my black swan songs
an inspiring new work based on my life events that is meant to destigmatize invisible illness and other taboo experiences that many singers go through but feel they can not freely talk about.
premiere date early 2025
Commissioned by & written for Molly Noori
I am beyond thrilled to be part of the team that is bringing this powerful work to life. My Black Swan Songs is a collection of 15 pieces, written for voice and piano, that puts a spotlight on topics that are often considered taboo but are so frequently experienced by singers and therefore worthy of discussion and done so, appropriately, through this medium. Topics include: invisible illness, mental health, long Covid, miscarriage, parenthood, sexual harassment within the opera industry, being "silenced", scars, & death of a parent. Pain, hope, resilience, & tenacity are the recurring motifs.
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This project was inspired by difficult but empowering years of struggles with my health that culminated this past September with new diagnoses and unique vocal challenges. I found myself feeling pretty alone in the world of classical singers because no one was willing to publicly discuss their health for fear of being seen as less than or simply un-hirable. This made it very difficult to track down other singes who live with invisible illness and nearly impossible to find science based research about the effects of chronic illness disorders on the voice. The frustration, anger, fear, loneliness, and passion that built up during those months led me to start my work as an advocate and create The Chronicled Voice- a blog and page where singers can safely and (if desired) anonymously share their story, ask questions, and find community. The Chronicled Voice has since grown into a nonprofit organization! My hope is that my work as an advocate and artist will not only shine a light on and normalize singers with invisible illness but kill the stigma that surrounds the topic so that no other singer will have to feel alone or like they have to hide what they are going through.
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If you are tuned in to our industry at all, you know that health is not the only topic people shy away from discussing and it is certainly not the only one that needs to be openly talked about. In addition to my health story, My Black Swan Songs draws from my most difficult yet inspiring personal experiences to destigmatize topics that many would say make us less than perfect singers. I would argue these life experiences only make us better singers, better artists, and hopefully better humans.
I am sharing my story so that others feel empowered to share theirs so we can create meaningful and needed change in our industry. With that sentiment in mind, my team of fabulous composers and I hope that you will feel moved to adopt the "my" of My Black Swan Songs and sing these pieces yourself- embrace these universal experiences and make them your own.
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meet the composers
Keep scrolling to learn more about these fantastic artists.
Kirsten C. Kunkle
Lauded as the leading Native American soprano in today’s classical music world, Dr. Kirsten C.
Kunkle is a voting citizen of the Mvskoke (Muscogee) Nation. She has been hailed as an
outstanding singing actress with a voice that has been described as beautiful, ethereal, powerful,
fiery, and bewitching. Kirsten commissioned and premiered sixteen original compositions,
including one of her own, based upon the poetry of her ancestor and highly-acclaimed poet of the
Native American Muscogee Nation, Alexander Posey. Her recordings are collected at the Library of
Congress, the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution (NMAI), and
the Merkel Area Museum in Merkel, Texas. Kirsten is included on the list of Classical Native
American Artists and Musicians at the Smithsonian Institution’s NMAI and on the Molto Native
Music list of performers.
She was featured as a composer and soloist for the Circle of Resilience concert, with Opera
Montana (Intermountain Opera Bozeman), in May 2021. In 2022, she was commissioned and
premiered her new art song “Reclaim the Land” at Yellowstone National Park’s 150 th anniversary,
which has been featured on Yellowstone Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” (a branch of NPR)
and BBC Radio. In 2023, she was commissioned to write the monodrama for voice, piano, and
violin, “Witch of November in the White City” for “Chicago Currents: Celebrating Chicago’s
Waterways,” which served as her performance, dramaturgy, poetry, and composition debut with
Chicago Fringe Opera. In 2024, she was commissioned to write the flute and piano work
“Inspiration of the Muses,” which was premiered by lead commissioners Rose Bishop and Dr.
