The National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) is delighted to welcome 12 composers to participate in its 2024-25 Mentoring Program for Composers.

This initiative pairs emerging and early-career composers with veteran art song composers to encourage the creation of new works for voice. Led by composers Tom Cipullo and Lori Laitman, both NATS members and mentors, the program will run mid-October through June 2025.

“This year, our fifth season, the NATS Mentoring Program for Composers had a record 86 applicants!” said Laitman. “The quality of the submissions was extremely high, and Tom and I were very impressed. This is such a unique program. We are grateful to our wonderful mentors who volunteer their time, and happy that so many composers are interested in creating new and singable works for the voice.”

Each composer mentee is paired with a mentor for one-on-one online sessions about once a month. The focus is on how best to set text for the voice — but depending on specific interests and schedules, mentors also provide guidance on resources, performances opportunities, as well as recording and publishing options. The mentors serve as sounding boards, helping to answer any questions the mentees may have about the industry and art form.

As a program highlight, NATS commissions a song from each mentee to be premiered by the Cincinnati Song Initiative for the “Let It Be New” concerts. The next streaming concert will occur in June 2025. Previous mentees have had opportunities to present their works at various NATS events at the chapter, regional, and national levels.

2024-25 Mentee and Mentor Pairs:

NATS is seeking support to help cover the recording and production costs for these new works. For $600, one can commission a song — allowing supporters to honor a loved one, friend, or mentee composer with a personal inscription for whom the song is commissioned. Sponsoring the recording of a new song helps to defray recording and production costs of the “Let it Be New” concert where all of the composer mentees’ pieces will be performed. As a thank you for the generous support, the donor’s name will be featured in the credits of the recording and in the concert program. This opportunity ensures that each mentee's new composition is heard and enjoyed for years to come. To contribute, please visit our donation page.

NATS is also accepting submissions for the 2025 Art Song Composition Award, which offers more than $3,000 in prizes. The deadline for entries is December 1, 2024.

About the 2024-25 class

Ty Bloomfield
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ty Bloomfield is a composer who is driven by the enjoyment of experimenting with new sounds and the excitement of collaborating with a wide range of performers and interdisciplinary artists alike. His current creative interests include the subtle integration of popular genres of music with Western classical music tradition, micro-variations, and intimate and patient soundscapes. He consistently finds himself writing about interesting pieces of visual art and literature, social scenarios and dilemmas, and his hometown of Chicago. Bloomfield is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is pursuing a master’s degree in composition from the University of Michigan where he studies with Bright Sheng.

Bloomfield is paired with mentor Laura Schwendinger.

Max Eidinoff
New York, New York

Max Eidinoff is a composer, improvisor, and educator whose music is marked by creative audacity and dramatic flair. He incorporates avant-garde styles and rock music sensibilities into soundscapes characterized as both absurd and surreal. Eidinoff writes in a variety of genres including art songs, opera, concert music, computer music, film scores, and studio mixes. It is through a body of work which prioritizes storytelling and engages with cross-genre stylistic blending and ironic subtext that he aims to convey the complex adversities of the world we live in. He holds a bachelor’s degree in composition from SUNY Purchase and a master’s degree in music from The Peabody Institute.

Eidinoff is paired with mentor Lori Laitman.

Joshua Fishbein
Rockville, Maryland

Dr. Joshua Fishbein (b. 1984) composes and arranges vocal and instrumental music, with special emphasis on choral music. He has won awards from the American Choral Directors Association, the American Composers Forum, BMI, Chorus America, Chorus Austin, The Esoterics, the Guild of Temple Musicians, the National Lutheran Choir, and several other music organizations. Fishbein’s art songs have been performed by the Baltimore Musicales, Eugene Opera, Société de Concerts de Montréal, and others. Professional vocal ensembles, such as Cantus, Chicago a cappella, The Thirteen, Volti, and Washington Master Chorale, have premiered his original music. Steeped in Jewish music, Fishbein has composed numerous Jewish and interfaith musical settings for chorus and solo voice. Currently, he is an adjunct faculty member of The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. Previously, Fishbein taught music courses at Towson University, the College of New Jersey, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He holds degrees in music from the University of California Los Angeles, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Carnegie Mellon University. E.C. Schirmer Music Company, Hal Leonard Corporation, Transcontinental Music Publications, and Yelton Rhodes Music publish his compositions.

Fishbein is paired with mentor Tom Cipullo.

