Muses Performance Troupe

The Muses Creative Artistry Project employs professional artists, musicians, and teachers from within the state, and across the country, to create diverse performance opportunities, and presentations in all genres of highest quality artistic collaboration: instrumental and vocal music, fine art, literature, poetry, drama, and dance.

DELEEN DAVIDSON is a classically trained Soprano formerly with the New Orleans Opera, who relocated to Hot Springs in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She is the President and General Director of TheMuses Creative Artistry Project , a non-profit organization dedicated to excellence, inspiration, and wellness, preserving classical art & music through performance and education. Recipient of both Rotary International and Fulbright Scholarships, Ms. Davidson pursued European music and Fine Arts studies in Germany and Austria, including internships at the Feldkirch Musik Hochschule, and the Karlsruhe Opera House. She holds an honors degree in History from the University of New Orleans, with minor studies in Music, Fine Art and German. In 2008 Ms. Davidson was named "Arkansas' Treasurer of the Arts" by the Beebe administration, and her Muses Project travels the state, and partners regularly with other Arts Organizations to enhance the cultural life of the region and help grow the Creative Economy.

Gyan Singh Maria: After a successful conducting debut with the Muses Project, he was appointed their Music Director and Executive & Artistic Leadership Fellow. In 2026, he conducts a series of concerts throughout Arkansas — Celtic Spring, Broadway!, Broken Standards, and Voices of Angels. Concurrently, he collaborates with the artistic director to design and build productions, create budgets, and assist with rehearsals, performances, and artist management.

Cultivating the skills and experience to be a future leader within the musical performing arts, Gyan has partnered with Living Opera where he works as the Founding Fellow of the Portland Circle — an initiative that brings high-quality performances, educational programs, and creative projects directly to local audiences. In this capacity, he has the opportunity to share his artistry as a keyboardist and composer, to share his love of education through music, and to create an agile and resilient musical performing arts series. He has already produced twelve events with 100% of production costs offset through in-kind artist and venue partnerships, establishing a sustainable model for the future.

In the 2025–2026 season, Gyan continues his tenure as the Conducting Fellow at Portland Opera, where he assists on Puccini's La Bohème and Verdi's Messa da Requiem and coaches for Spears' Fellow Travelers. Gyan looks forward to continuing his relationship with Portland Opera as their Resident Artist Conductor in the 2026–2027 season, where he will conduct a double bill of Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the World and Stone Soup.

In previous seasons, Gyan music directed the world premiere of Shizue: An American Story and assisted on Paul Moravec’s The Shining at Portland Opera. At Fargo-Moorhead Opera, he conducted sold-out performances of Michael Ching’s Speed Dating Tonight!, and he was the Associate Conductor for Puccini’s Turandot. In addition to his work in opera, he has served as the Music Director of the Trans-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra and the Sale Male Voice Choir and the Associate Conductor of the Danube Symphony Orchestra, the South Liverpool Orchestra, the Northern Ballet School, the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, and the Macclesfield Oriana Choir.

As a member of music staff, Gyan has worked throughout the world on productions of Tosca, La fille du régiment, Les pêcheurs de perles, and Attila with Sarasota Opera; Suor Angelica with Opera Lucca; Le Nozze di Figaro with the Austrian American Mozart Academy; The Pilgrim's Progress with British Youth Opera; Così fan tutte with Opernfest Berlin; Don Giovanni, Lakmé, and Alcina with Chicago Summer Opera; Ariadne auf Naxos with Pacific Northwest Opera; selections from Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde, and Das Rheingold with New York Dramatic Voices; and Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil with Portland Symphonic Choir.

Gyan Singh Maria was born into diverse and disparate musical cultures. His paternal grandfather, a Kolkata-born resident of Hong Kong, was a North Indian classical musician; his maternal grandfather, an Esztergom-born resident of Budapest, was a Romani violinist. He studied in Rome, Berlin, London, Budapest, and Aix-en-Provence.

Steven Michael Suter is a native of New Orleans and currently resides in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He is a graduate of Loyola University of New Orleans (B.M.), and Northwestern University of Chicago (M.M.).

Having played with such diverse and varied groups such as the Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown Big Band, the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maxim Shostakovich, Bonerama, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra under the direction of Buddy Morrow, the Millar Brass Ensemble, and the Al Belletto Big Jazz Band, it is quite evident that Steven’s expertise crosses all musical genres.

Steven has also played with Pete Fountain, Natalie Cole, Rita Moreno, Bobby Vinton, Bob Hope, Ray Charles, the Temptations, the O’Jays, Gladys Knight, Johnny Mathis, Don Rickles, and Mel Torme, to name a few.