Abbie Brewer at New Music Chicago. Most recently, she was commissioned to write an eight-part a
capella choral work entitled “Mvskokvlke, Este’Cate: We are Still Here” (Muscogee People, Native
People) by The Trey Clegg Singer in Atlanta Georgia, which premiered in May 2024. Kirsten has
numerous other works in progress, and is extremely honored to be one of the creators (text and
music composition) for mezzo-soprano Molly Noori’s commissioned song cycle, “My Black Swan
Songs.”
As a singer, some of her favorite roles in the standard operatic repertoire are Agathe in Der
Freischütz, the title role in Suor Angelica, Magda and the Foreign Woman in The Consul, Mimì in
La bohème, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro, Mother in Amahl and the
Night Visitors, Iolanta and Brigitta in Iolanta, Zemfira in Aleko, Lisa in Pique Dame, Donna Elvira
in Don Giovanni, Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief, the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, and Dido
in Dido and Aeneas. She has an Honorable Mention for The American Prize in Voice – Professional
Art Song and Oratorio Division (Women), as well as being a two-time semi-finalist for The
American Prize in Opera (Women). She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2014, and in the same
year she was the Pennsylvania District National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Award
winner. Kirsten won second place in the Roschel Vocal Competition in 2015.
She made her solo European debut with the Sofia Philharmonic in the role of Arabella in Johann
Strauss II’s Blindekuh. She is also a NAXOS recording artist for the world premiere recording
of Blindekuh, which was released in March 2020 to extraordinary reviews. Her most recent
recording was debuting the role of Charlotte Corday in the world premiere of “Girondines,” which
is a collaboration between Kirsten (libretto) and Sarah Van Sciver (music), available on all
streaming services. Kirsten will be premiering the role of Ipp’osi’ in the first opera written entirely
in the Chickasaw language, “Shell Shaker” by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate. Other upcoming
world premieres include “Kokumfeena” with City Music Cleveland and “An American Indian
Symphony,” with Oklahoma City Philharmonic, both also composed by Tate. With the Philadelphia
Opera Collective, she created leading roles in numerous world premieres, including Edith Standen
in Shadow House, Annie Jump Cannon in Jump the Moon, Edgar Allan Poe/The Poet in Opera
Macabre: Edgar Allan Poe, and Dr. Frankenstein in By You That Made Me, Frankenstein. She also
created the role of Space Mad Woman in Toowhopera by Sorrell Hayes. She has recorded
extensively through the Comic Opera Guild, specializing in the works of Victor Herbert.
Kirsten served as opera stage director for four years at Lincoln University, the nation’s first degree-
granting HBCU. Prior to her time at Lincoln, she directed opera scenes at Shorter University, for
which she commissioned the work “The Tribunal” by composer Bradley Harris. Favorite
productions directed include Treemonisha, Hansel and Gretel, Man of La Mancha, The Telephone,
The Medium, and Kismet.
Kirsten is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Wilmington Concert Opera, a women and
minority led opera company in Wilmington, Delaware. She is a proud graduate of Bowling
Green State University and University of Michigan. Please visit www.kirstenckunkle.com for
more information.
Joel David Balzun
Praised for his "voluminous sound" and “imposing, ringing baritone," Canadian baritone and composer Joel Balzun is establishing himself as an intelligent and creative new voice both on and off the stage. Highlights of his 2023-2024 season include his debut at Los Angeles Opera, Schaunard (La bohème) with Opera Las Vegas, Escamillo (Carmen) with Union Avenue Opera, works of Mozart with San Luis Obispo Master Chorale and a recital with Cincinnati Song Initiative. Other recent performance highlights include Marcello (La bohème) with Pacific Opera Project, Giorgio Germont (La traviata) with Opera Santa Barbara, works of Ralph Vaughan Williams with San Luis Obispo Master Chorale and numerous recitals featuring the premiere performances of Black Dog by Tom Cipullo throughout the USA.
