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Sponsored by Spice Note Tequila

In a time when LGBTQ+ rights and expression are particularly under attack, Chicago Fringe Opera is proud to celebrate once again & uplift the immeasurable contributions of the LGBTQ+ community to the world of performing arts with its 5th annual Pride Party, SOUNDS OF PRIDE! Enjoy specialty cocktails by Spice Note Tequila, cheeses curated by Daniel Reid, beats by Ariana DJ, and a brief musical program highlighting queer art & artists, including brand new music by Chicago Saxophonist & Composer, Richard Brasseale!

All proceeds will go directly to support the mission of Chicago Fringe Opera.

Thank you to our sponsors!
Daniel Reid (curated cheeses) & Spice Note Tequila

The Wagner & Zeng Residence
1312 N Leavitt St, Chicago, IL, USA

Our Apologies — This event is only accessible through a flight of stairs.

 

Cast

Sounds of Pride 2025 features the following artists, in alphabetical order by last name.

Richard Brasseale

Featured Composer

Richard Brasseale

Featured Composer

Richard Brasseale is a saxophonist, composer, and educator in the Chicago area.

An acclaimed saxophonist, he has played with numerous ensembles, including the Chicago Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Madison Symphony, Fulcrum Point New Music Ensemble, Camerata Chicago, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and others. Recent solo performances include the DePaul Symphony Orchestra, North Park Orchestra, and various recitals in Alabama, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Arizona. He has performed in the Spahlinger Festival, EAR TAXI Festival, Brevard Music Festival, and Terry Riley’s 80th Birthday Concert.
As a composer, Richard is dedicated to telling stories about queer life. He has scored films that have appeared in the Queer Bits Film Festival, the Cleveland International Film Festival, and the DePaul Premiere Film Festival. His work, Enlaced Friendship, was commissioned and premiered by the New World Symphony, in 2023. His piece The Hardest Part won the People’s Choice Award for the National Saxophone Museum’s Creative Saxophone Expression Prize. He premiered his piece, On Coming Out, at the 2020 North American Saxophone Alliance Conference in Tempe, Arizona.
He has also written music for various Second City sketch shows. He has released multiple, cross-genre albums of varying instrumentation, streamed by over 50,000 listeners in over a hundred countries.
He currently teaches Applied Classical Saxophone Instruction and Chamber Music classes at North Park University, where he recently was awarded a NETVUE Grant for Development in Vocation. He also teaches at the Chicago Academy of the Arts, and at Merit School of Music.
He received his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Saxophone Performance from DePaul University, where he won both the Wind Symphony and the Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competitions. He has also been to Brevard Music Festival, where he was a fellow of the ITCH New Music Ensemble and performed with the symphonies there. His primary teachers include Jeremy Ruthrauff, Susan Cook, and Joe Lulloff. In his free time, Richard enjoys hiking, running, coffee, buying way too many houseplants, and being an expert four-leaf clover finder.

Ariana DJ

DJ

Ariana DJ

DJ

Ariana is a fashion model, entrepreneur, advocate for artists and the trans community, and one of Chicago’s leading DJs / Producers. She has spun at many of Chicago’s hottest venues and events in addition to her podcast, Gender Fluid: such as DSTRKT, Hard Rock Cafe, Joy District, Replay, Progress, Wynwood, Chicago Pride, Scarlet, Hollywood Beach, Drinks Nightclub, Chicks, Water Tower Place, among others. Ariana’s vision to unify our diverse world through her music easily shows when you hear her live. She’s an open format DJ that infuses all genres of music in her sets, from hip hop, reggaeton to house and trap. Combined with seamless transitions and scratches, Ariana is candy for your ears and eyes all at once, and the energy she brings to the crowd is truly out of this world.

Find Ariana DJ Online:
www.arianadj.com
www.instagram.com/arianadeejay
www.facebook.com/arianadeejay
www.soundcloud.com/arianadeejay
www.mixcloud.com/arianadj

Megan Fletcher

Vocalist

Megan Fletcher

Vocalist

Megan Fletcher

is a soprano and voice teacher based in Chicago. She received a BM in Vocal Performance from Butler University in her hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana and an MM in Voice Performance from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. She has maintained a private voice and piano studio in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs since 2014. She is currently on staff at Loyola Academy High School, where she has taught private voice lessons and worked as a collaborative pianist since 2021.

As an avid choral singer, she can be seen performing with the Grant Park Chorus, the Chicago Symphony Chorus, and the William Ferris Chorale. She has worked as a cantor and section leader at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church since 2016. She is also a member of the 9-voice ensemble La Caccina, a vocal group which champions treble music as well as the artistic contributions of women and fems. She has performed with Chicago Fringe Opera and has been a regular featured soloist in their yearly Sounds of Pride concert, an event showcasing art songs, musical theater, and newly-commissioned works by LGBT+ composers and poets. Megan has worked as both a performer and organizer with Hearing in Color, a Chicago-based organization dedicated to sharing the music and stories of communities that have been historically excluded from musical spaces.

