LOLA Presents - We Might Be Struck by Lightning
Liz Cass
Liz Cass is a dynamic and versatile operatic mezzo-soprano, producer, educator, and arts leader based in Austin, Texas. Cass is a founder and the Executive Producer of LOLA and is the Executive Director of Armstrong Community Music School, where she has taught voice since 2004. Liz serves as president of the Seagle Festival Alumni Association Board, secretary of Austin Classical Guitar, and as a member of KMFA 89.5's Community Advisory Board.
Liz received her Vocal Performance/Opera degree at UMKC Conservatory with Inci Bashar, continuing studies at Aspen Music Festival, Seagle Festival, Central City, and Fort Worth Opera.
Annisha Mackenzie
Annisha is a soprano based in Austin, Texas, and a graduate of Texas State University. Known for her “impeccable” and “expressive” stage presence, she has performed with local companies, including Austin Opera, Opera San Antonio, and One Ounce Opera, as well as most recently as Cousin Hebe in H.M.S. Pinafore with Gilbert & Sullivan Austin. Some of her favorite past roles include Cendrillon (Cendrillon), Suor Angelica (Suor Angelica), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), and Phoebe (The Yeomen of the Guard).
Offstage, she serves as a teaching artist for both Austin Opera and Opera San Antonio and teaches voice at Velocity Music Academy and Eastside Music School.
Barbara George
Barbara is a cellist with the San Antonio Philharmonic, the Pearl Trio, and Artistic Director of Musical Offerings. Before coming to Texas, she was principal cellist of the Orlando Philharmonic and a member of the Orlando Philharmonic String Quartet. She was a cello professor at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and the University of Central Florida. Prior to her principal position, she was a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and also performed, recorded, and toured with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, and the Lyric Arts Chamber Ensemble.
As a studio musician, she recorded numerous motion picture soundtracks, commercials, and record albums. Barbara was awarded a Master of Music degree from the University of California at Los Angeles as a student of Ronald Leonard and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Stephen Geber. She has performed at the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, the Spoleto Italy Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Victoria Bach Festival, the Sunflower Music Festival, and the Austin Chamber Music Center Festival. In 2019, Barbara released a solo album, Femme, of all women composers with pianist Jim James.
Ben Tibbetts
Ben Tibbetts is a pianist and composer based in Austin. Ben teaches music at Timbral Music Studios in Round Rock and he is a staff pianist for the Trinity Church of Austin. Before moving to Texas in 2021, Ben worked as a staff accompanist for the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Ben has composed and arranged hundreds of pieces for chamber ensembles and soloists, as well as original music for animations, films, and video games. For a full archive of Ben's work, visit www.bentibbetts.net.
Beth Johnson
Desiree Humphries
Erica “EG” Gionfriddo
EG is a dance artist and educator who believes in the intelligent body each of us occupies. They are co-founder of ARCOS, a multi/trans/inter/anti-disciplinary group using dance and technology as rehearsals for survival in a complex world. Their hybrid works have been presented by the American Dance Festival, UNESCO, CURRENTS New Media Festival, Ammerman Center Symposium on Arts and Technology, Engagement Symposium of Philosophy and Dance, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. EG is Co-Head of Dance at the University of Texas at Austin, where they are an Assistant Professor of Practice and a current Provost Teaching Fellow.
Jennifer Anderson
Joanne Evans
London-born mezzo soprano Joanne Evans is a graduate of the Merola Opera Program and of the residencies at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Britten Pears Young Artist Program, Fondation des Treilles, and the Festival d’Aix en Provence, where she was awarded Le Prix des Amis for Voice. Recent and upcoming performances include appearances at the Aldeburgh Festival, a role debut as Dorabella with Opera San Jose, a recital with Ravinia Festival x Ear Taxi Festival, and a European tour with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Joanne most recently appeared as Flora in Annapolis Opera’s production of La Traviata, a role that she will be reprising at Opera San Jose next year.
As a Fellow at Music Academy of the West in 2022, Joanne sang the role of Olga in Eugene Onegin and was named winner of the Marilyn Horne Song Competition. Further awards include a first prize win in the Handel Aria Competition and awards from the Dallas Lone Star Competition and the Gerda Lissner Foundation.
Joey Choi
Mari Akita
Matthew Sommers
Matthew Sommers is a dance artist currently residing in Austin, Texas. Matthew attended the University of South Florida, where he graduated with distinction with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Modern Dance. While at USF, Matthew received multiple talent scholarships, including the WWD Scholarship and the Victoria Catherine Seldon Scholarship, as well as the opportunity to work with choreographers Charles O. Anderson, Alex Jones, Joshua L. Peugh, and Marc Brew, among others.
After graduation, Matthew moved to Austin, where he currently lives, dances, teaches, and floats around joyfully. He’s performed in Austin with Spaces of Fontana, KDH Dance Company, Dance Waterloo, Early Era Collective, and Point A, as well as premiering his own work, which combines a sense of humorous storytelling while exploring the dynamics of physicality, suspension, and weight.
Natalie George
Natalie George Productions is an Austin, Texas-based company that enjoys making magic with light, producing unwieldy events in unlikely spaces, and exploring conversation through performance. Our team is composed of artists, makers, designers, and dreamers. We work to build new relationships, realize inspiring ideas, engage audiences, and serve the artistic community as we continue to thrive in the changing cultural climate of Austin, Texas. Find out more at www.nataliegeorgeproductions.com
Natalie George – Lighting Designer
Sadie Langenkamp – Assistant LD + Master Electrician
Rebecca Whitehurst
Sadie Langenkamp
Sarah Annie Navarrete
Originally from El Paso, Texas, Sarah is an Austin-based artist working in performance, photography, and film. Described as a “dancer and photographer, floating skillfully between these worlds” - Austin Chronicle, Sarah’s image-based work explores kinetic narratives through an emotional tone as they relate to identity and the human body.
Wendy Sanders
Wendy is an award-winning theatrical wig and makeup designer based in Austin, TX. She started working in wigs and makeup in college because it was more fun than her degree field, and has now been professionally coloring on people for over 25 years. Her work has been seen on stages and screens across the country and includes ballet, opera, film, and television, SFX, and her favorite genre, high fantasy!
Some of her most loved works have been seen in Lardo Weeping with LOLA, where she also did costume design, Grimm Tales with Ballet Austin, and Poe: A Tale of Madness, also with Ballet Austin. When not working behind the scenes, Wendy is an internationally renowned burlesque and aerial performer under her stage name, Ginger Snaps, and has been voted “Austin’s Best Burlesque Performer” by the Austin Chronicle readers’ poll for the past decade. She feels very fortunate to live in a city as weird and wild as her, where she can thrive on both sides of the curtain!