From Carnegie Hall to the Kennedy Center, Mr. Balzun’s past appearances include the title roles in Don Giovanni and Gianni Schicchi, the Four Villains in Les contes d'Hoffmann, Riolobo (Florencia en al Amazonas), Prince Yeletskiy and Count Tomskiy (Pikovaya Dama), Albert (Werther), Belcore (L'elisir d'amore), Dr. Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Valentin (Faust), Sid (Albert Herring), and John Brooke (Adamo’s Little Women), among others. On the concert stage, Mr. Balzun has been a featured soloist in Copland's Old American Songs, DvoÅ™ák’s Te Deum, Fauré's Requiem, Haydn's The Creation, Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, and numerous cantatas of Bach. His acclaimed performance of Bach's Johannes-Passion with the Rochester Bach Festival was recently broadcast multiple times across the United States.
In the competition circuit, Mr. Balzun has been a prize-winner in numerous competitions. Highlights include the 2021 Fulham Opera Robert Presley Memorial Verdi Prize, in addition to prizes from Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition (Los Angeles District and Western Region), Pasadena Vocal Competition, Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition, Houston Saengerbund Vocal Competition, Gwendolyn Roberts Young Artist Auditions, Orpheus National Vocal Competition, Houston Saengerbund Vocal Competition, NATS Artist Awards and the Rio Hondo Symphony Young Artist Competition. He has also been a finalist for Rochester International Voice Competition, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Concours, Premiere Opera Foundation International Vocal Competition and Vincerò World Singing Competition.
An avid proponent of the music of living and contemporary composers, Mr. Balzun won critical acclaim for his portrayal of the titular Joseph de Rocher in the South Florida premiere of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking with Miami Music Festival. He worked with the composer on this work, as well as the role of Charlie in excerpts from Three Decembers. He recently created the role of Ivan Brisilov in the world premiere of Stephanie Fleischmann and Peter Knell’s Arkhipov with Jacaranda Music, conducted by Daniela Candillari. On the concert stage, he has championed rarely-performed works such as George Rochberg's String Quartet No. 7, as well as Peter Maxwell Davies's virtuosic Eight Songs for a Mad King, and numerous performances of Robert Denham's Sutter Creek, among others. In 2014, Mr. Balzun was a featured soloist at the CFAMC National Conference in 2014, where he gave the world premiere performances of works by Christopher Ashbaugh, David Fuentes, Jan Mittelstaedt and Benjamin Williams. His professional debut in 2011 was in the world premiere of Peter Michael von der Nahmer's award winning opera, El canguro with California International Theatre Festival. In 2021, Mr. Balzun launched Black Dog Commission, a new commissioning series for art song repertoire which openly discusses life with mental illness. Through this, Mr. Balzun has premiered a new work by Tom Cipullo and looks forward to premiering a new work by Dale Trumbore.
Also an accomplished composer, Mr. Balzun's “haunting and beautiful” music has received international recognition. He was a multiple prize-winner in the 2017 SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers. In 2014, he was named a finalist for the prestigious ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Awards. Other accolades include winning the Dallas Winds’ 9th annual “Call for Fanfares”, as well as winning first prize in the Classical Marimba League International Composition Competition. In 2010, Mr. Balzun was also a prize-winner in the National Broadcast Orchestra’s Galaxie Rising Star Composers’ Competition, winning both the Young Composers Prize and the Grand Prize. In 2012, he was the youngest composer invited to participate in the Art Song Lab through the Vancouver International Song Institute. He was a guest presenter and composer at the CBDNA 2013 National Conference in Greensboro, North Carolina, as well as the 2014 CFAMC National Conference, where he was also a featured soloist.