Kyra Leigh

Vocalist

Kyra Leigh

Vocalist

Kyra Leigh is prolific as a musician and a performer all throughout the Chicago area. She helps provide music for both North Shore Baptist Church and Temple Beth El. As a composer, her commissions include pieces for La Caccina, Chicago Fringe Opera’s Sounds of Pride, The Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus, Windy City Performing Arts, and music for Theatre of Western Springs, Prop Thtr, and Underscore Theatre. As an educator, she’s worked for the School of Rock (Chicago and Chicago West), Chi-Arts, and The Voice Lab. She’s thrilled to be back this year!

Michael R. Oldham

Pianist

Michael R. Oldham

Pianist

Michael R. Oldham (b. 1989 Braidwood, IL, he/him/his) (b. 1989 Braidwood, IL, he/him/his) is a composer, pianist, and music director. Michael keeps very busy around Chicago as a Music Director with The Second City’s national touring company, while also hustling as a freelance pianist/MD/producer for cabarets, shows, choirs, and everything in between. Professional productions include: 9 to 5 (Metropolis Theater), American Psycho (with Kokandy Productions), Queer Eye: The Musical Parody (at The Second City), and Children of Eden (with Broadway in Chicago) where he was able to work alongside Stephen Schwartz and Michelle Williams. He has collaborated with the Annoyance Theater, Chicago Fringe Opera, the Art Institute of Chicago, New Music Chicago, and has performed everywhere from the Green Mill to the Kennedy Center. A prolific composer, he has released over 13 albums and EPs of his own music. He earned his degree in Film Scoring and Composition from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and studied briefly at Philippos Nakas Conservatory in Athens, Greece. He is premiering his first song cycle musical, COMMON ROMANCE, June 28th at Constellation in Chicago. For more, go to www.michaelroldham.com and follow @WhoaItsMichaelO on socials.

LaRob K. Rafael

Vocalist

LaRob K. Rafael

Vocalist

LaRob K. Rafael is a Chicago-based artist, curator, speaker, and Founder of Hearing in Color, a nonprofit amplifying historically excluded voices in classical music. He collaborates with leading institutions like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera of Chicago, and is Artistic Director of the 2025 Ear Taxi Festival. A Sphinx LEAD alum and 2025 MPower Artist Grant recipient, LaRob shaped inclusive programming at WFMT (Chicago’s primary classical station, 98.7 FM)  through projects like Sounds Classical and Soundtrack. LaRob is an active singer often performing with choral ensembles like William Ferris Chorale, Bella Voce, and Constellation Men’s Ensemble. Currently the Director of Composer Advancement at American Composers Orchestra, his work reimagines classical music’s past and future through storytelling, equity, and community-centered performance.

Max Reese

Clarinettist

Max Reese

Clarinettist

Hailing from Philadelphia, Max Reese is currently an in-demand freelancer and educator in the Chicago area.  Reese recently completed a 1 year appointment in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Principal/2nd/Eb clarinet. He frequently performs with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Milwaukee Symphony, Akron Symphony, and other orchestras throughout the midwest.  He has played under the baton of Edo de Waart, JoAnn Falletta, Ken-David Masur, Han Na Chang, Carl St.Clair, Matthias Bamert, Keith Lockhart, Tim Weiss, Marcelo Lehninger, Yaniv Dinur, Cliff Colnot, and many others.  While a student at Oberlin, he was selected as a musician for the Oberlin Orchestra’s tour to Carnegie Hall in 2019 under the direction of Raphael Jimenez.  He has additionally been a fellow at the Round Top Festival Institute and the Brevard Music Center.  As a chamber musician, Reese was engaged to perform the Brahms Clarinet Quintet with the Southeastern Young Artists at the Lake Lanier Music Festival in December 2022.  He also spends part of his summers at the Caroga Lake Music Festival in upstate New York. His chamber groups have won Oberlin’s annual Orientation Recital and Oberlin’s Danenberg Honors Recital.  Reese’s wind quintet can also be heard on WCLV 104.9, Cleveland’s classical music radio.  An advocate for new music, Reese has additionally performed with Rhythm Is Image, and has participated in numerous recording projects for the advancement of new music.  Reese is an active educator and has a studio of clarinet students ranging from the ages of 7 to 85.  He is a founding teacher at Virtu.Academy, and was a teaching artist at the DePaul Community Music division, where he taught clarinet in school districts throughout the Chicago area.  Reese has also taught through the Ravinia Festival’s Reach, Teach, Play program in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago.  He completed a master’s degree under the tutelage of Stephen Williamson, principal clarinet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  Prior to that, he received a bachelor’s in music from the Oberlin Conservatory studying with Richard Hawkins, and has additionally studied with Charles Salinger.

Jonathan Zeng

Vocalist

Jonathan Zeng

Vocalist

An avid proponent for arts education and vocal instruction, Jonathan has served as an adjunct faculty member in the Preparatory Department at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and has maintained a robust private voice studio. He teaches voice at Loyola Academy on the north side of Chicago. Jonathan received a BA in Music Education from the School of Music at Western IL University and an MM in vocal performance from the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music (CCM). For more info, visit www.JonathanZeng.com or follow on Instagram: @jonathan.zeng

Supported by The CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture, the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Chicago Fringe Opera is member of Opera America, the nation's advocacy organization for the art form of opera.

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