeta became interested in arts activism when as a young child she would perform for the patients in the nursing homes in her hometown and thus realized the healing power of song.  As a West Coast-based Sing for Hope Project Leader, Geeta organizes logistics for benefit concerts.

JULIANNE PARK

Julianne Park, soprano, has made appearances at venues such as Lincoln Center, Princeton Opera Festival and various stages in China. She was recently a winner in the European televised Mezzo International Competition at the Hungary National Opera. In addition to opera, Julianne performs crossover work as a songwriter and jazz musician at clubs in New York City including Smoke and Mambo Italiano. A graduate of the Boston Conservatory and New Jersey City University, Julianne is an active participant in orphan outreach in Malawi, Africa, and at home in New York with Sing for Hope, History Starts Now, His Toy Store: Bronx NYC, and the Bowery Mission.

FRED PATELLA

Fred Patella is a composer and piano technician whose services are in regular demand locally and whose consultations are sought after across the globe specializing on concert preparation, piano building and the restoration of historic and art case pianos. A student of the late Samuel Barber, Fred fulfills a regular flow of commissions each year from soloists and ensembles with an emphasis on sacred music, and regularly helps launch the careers of colleagues via recital support, arrangement and accompaniment. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes enjoys regular play and is often featured in choral and conducting workshops. As a Sing for Hope Project Leader, Fred has tuned, serviced, maintained and organized all of Sing for Hope’s pianos since 2010.

ABBY POWELL

Abby Powell was born in Ohio in 1980 and studied voice at The Juilliard School of Music in New York. While there, she was awarded the Rise Stevens Award, the G. & M. Grunin Prize, and the Loretta Lewis Award in Voice. She has also been the recipient of the Maxwell H. Gluck Community Fellowship Scholarship, which has enabled her to organize and perform outreach concerts in the Greater New York City area during her study at Juilliard.

Abby has sung under the batons of James Conlon, Julius Rudel, Harry Bickett, David Syrus, Steven Osgood, and Miguel Harth-Bedoya, to name a few. Her operatic roles have included Carmen (Bizet’s Carmen). Lucretia (Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia), Juno (John Eccles’ Semele), both Dido and The Sorceress (Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas), Mere Marie (Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites), Lyubasha (Rimsky-Korsakoff’s The Tsar’s Bride), Marcellina (Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro), Charlotte (Werther’s Massenet), and many others.

Abby is also equally at home singing musical theater, jazz and, pop songs and is a songwriter.

Abby first became involved with Sing for Hope in 2007. She is a Healing Arts Bedside Performances Project Leader at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York.

REBECCA RINGLE

Praised by Opera News for her “richly focused voice”, young mezzo-soprano Rebecca Ringle has already performed opera, oratorio and recitals throughout the US and Europe with The Cleveland Orchestra, Washington National Opera, New York City Opera, Orchestra Giuseppe Verdi Di Milano, and the Marlboro and Princeton Festivals.  She joins the roster of The Metropolitan Opera in 2010.  She first became involved in artists’ activism in her home town when she arranged a concert of artists from the Santa Fe Opera to benefit Food for Santa Fe. As a Sing for Hope Project Leader, Rebecca coordinates programs at The Mount Sinai Medical Center and supports logistics for benefit concerts.