Praised as “a composer to watch” by the Calgary Herald, Mr. Balzun has been the recipient of numerous commissions. His music has been performed in Canada, the United States, Costa Rica, Denmark, Taiwan and the United Kingdom, by ensembles such as Alberta Winds, Calgary Civic Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, CCM Wind Orchestra, Dallas Winds, the National Broadcast Orchestra of Canada, La Orquestra Vientos de Costa Rica, White Snake Projects and Windago. Additional performances include those by Cadillac Moon Ensemble, Standing Wave Ensemble, and such luminary soloists as Corey Hamm and Megan Moore. His music has been broadcast on CBC Radio 2 and Espace Musique. A selection of Mr. Balzun’s music is currently published by C. Alan Publications and Lovebird Music. He is an active member of ASCAP, CFAMC and SOCAN.
Mr. Balzun is a proud alum of Eastman School of Music, where he earned his Master's degree in Vocal Performance and Literature under the tutelage of Jan Opalach and Benton Hess. He has augmented his studies as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Centre, where he was primarily mentored by Sanford Sylvan, Pittsburgh Festival Opera as a Featured Artist in the Young Professional Artists program, where he was also in Jane Eaglen's inaugural class of the Mastersingers Project for Young Dramatic Voices and the Ravinia Steans Music Institute Program for Singers, in addition to apprenticeships at Opera Saratoga and Santa Fe Opera. He has studied voice with Reid Bruton, William Lock (in memoriam), Michelle Minke and Judith Natalucci.
Lisa Neher
Dr. Lisa Neher (she/her, “NEER”) is an award-winning composer and new music mezzo on a mission to transform audiences through sound, story, and vulnerability. With a voice praised as “full and rich” and “especially alive” (Oregon ArtsWatch), Neher’s performance credits include Third Angle New Music, Really Spicy Opera, Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Opera Theatre Oregon, New Music Gathering, Resonance Ensemble, Experiments in Opera, Renegade Opera, and Big Mouth Society. She is a member of Portland Opera Chorus and President of New Wave Opera.
Described as a “supremely talented,” “visionary composer” (Willamette Week), “maestro of beautifully wacky noises” (Oregon ArtsWatch) and author of “liquid, impressionist piano writing and fluent melding” of voices (New York Classical Review), Neher’s compositions are inspired by the climate crisis, the tender love of family and friends, and the eerie mystery of deep ocean life. She is Composer in Residence for the Beaverton Community Band. She has been commissioned and performed by the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Cincinnati Song Initiative, Third Angle New Music, FearNoMusic, Dinosaur Annex, New Opera West, Mirror Visions Ensemble, Alma Ensemble, Opera Elect, and Opera Santa Barbara, among others.
Her awards include the Flute New Music Consortium Competition, ICDA/ICF Choral Competition, Mirror Visions Ensemble Young Composer Competition and the Celebris Ensemble Choral Competition. www.lisanehermusic.com.
Nicole DiPaolo
Praised as a "sensitive pianist" and "outstanding accompanist" who delivers "powerful interpretations," Nicole Elyse DiPaolo enjoys a multifaceted career as a sought-after collaborative pianist, educational composer, arranger, coach, private teacher, and adjunct music professor. Ms. DiPaolo has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Ambassador Chamber Players on multiple occasions (two of which also featured her own Piano Trio in C minor) and as a recitalist, collaborator, and presenter worldwide.
Currently, Ms. DiPaolo is an online Adjunct Lecturer in Music (Music in General Studies) at Indiana University; the Principal Theory Teacher at Liberty Park Music, an online-only video subscription-based music school; an invited blog contributor and guest instructor at Tonebase; and a sought-after online instructor of piano, music theory, and composition. She has additionally been an online teaching artist for the Tunaweza Kimuziki cultural/artistic exchange program+, through which IU instructors teach undergraduate music students in Kenya via Zoom and WhatsApp. Ms. DiPaolo was also on the composition and collaborative piano faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in 2014 and 2015. In line with her belief that effective music performance instructors should also be distinguished performers (past or present), Ms. DiPaolo recently appeared with Vocal Arts Nashville and with the storied Singers' Club of Cleveland men's choir as their accompanist. In June 2018, she was a Collaborative Piano Fellow at the Bay View Music Festival in Petoskey, Michigan, performing with the festival's SOARS voice program participants on fully staged opera scenes and art song recitals as well as in the Bay View Young Artist Series (Charlevoix, MI). She then joined the Spooky Goose Opera team as an online coach/pianist for their Quarantine Concert Series, the world's first livestreamed Zoom production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (summer 2020), which was nominated for a Broadway World award.