Rachel Fogarty
Astoria, New York

Rachel DeVore Fogarty’s works have been commissioned, awarded and performed by organizations in the U.S. and internationally, including ACDA, KMEA, IAWM, NATS, the Bryan Symphony, the Oak Ridge Symphony, St. Olaf College, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, SACRA/PROFANA, Oklahoma State University, University of Kentucky, Conundrum, Tapestry Singers, Muse (Cincinnati Women’s Ensemble), Making Waves (Ukraine), the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, the Concert Chorale of Nashville, the Astoria Choir, Fresh Squeezed Opera Company NYC, the Six Degree Singers, the Astoria Music Project, the Princeton Girlchoir, Dulciana (Ireland), Voces Inauditae (Scotland), the Luna Nova Music Ensemble, Roane Choral Society with the Marble City Opera Company, the Pittsburgh Compline Choir, the Capital Hearings and VocalEssence. Her works have been chosen for inclusion in Vox Reflexa’s New Millennium Composers project, the Cro Patria Choir Festival, and in the London Contemporary Church Music Festival. Her string quartet, sky darkening early, was selected as part of a reading session with the Grammy-nominated JACK Quartet. Upcoming projects include two musicals, a chamber music commission for Duo Atypique, and a new song cycle for SALT in collaboration with Skidmore College.

Fogarty is paired with mentor Steven Mark Kohn.

Raphael Fusco
Montreal, Quebec

Raphael Fusco is an Italian American composer, pianist, and conductor active in Europe and the United States. His music has been performed by artists and ensembles such as GRAMMY Award-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Cecilia Chorus of New York and members of the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera Orchestras. In 2019, Fusco released his debut album REMIXED featuring original compositions for solo piano praised for their “stunning sonic ideas (Jazz Corner).” In July 2021, he conducted the premieres his opera inSOMNIA at the Opernfestival Oberpfalz in Amberg, Germany (“a multifaceted, atmospheric sound-painting” Mittelbaierische Zeitung) and his second opera Der Telefonist at the Forum Neue Kunst in Oldenburg in October of the same year. Fusco has received awards from the NATS Art Song Competition, American Prize for Music, Aliénor International Harpsichord Competition, as well as grants from the National Italian American Foundation and Exploring the Metropolis. He studied at the Mannes College of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Conservatorio G. Verdi di Torino, Vienna Konservatorium, and Paris Schola Cantorum and holds a doctorate from University for Performing Arts in Graz, Austria, where his research focused on empathy in vocal music.

Fusco is paired with mentor Scott Wheeler.

Sophie Kastner
Rochester, New York

Sophie Kastner is a storyteller first and foremost: her music, ranging in subject matter from black holes to queer history, always tells a compelling narrative. Primarily a vocal composer, she composed her first opera in 2022 alongside librettist Alice Abracen, and in 2023, Kastner was accepted into the Jewish Arts Mentorship program at the Segal Centre to work on a new opera in collaboration with Alice, the story of Eve Adams. Her chamber music has recently received attention; she was commissioned by NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory Science Center to translate telescope data into music as part of their data sonification project, and this past April, her string quartet, Terminus, was premiered at the Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s concert series, Jukebox: The Sound of Science. Kastner graduated from the McGill Schulich School of music in June 2022 with a master’s degree in music composition, studying with Melissa Hui. Originally from New York State, she earned her bachelor’s degree at Skidmore College in June 2019, where she studied composition with Evan Mack and voice with Sylvia Stoner-Hawkins. She has written works for voice, choir, chamber ensembles, piano, and orchestra.

Kastner is paired with mentor Nkeiru Okoye.

Nicholas Kelly
Penticton, British Columbia

Commended by the Vancouver Sun for his “sophisticated work of such immediate, glittery appeal” and called “a rising star in the constellation of Canadian composers” by Oregon Arts Watch, Nicholas Ryan Kelly writes choral, wind ensemble, and chamber music with a sense of cinematic drama. His choral compositions have been premiered by many of Canada’s top choirs, including Chor Leoni, Da Capo Chamber Choir, the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Elektra Women's Choir, Pro Coro Canada, Vancouver Chamber Choir, and the National Youth Choir of Canada. International performances include the Singapore Youth Choir, True Concord Voices, the West Point Band of the U.S. Army, and many others. Since 2015, he has received more than 20 national and international prizes for both choral and wind ensemble compositions, including the Howard Cable Prize from the Canadian Band Association and the Edwin Fissinger Choral Composition Prize. Originally from the northeastern United States, Kelly studied composition at Ithaca College in New York (B.M.) and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (M.Mus.) Now a dual citizen with Canada, Kelly lives in British Columbia’s beautiful Okanagan Valley with his partner and their nature-obsessed toddler.

Kelly is paired with mentor Shawn Okpebholo.

Nicole Knorr
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Nicole Knorr (b. 1999) is a composer, performer, and interdisciplinary artist based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her work investigates transformation, change, and growth — often through the lens of the natural world. Her music has been described as having “remarkable command of melody” and is characterized by gleaming lyricism, sharp counterpoint, and a fundamental, underlying sense of whimsy. Current creative projects include a song cycle in collaboration with NeuroArts Productions, a new work for FLYDLPHN and the Michigan Music Teachers’ Association and a set of songs for Haven Trio that was premiered at Connecticut Summerfest 2024. In the past, she has had the honor of collaborating with renowned ensembles such as Sinta Quartet, Estrella Consort, Brain Pocket, and VIRID duo, among other groups and personal commissions. She is passionate about developing spaces for artists to share their work and collaborate across disciplines. During her time at the University of Michigan, Knorr developed Between the Lines, a concert series that brought composers, poets, and singers together for an evening of art song premieres.

