Megan Fletcher is a soprano and voice teacher based in Chicago. As an avid choral singer, she can be seen performing with the Grant Park Chorus, Chicago Symphony Chorus, and William Ferris Chorale. She debuted with Chicago Fringe Opera in 2018 as Leonora in Paul Hindemith’s The Long Christmas Dinner. As an advocate for social justice in the arts, Megan has appeared performing as a soloist and chorister with Hearing In Color, a Chicago arts organization seeking to highlight underrepresented music written and performed by people of color and other minorities. She is thrilled to be lending her voice to 2020’s “Sounds of Pride” community event as a bisexual woman who seeks to uplift other members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Michael R. Oldham (b. 1989 Braidwood, IL) is a composer and pianist who weaves artwork, story, and imagination into his work. Whether experimenting with looping videos on Instagram as the “parts” of a piece that anyone can play (Music In Segments – 2018), utilizing repeating gif images of old silent films as inspiration for a twelve-movement work (Music In Gifs – 2019), or translating great works of art into music (The Egon Schiele Pieces – upcoming), Michael’s thirst for unusual storytelling through music is never quenched.

Michael’s latest album release, In Select Theaters, is available to buy and stream everywhere now.

Continuing this trend, his work as composer-as-storyteller is ever-present in the albums, EPs, and singles he has self-released. Recent albums include Three Vignettes (2017), which is a work of three movements with short stories for violin and piano, The Los Angeles Miseries (2016), which is a set of pieces for solo piano on perspectives attained while driving across America from Chicago to Los Angeles, Grand Delusions on a Small Scale (2015), which features early solo piano works, as well as Fantasies for Piano (2014), which is a six-movement dissection of some of his favorite songs by artists including Fiona Apple, Dirty Projectors, My Brightest Diamond, Andrew Bird, St. Vincent, and Sufjan Stevens.

Michael earned his Bachelor’s 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 also keeps quite busy as a rehearsal and performance accompanist in and around Chicago, including recent work as music director with Chicago’s illustrious improv institution, Second City.

Upcoming performances include:
July 21, 2019 – Art Institute of Chicago’s Annual Block Party
September 14, 2019 – Paper Machete at the Green Mill, Chicago
Instagram/Twitter: @WhoaItsMichaelO

A native of Temple Hills, Maryland, Bass-Baritone, LaRob K. Payton developed a love for singing at an early age. As he grew older , he recognized how powerful music was in those moments things got tough. He found a spirit in the Gospel songs he sang, passion in the R&B he heard, and nuance in the Classical music he studied. A graduate of DePaul University where he received a Bachelor’s of Music in Vocal Performance, he has performed leading roles in DePaul Opera Theatre’s main-stage productions including Pistola (Falstaff), Superintendent Budd (Albert Herring), Colline (La Boheme), Giove (La Calisto), and Thoas (Iphigenie en Tauride), and studied with world-renowned teachers, directors, and coaches, including Michael Sylvester, Marc Embree, Harry Silverstein, Steven Mosteller, and Loren E. Meeker. LaRob has had musical opportunities that include traveling to study language, culture and music in Urbania, Italy (Musica Nelle Marche)and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (Istituto de Bel Canto). He has performed with the DePaul Chamber Orchestra (Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Mahler), Chicago Summer Opera (Vater, Hansel und Gretel/Humperdincki) and been afforded many other opportunities to advance his vocal training and studies. LaRob continues to sing around the Chicago-area (William Ferris Chorale/North Shore Baptist Church) and hopes to gain healthy experience as an independent young artist. Payton aims to use his voice to connect people from different communities. He truly believes that, at the core of humanity, we long for connection and that music at its best is a means for intensifying levels of empathy. He has been afforded opportunities to create events in which people can experience passion and empathy by listening to music composed and performed by artists in diverging societies (Musical Activists of Chicago, “Fighting Racial Injustice”/ The Hearing in Color organization). Payton is quoted saying “ [Classical] Music kind of came out of nowhere and changed my life so, I’m just happy to be a medium for authentic human expression and be able to give that back.”

Lauded for his versatility as a performer and accomplished in Musical Theater, Opera, Oratorio and Concert repertoire, critically acclaimed tenor, Jonathan Zeng, has performed throughout the United States with companies such as Cincinnati Opera, Central City Opera, Tulsa Opera, Opera Memphis, Utah Festival Opera, and the Princeton Festival. With a voice described by Chicago publications as “valiant”, “stunning”, “vibrant”, and “rich”, Jonathan is based in Chicago and has appeared as soloist with The William Ferris Chorale in the American premiere of John Joubert’s Five Songs of Incarnation and Bonaventura Somma’s Missa Pro Defunctis. You may also have seen him singing with the Grant Park Symphony Chorus, in Johnny Johnson or The Csardas Princess with Chicago Folks Operetta, or performing in Chicago Fringe Opera productions The Long Christmas Dinner, Trouble In Tahiti, Turn of the Screw, and Song From the Uproar. Roles elsewhere range from Goro in Madama Butterfly & Beppe in I Pagliacci to Prince Charming in Cinderella, Chip Tolentino in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Frederic in Pirates of Penzance.  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 private voice studio for more than a decade. 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). Jonathan also writes and records his own music.