Recent performing highlights include giving the world premiere of H. Leslie Adams' Grand March for trumpet and piano in the composer's presence, as well as performing several selections at a 90th birthday gala for Dr. Adams; accompanying Vocal Arts Nashville in their "Inhabiting Folkways: Music of the People" winter program; a performance with the Singers' Club of Cleveland at the Cleveland Museum of Art; a Christmas concert with members of the Cleveland Pops; two performances as a substitute keyboardist with the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra; and solo appearances with Sing for Hope's Healing Arts Initiative, presenting a curated program entitled "The Singing Piano" (May and June 2021). Other notable engagements include the 2020 Spooky Goose Opera Quarantine Concert Series (5 concerts to date); the 2016, 2017, and 2019 National Society of Arts and Letters Vocal Competitions (multiple entrants); the "Opera Night at North" benefit concert with students of IU's top-ranked opera program (among them "Accidental Tenor" Andrew Lunsford); and two long-term, international cruise ship performing contracts with violinist Amy Lee as the Duo del Mare. Additionally, she recorded an album of unique folksong settings with bass-baritone and IU Kelley School of Business professor Timothy Fort, which is included in his new business ethics text, Vision of the Firm. Among other engagements at IU, she was the rehearsal pianist/coach for a summer production of John Frederick Lampe's little-known Baroque opera Pyramus and Thisbe. Newly established in Nashville, Ms. DiPaolo has become a "pianists' pianist," particularly sought-after as an accompanist for piano concerto competition entrants due to her depth of experience as a piano instructor and her insider's understanding of ensemble pianists' needs and repertoire.
Ms. DiPaolo began formal music study at age 5 in the Detroit area. At age 10 she enrolled in the University of Michigan's preparatory piano program, and she performed her first full solo recital at age 11; additionally, she spent three summer sessions at the All-State Piano Program at Interlochen, where she won awards in music theory and piano literature. Ms. DiPaolo continues to perform while maintaining a private online studio, continuing a teaching lineage that can be traced through Bela Bartok (a great-grand-instructor) to Franz Liszt and Beethoven. Her principal teachers have included Michele Cooker, Louis Nagel, Joanne Smith, and Alan Huckleberry; she has also had the pleasure of undertaking additional coaching with Menahem Pressler, Waleed Howrani, Christopher Harding, Donald Morelock, Philip Bush, John Ellis, and the late Eugene Bossart. She holds a B.Mus in Music Theory from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, where she studied piano under Dr. Nagel; additionally, she studied composition with Bright Sheng and basso continuo (harpsichord accompaniment) with Edward Parmentier. Ms. DiPaolo also holds an MM in Music Theory from Indiana University-Bloomington, where she has achieved PhD candidacy alongside a completed doctoral minor in composition (under Claude Baker, Don Freund, P. Q. Phan, and David Schneider) and studies in French and German diction (under Gary Arvin) to complement her frequent collaborations with IU's voice students. Ms. DiPaolo has undertaken more recent piano pedagogy studies with Russian approach expert Irina Gorin, the author of the Tales of a Musical Journey piano method, and is Level 1 and Level 2 certified in Tales. She is currently enrolled in the Royal Conservatory (RCM) online teacher mentorship program, and she regularly seeks such professional development opportunities in order to grow as a pedagogue.
