Ms. Joseph is committed to the culture of New Orleans, the city of her birth. This is most evident in her research on 19th-century classical music of New Orleans’s Free People of Color. Givonna has had featured roles in many New Orleans Opera Productions. These include Lily in two New Orleans Opera’s Porgy and Bess productions. She was a member of the professional Opera Chorus for many years. The former Education Director for the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra was most recently featured in many educational documentaries, including Dillard University’s Ray Charles Center for Material Culture’s Legacy of American Slavery, Nous Foundation’s Voices of Renewal, and on the recently released CD and documentary Songs of Slavery and Emancipation, speaking the Creole lyrics of Quarra Saint Malo about Jean Saint Malo’s 1783 Louisiana slave revolt. The national lecturer also teaches a class for Loyola’s College of Music and Media called Opera, Classical Music, and Race and private voice lessons. Givonna is also an Arts Integration Specialist, working with organizations such as Young Audiences, Make Music NOLA, and The Ellis Marsalis Center for Music. As Founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning OperaCréole, Ms. Joseph’s research has recently been featured on CBS Saturday Morning,  NBC Nightly News, and NPR, in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and in magazines such as The New Yorker, 64 Parishes, and Atlas Obscura.

New Orleans’ native son, Tyrone Chambers II is an expressive, captivating tenor who possesses an “artfully melting tenor, [and] represents a real asset.” Since his Swiss debut in 2017, with L’Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, where he sang Joe in Gershwin’s Blue Monday, Chambers has been performing in the US and Europe. In his recent portrayal of a historic Fisk Jubilee Singer, he sang to great aplomb as Isaac Dickerson in Seattle Opera’s world premiere of Jubilee. Principal and founding tenor of New Orleans-based OperaCréole, Chambers has created numerous roles, such as Jean Torrès in Lucien Lambert’s La Flamenca and Basile Barès in Les Lions de la Reconstruction.

In February 2020, Chambers premiered Russell Davenport in Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride at Chicago Opera Theater (COT). Other COT credits include Dele in the world premiere of Errollyn Wallen’s Quamino’s Map in 2022 and Pasterz in Szymanowski’s King Roger in 2023. Mr. Chambers resides in Germany and frequently performs around the country. Süddeutsche Zeitung heralded him as one who sings with “tenorissimo…fine in the heights, elegantly gliding on the tempi waves and in forte with powerful dedication.” Mr. Chambers toured The Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical Gala annually- frequenting western Europe and Scandinavia, along with frequent appearances in Germany under the auspices of Papageno Musiktheater and Opera et Cetera. Chambers is a proud graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. 

New Orleans-based cellist Jacob Fowler is the Founding Director of the Surf and Sounds Chamber Music Series (OBX, NC) which celebrated its 11th season in August 2025. Mr. Fowler is a founding member of Delachaise Ensemble, the featured ensemble of Fever’s Candlelight Series throughout New Orleans. He has also performed with the Harlem String Quartet and Manhattan Chamber Players as well as members of Dover, Escher Quartets and the Lysander Trio. Mr. Fowler’s chamber music engagements have included Bargemusic in Brooklyn, the Festival de Febrero in Ajijic, Mexico, Northern Neck Chamber Music Series in Kilmarnock, Crescent City Chamber Music Festival in New Orleans, and Grand Canyon Music Festival in Arizona. In a collaboration with Todd Rosenlieb Dance Company Mr. Fowler performed Cassadó’s Suite for solo cello and was hailed by M.D. Ridge of Norfolk’s WHRO as “the pièce de résistance. [Mr. Fowler] sang sweetly…and the result was spectacular”.   

Outside traditional solo and chamber music performances include appearances on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series with Juvenile, Mannie Fresh, Trombone Shorty, and Jon Batiste, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Music Festival with Big Freedia, and the SXSW Festival performing in the HBO/Games of Thrones and American Red Cross production Bleed for the Throne. 

His orchestra engagements include serving as a former tenured member of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, former Principal Cellist of the Shen Yun Performing Arts Orchestra, former Principal Cellist of the Manhattan Symphonie, and performances with the Louisiana Philharmonic, San Antonio Symphony and Houston Symphony. He has served as adjunct cello professor at Virginia Wesleyan College, the Fei Tian Academy and Fei Tian College, and as coach for Hampton Roads Chamber Players. Mr. Fowler currently resides in New Orleans with his wife and son along with their rescued min-pin, Bèla.

The founder of Lyrica Baroque, Jaren Atherholt is Assistant Professor of Oboe at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and principal oboist of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. She previously served as principal oboist of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra for eleven seasons. A native of Alaska, Jaren has performed to stellar reviews as a featured concerto soloist and has been guest principal oboist with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, Detroit Symphony and International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico, as well as guest associate principal oboist with the Pittsburgh and Atlanta Symphonies. Jaren spent four summers at the Marlboro Music Festival and currently performs each summer with the Grand Teton Music Festival. She has served on the faculty of John Mack Oboe Camp, Interlochen Arts Camp, the Wintergreen Music Academy, and the Vianden International Music School. Jaren plays Loree oboes. 

Internationally acclaimed pianist Althea Waites has concertized extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia as a brilliant soloist, chamber musician, and collaborative artist. In addition to performances on concert stages around the world, she has also participated in numerous festivals as a soloist, collaborative pianist, and ensemble coach, including Aspen, Tanglewood, the Yale Summer Festival at Norfolk, the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Idyllwild Arts Festival in Southern California and as guest artist for the National Arts Festival at Makhanda on the Eastern Cape of South Africa. 

Praised by the Los Angeles Times for “superb technique and profound musicality,” Ms. Waites has a long and distinguished history of championing new music by American composers and has received several honors and commendations for her work. She has also been guest soloist for National Public Radio’s Performance Today, KQED in San Francisco, KCET/Los Angeles, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Geneva Conservatory of Music in Switzerland, Wigmore Hall in London, Merkin Hall in New York City, concerts for the UC/ San Diego World Music program in Indonesia, Phillips Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to name a few.

Ms. Waites holds degrees from Xavier University of Louisiana and the Master of Music degree in Piano from the Yale School of Music where she studied with Donald Currier. Previous teachers and mentors include Alice Shapiro, a protégé of Rosina Lhevinne, Russell Sherman and Sister Mary Elise Sisson.

Previous teaching positions and affiliations include California State University/Long Beach for the Cole Conservatory of Music and collaborative work with pianist Mark Uranker as the Orpheus Duo in performances of music from the traditional repertoire and new music for two pianos.

David B. Levy is Professor Emeritus of Music at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, Where he taught fora forty-five years and served as chair of the Department of Music, Director of the university’s Program in Vienna, Austria and served as Associate Dean of the College. He also directed graduate seminars at the Eastman School of Music, the school from which he earned his BM and MA degrees. Levy received his Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Rochester in 1980. Levey is the author of Beethoven: The Ninth Symphony. He published in several prestigious journals and is founder of the New Beethoven Research Conferences that bring Beethoven scholars together from around the world. Levy also has given lectures throughout the United States and Europe. Remaining active in musicological research, Levy is the author of program notes for several orchestras and serves on the board of several arts organizations. He is currently President of the Board for Lyrica Baroque.