Knorr is paired with mentor Tom Cipullo.

Danika Lorèn
Toronto, Ontario

Multifaceted artist Danika Lorèn has made a name for themself as vocalist and composer. Having obtained a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance and a master’s degree in opera performance at the University of Toronto, Danika continued their training as a vocalist with the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Program from 2016-18. Danika also has been a member of Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium Young Artists since 2020. With a true love of art song through a performer’s lens, Danika began to compose seriously in 2015. Since then, Danika has composed over 60 songs and two operas, and their compositional work has been presented across Canada by the CBC, the Canadian Art Song Project, Canadian Opera Company, Pacific Opera Victoria and Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. Internationally, Danika’s work has been performed at the National Sawdust Theatre, at the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, at the Leeds Lieder Festival and at Wigmore Hall. Recently, Danika participated in the Performer Composer residency at Westben Festival, further cementing their artist practice as a multifaceted creator of classical music.

Lorèn is paired with mentor Lori Laitman.

Michael Mills
Baltimore, Maryland

Described by Richard Sisson as having a “highly individual sound world” that is “both beautiful and piercingly astringent at once,” Michael Mills composes music that addresses topics of the human condition through an extremely personal lens. Mills is particularly interested in exploring and embracing the paradox of universality amongst highly individualistic lives through a musical voice characterized by visceral timbres and the interaction between “organic” and “inorganic” sounds. His music has garnered performances throughout America, on public radio, across Europe, and in Asia, including many festival appearances such as the Thailand Music and Arts Organization's IntAct Festival, the highSCORE contemporary music festival, and the Valencia International Performing Arts Summer Festival. He considers himself lucky to have worked with a number of talented ensembles and musicians such as Taceti(i), Dal Niente, Popebama, Mariel Roberts, David Friend, and more. Mills graduated in 2023 with a master’s degree in composition from The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University where he studied with Felipe Lara. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music composition and technology along with a minor in psychology from Virginia Tech in 2019 where he studied with Charles Nichols and Eric Lyon.

Mills is paired with mentor Juhi Bansal.

Anthony Patterson
Champaign, Illinois

Anthony Patterson began to study the piano at the age of three. His piano teachers include Richard Syracuse, Jerome Rose, and Earl Wild.  He has been a faculty pianist at the Bay View Music Festival since 1989.  Patterson previously served on the University of Charleston (West Virginia), Capital University, and Alma College faculties.  As a composer, Patterson recorded a series of CDs of original compositions for dance with Chérie Noble (Brio Recordings). He regularly arranges music for choral, instrumental, and chamber music ensembles.  In 2020, he began composing in earnest with a series of duo-piano-ensemble compositions for CASIO Musical Instruments USA in promotional videos. He was commissioned in 2022 to write a work for the National Chorale. His “Gloria” premiered with the National Chorale with Everett McCorvey at the Dimenna Center in New York on April 29, 2022. In 2023, he started a master’s degree at the University of Illinois (Champaign Urbana) in composition, beginning his first formal training in music composition. In March 2024, his song cycle “Lyrics of Love and Laughter,” a setting of the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, was premiered at the University of Illinois with Kenneth Overton (baritone) and Casey Robards (piano).

Patterson is paired with mentor Stephen Eddins.

Sam Wu
Walla Walla, Washington

Sam Wu’s music deals with the beauty in blurred boundaries. Many of his works center around extra-musical themes: architecture and urban planning, climate science, and the search for exoplanets that harbor life. Selected for the American Composers Orchestra’s EarShot readings, winner of an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award and First Prize at the Washington International Competition, Wu also received Harvard’s Robert Levin Prize and Juilliard’s Palmer Dixon Prize. His collaborations span five continents, notably with the orchestras of Philadelphia, New Jersey, Minnesota, Sarasota, Melbourne, Tasmania, Macao, and Shanghai, the New York City Ballet, National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Sydney International Piano Competition, the Lontano, Parker, Argus, ETHEL, and icarus Quartets, conductors Osmo Vänskä, Case Scaglione, Ming Luke, and Benjamin Northey, violinist Johan Dalene, and shēng virtuoso Wu Wei. He has been featured on the National Geographic Channel, Business Insider, Harvard Crimson, Sydney Morning Herald, Asahi Shimbun, People’s Daily, CCTV, among others. From Melbourne, Australia, Wu holds degrees from Harvard University, The Juilliard School, and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. This fall, he joins the faculty at Whitman College as their visiting assistant professor in theory and composition. His teachers include Tan Dun, Anthony Brandt, Pierre Jalbert, Chaya Czernowin, and Richard Beaudoin.

Wu is paired with mentor Jeffrey Mumford.