Spring Song Garden
Join us April 1st, 2023, for a celebration of music and the human voice! Spring Song Garden features artists Liz Cass and Jayoung Hong in a program of classical opera arias, French art song and some wonderful surprises! LOLA is proud to be a company in residence of the Armstrong Community Music School.
Liz Cass
Liz is a producer, educator, arts leader, and active operatic performer based in Austin,Texas. She is the founder and executive producer of the award-winning opera company LOLA (Local Opera Local Artists), and executive director of the Armstrong Community Music School.
A passionate advocate for the arts, Liz is president of the Seagle Festival Alumni Association, secretary of Austin Classical Guitar and a member of the community advisory board of KMFA 89.5, Austin’s classical music radio station. Equally at home in opera and beyond, Liz has appeared in the roles of Mrs. Lowe and Dora, the Bartender in Kevin Puts’ The Manchurian Candidate with Austin Opera, and as soloist in Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody with Chorus Austin.
She has presented a program of French art song for Songs in the Skyspace, the monthly music series of Landmarks at the University of Texas,and was featured in Austin Chamber Music Center’s Blue Bash annual fundraising gala. In Guatemala, she appeared as soloist in Handel’s Messiah at Centro Cultural Miguel Ángel Asturias in Guatemala City and at Casa Santo Domingo in Antigua.
Having appeared in several notable world premiere performances, Liz continually champions new vocal works. In 2019, she premiered the mezzo role in Graham Reynolds’ English and Spanish cross-border opera Pancho Villa From a Safe Distance, for which she garnered the Best Singer award from Austin Critics Table. She also performed Pancho Villa at the PuSh Festival in Vancouver and the PROTOTYPE Festival in New York City.
Collaborating with composer Peter Stopschinski and playwright Terry Galloway, LOLA commissioned the opera Lardo Weeping in 2018, based on Galloway’s one-woman play. Fully staged in August 2022, Liz’s tour de force performance as Dinah LeFarge was nominated for the 2021-22 B. Iden Payne Outstanding Lead Performance award, while Lardo Weeping was nominated for an additional twelve awards. Also in 2022, Liz premiered Donald Grantham’s song cycle Love Songs Sweet and Sour, with pianist Carla McElhaney.
Liz began her vocal studies with Dr. Rebecca Folsom. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri at Kansas City Conservatory of Music, where she received her degree in Vocal Performance with renowned professor Inci Bashar.
Jayoung Hong
Since making her debut at age 13 performing Schumann piano concerto, pianist Jayoung Hong has performed widely in concerto, recital, and chamber music performances throughout Asia, North America and Europe. Dr. Hong has performed at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall and Lincoln Center in New York; Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.; New School at Princeton in New Jersey; Mayfest in Canada;Kulturhaus Konzertsaal in Berlin, Germany; Royal Festival Hall and St. James's Piccadilly in London, U.K.; Pretoria City Hall in South Africa; Taipei National Hall in Taiwan; and Seoul Arts Center in S. Korea among others.
Dr. Hong has collaborated internationally with such prominent musicians as Jeff Nelsen, Allen Vizzuti, Eph Ehly, Andre Thomas, Rollo Dilworth, René Clausen, Greg Gilpin, Mack Wilberg and Youngmin Park, and has been heard in radio broadcasts for NPR and Korean Broadcasting System.
As a Carnegie Hall Festival Pianist, Dr. Hong has performed on the Perelman Stage/Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall annually since 2007. Dr. Hong served as Associate Professor of Piano and Director of Keyboard Studies at Northwest Nazarene University. She previously served on the faculty of the Korea National University of Arts in S. Korea, Brandon University in Canada, University of Nebraska and Blinn College in Texas in US. She has presented masterclasses throughout the U.S., Canada, S. Korea and China.
Her students are consistently top prizewinners at major regional, provincial and national Canadian, Korean and U.S.competitions. She spends her summers teaching piano at the University of MinnesotaTwin Cities International Piano Camp as a Pre-College Program Coordinator in U.S.and Western University Summer Concerto Festival and Competition in Canada.