He has recorded with Bonerama, Jill Scott, Solomon Burke, Al Martino, Barry Manilow, Al Belletto, Gatemouth Brown, The New Orleans Nightcrawlers, and the Millar Brass Ensemble. Steven has made television appearances on MSNBC with the “Mississippi Rising” telethon for Katrina victims, and on NBC with “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”. He played in the house band for HBO’s “Comic Relief in ‘06”, featured at the ’07 Sugar Bowl, and performed on “Late Night with David Letterman” with Bonerama and Damien Kulash.

He was a member of Bonerama when the group received awards from Offbeat magazine and the Big Easy Awards, both of New Orleans, for outstanding performance. Steven received special recognition by NAJE for jazz education in 2000 and in 2006 Steven was named one of New Orleans Magazine’s “JazzAll-Stars”.

In addition to a busy schedule of performing, teaching, and writing music, Steven is currently the Programs and Services Counsel for The Muses Creative Artistry Project.

GLORIA KIM joins The Muses for the first time, after spending a second season with Ash Lawn Opera. Recent appearances include recital collaborations with Weston Sprott of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, and serving as music director for Heartbeat Opera. She has been a part of the music staff for the International Fringe Festival (NY), International Vocal Arts Institute, American Lyric Theater, Sacramento Opera, Opera New Jersey, Glimmerglass Opera, collaborates frequently with the Juilliard School’s low brass studio, and is the official accompanist for Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble ACJW auditions. She has also served on faculty at Montclair State University, Concordia University (Violin), New York University, and taught master classes at the University of Texas, University of Missouri-Columbia, and University of Memphis. A native of Austin, TX, Kim completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in collaborative piano and coaching at the University of Minnesota, received her B.M. and M.M. in piano performance at The University of Texas. An accomplished violinist, she was an active member of The University of Texas and University of Minnesota Symphony Orchestras.

Stacey Murdock, an accomplished baritone, has performed with the Muses Project in various opera and musical theatre productions. In 2016 in the title role of Don Giovanni and most recently as Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha. He has performed extensively throughout Oregon and the Northwest appearing in Opera, Oratorio, and Musicals. He often performs with Portland Opera, and has been a member of the Portland Opera to Go outreach program for 11 seasons. Originally from Idaho Falls, Idaho, Stacey now resides in Beaverton, Oregon with his wonderful wife and three beautiful children.

Tenor Timothy Stoddard, is an award-winning vocal musician and actor who focuses his time and interests in new music, works for the stage, and oratorio. His repertoire spans that of early music, chamber music, Broadway, traditional opera, and world premiere pieces, being engaged in the United States, as well as Europe and Asia. He is an Idaho native and New York resident.

Tenor, Nicholas Huff’s “unabashed” (Voix des arts) take on performance has led him to leading roles across North America. He has performed as Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Lucano (Il coronazione di Poppea), Joseph Treat (Mrs. President), Peter Quint (Turn of The Screw), Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi), created the role of Fabian Hart in Jake Heggie’s newest Opera, If I Were You, Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Florida Grand Opera, and most recently as Tonio in La fille du régiment at the Kenosha Opera Festival. He will next perform as Prince Charmant in the little performed Viardot Version of Cendrillon, and Mitch in Streetcar Named Desire in a return to FGO.

Mr. Huff has also concertizes widely, singing Mozart’s Requiem with the New York State Ballet, Mozart’s Missa Solemnis, Rutter’s Psalmfest, Britten’s Rejoice in The Lamb, aria soloist with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Florentine Opera, as well as perform Handel’s Messiah with the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra.

Nicholas attended Carthage College where he earned his BA in Vocal Performance, and the Eastman School of Music, where he took an MM in Vocal Performance and Literature.

Find Nicholas online! @NickHuffTenor | www.NicholasHuff.pw

British-American Soprano Elizabeth Novella will sing Adele in Die Fledermaus with The Muses Project in September 2022. In 2023, she will return to Sarasota Opera to sing Giovanna in Ernani and cover Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. Ms. Novella recently covered the roles of Leïla in Les Pecheurs des perles and Marie in La Fille du Regiment with Sarasota Opera in the spring of 2022. In the Winter of 2020, she performed both Giannetta in L'Elisir d'Amore and Musetta (c) in La Bohème "with a rich voice and fine comic timing" with Sarasota Opera. Ms. Novella was Antonia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann with the Aspen Music Festival, for which the press hailed, "Novella dazzled with rich sound and impressive intensity". Comfortable in traditional and contemporary repertoire alike, Ms. Novella performed the role of Maia in the first fully-staged production of Theofanidis' The Cows of Apollo. She also covered the role of Peg in Carlisle Floyd's Prince of Players with Little Opera Theatre of New York. Ms. Novella is a native New Yorker and is currently based in Manhattan.