When not on the piano bench, Ms. DiPaolo continues to compose and arrange, and her compositions have been described as "brilliant" (PianoDao) and "a welcome addition to the repertoire" (Interlude.hk), as well as "very effective" with a "fantastic amount of intrigue," "mindfulness...[and] colorful nuance" (Seven Sky Music). Ms. DiPaolo's music has been heard across the world. Along with numerous performances in the Midwest, her commissioned song settings of Muscogee poet laureate Alexander Posey's texts have been performed nationwide, and the Smithsonian Institution procured copies of two of these (Nature's Blessings and A Vision) to archive at the National Museum of the American Indian. Ms. DiPaolo's music also received its Mexican premiere in 2013 with a performance of her Divertimento, written for the International String Quartet of Yucatán. In 2014 Ms. DiPaolo published a set of twenty short pedagogical pieces in uncommon keys, entitled Venturing Beyond, for early-intermediate pianists of all ages, available on SheetMusicPlus and MusicaNeo, and she recently completed Vignettes, a new set of pedagogical pieces that will introduce intermediate pianists to the Impressionist language of Maurice Ravel. While living in Bloomington, Ms. DiPaolo was commissioned to create a choral arrangement of "Ride," the city of Bloomington's official bicentennial song, for the Bloomington Community Song Project. After she relocated to Cleveland, her Divertimento and Lucid Dreaming for solo harp were featured at the "She Scores" new music festival, celebrating women composers with ties to Ohio, held at Case Western Reserve University in June 2022 and rebroadcast on Mark Satola's "Cleveland Ovations" program on WCLV radio (90.3) in October. Most recently, Ms. DiPaolo's Nocturne in G-sharp minor was selected for inclusion in 22 Nocturnes for Chopin, a collection of Chopin-inspired piano compositions and published by EVC Music (dist. Hal Leonard) in fall 2023. Also a sought-after composition teacher and adjudicator, Ms. DiPaolo frequently judges state, regional, and divisional MTNA composition competitions at all levels, ranging from elementary to college-level Young Artists. In her private online studio, she has recently expanded her curricular offerings to include partimento and other historical methods of teaching tonal composition and improvisation. (Click here to find out more about these methods.) An enthusiastic and frequent podcast guest, Ms. DiPaolo has appeared on podcasts with the Nikhil Hogan Show, Motif Music Studios, Ultimate Music Theory, Web Piano Academy, and the Piano Sight Reading Community to discuss her compositions and various piano pedagogy topics.
When not working on one of her many concurrent musical projects, Ms. DiPaolo might be found completing academic editing projects as the owner of Superlative Proofreading and Editing Services, maintaining several music-related social media communities, looking for opportunities to maintain her Spanish and Italian language skills, and raising and releasing monarch butterflies with the MonarchWatch tagging program. Having lived in Detroit, southern Indiana, and Cleveland at various points, she is now based in Nashville, Tennessee.
To learn more about Ms. DiPaolo’s many and varied performing, teaching, and publishing pursuits, please visit her artist website at ndipaolo.musicaneo.com.
Meet our librettist
Kendra Preston Leonard (text for Ms. Neher's compositions)
is a lyricist and librettist who tells stories about empowerment, resilience, and compassion. Inspired by history, language, nature, and myth, Leonard has worked with numerous composers to create new opera and art song. Current opera projects include Protectress, with composer Jessica Rudman; This is Jane with composer Angela Elizabeth Slater; and she who will trouble you all night with Rosśa Crean. Recently premiered works include Sense of Self, created with composer Lisa Neher and premiered by Opera Elect in 2021; Waters Rising, with composer Tim Hick, commissioned by Arts Capacity and Walker State Faith and Character Based Prison; Marie Curie Learns to Swim, with music by Jessica Rudman, performed by Hartford Opera Theater in 2018; and The Harbingers, with music by Rosśa Crean, premiered in 2019. In 2021, she and Neher created a series of micro-operas for Neher’s One Voice Micro-Opera Project, featuring singers Zach Finkelstein in Now Available; Margaret O’Connell in Woman Waits with Sword; Hugo Vera in Wide Awake in the New City; and Audrey Yoder in Par for the Course. You can follow her at https://kendraprestonleonard.hcommons.org/.