ANNA HASHIZUME (she/her): Anna is a Japanese-American singer-actor based in the Twin

Cities. Previous credits include: Theater Latté Da: La Bohème, Scotland, PA (workshop), Johnny Schicchi (workshop); Artistry Theater: Mary Poppins; Open Eye Theatre: LOG JAM! A Paul Bunyan Musical Spectacular; Theatre Elision: Of Art and Artists; Lyric Arts: Sense and

Sensibility; An Opera Theater: The Sky Where You Are, In The Midst of Things; Collective Unconscious Performance: Into the Darkness; Mixed Precipitation: The Clemency of Tito’s

Tennis Club, Dr. Falstaff and the Working Wives of Lake County, Philemon and Baucis: Planet in

Peril; Minnesota Opera: La Traviata, Thaïs; Fargo-Moorhead Opera: Don Giovanni, Speed

Dating, Tonight!; Lyric Opera of the North: Rigoletto. In 2017 she was a Schubert Club

Competition Winner.

TRAINING: M.M., University of Minnesota; B.S.O.F, Indiana University

Jacobs School of Music. Anna also teaches voice and is on faculty at the MacPhail Center for

Music and Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists.

www.annahashizume.com | @annahashizume

Actress & mezzo – soprano Jeanne Bennet, is a veteran performer of Music Theater. As a member of Broadway National Tours she has appeared as Fantine in Les Miserables, Edwin in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, South Pacific and Brigadoon. In New York she performed in the off-Broadway productions of Starting Here, Starting Now and Three Postcards at the Circle Rep Theatre. In Florida, she was in the original musical Waist Watchers and Stella Deem Stephen Sondheim’s Follies. Jeanne will be Miss Kagen on Nickelodeon’s upcoming I am Frankie and has recently been seen in commercials for Walgreens, Outback Steak House and AutoNation. She lived in N.Y.C. for many years before moving to West Palm Beach FL where she lives with her husband Rabbi Richard Chapin. Their daughter Daisy is an actress in N.Y.C. and their son Josh is a reporter for KHOU 11 news in Houston, TX.

Soprano Jessica Sandidge has been described as having a "genuinely beautiful sound throughout her voice." Her 2016/17 season peaked when she joined the Metropolitan Opera, covering the role of “Jano” in Janácek's Jenufa. She also made her second appearance at Lincoln Center in David Geffen Hall as the Soprano soloist in the National Chorale's Messiah (Händel) Sing-in in December. Of her recent performance as Mimì with Martina Arroyo's Prelude to Performance, Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times wrote: "...these young singers understand Puccini’s characters, especially Jessica Sandidge, who brings a melting soprano voice and vulnerability to Mimi, the winsome seamstress stricken with tuberculosis." She will be making her debut with the Muses in the lead as Anna in The Merry Widow and will be returning to the Met this winter covering the role of Sylvainne in The Merry Widow.

Mezzo-soprano, Margaret “Max” Potter, is a dynamic artist whose experience allows her to successfully perform a wide variety of repertoire. Previous engagements include her role debut as Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at The Sheen Center in Manhattan, and covering the role of Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking with Des Moines Metro Opera. Max spent multiple summers as a featured soloist with the Aspen Opera Theater Center, and is an alumna of the renowned Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Program, the International Vocal Arts Institute, and the esteemed CoOPERAtive Program at Westminster Choir College.

Kirsten Scott has been described as a “creamy toned mezzo-soprano with charm to burn.” She has sung throughout the U.S. as well as abroad, and is thrilled to be making her debut with Opera in Williamsburg. After earning a B.A. at Wellesley College in Massachusetts followed by a Masters in Music from Mannes College in New York City, she was a district winner of the Metropolitan Opera Eastern Region National Council Auditions in New York City. This past March 2018 she made her Carnegie Hall debut in the iconic Stern Hall as a soloist with Choirs of America. She is a founder and the artistic director of Bare Opera, a boutique opera company based in New York City specializing in immersive, approachable, site-specific opera performances in unconventional spaces.

BOBBY CAMPO, trumpeter, leader and composer, was also a founding member of La’s LeRoux and has performed and recorded with Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Kerry Livgren (of KANSAS), Don Vappie and the Creole Jazz Seranaders, Pete Fountain, The John Mahoney Big Band, Matt Lemmler, Delfeao, Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra and most recently Dr. John. Bobby also worked in the Baton Rouge Sym-Sphony for 19 years.