A DC-BASED COMPANY, and at our core:
DEVELOPING AND PRODUCING ORIGINAL WORKS OF MUSIC-THEATRE,
FOSTERING THE GROWTH OF ARTISTS,
AND ENGAGING WITH THE COMMUNITY IN PARTNERSHIP
Changing the Conversation Through the Arts
The George Fulginiti Series: Cabaret, Cocktails, & Conversation
We closed out our 2025- 2026 Cabaret Season with a very successful show!
On Tuesday, June 2, we presented our last cabaret of our second season at The Arts Club of Washington on a beautiful mild summer evening and a packed house for artist Alan Naylor. This multi-talented singer-actor often surprises you and always delights. For this, his curated cabaret, when the curtains opened, there he was seated in an homage to the Muppets as Kermit the Frog. He even got the room singing the ‘Mr. Rogers theme song.’
But it wasn’t always giggles and light-hearted banter. The theme of the evening was “Songs We Need Now.” Alan acknowledged some of our unrest, our sorrow, and our fears. He invited us to accompany him on a journey into tender and dark places, and the program included poetry, piano pieces, and songs. The program took risks with what most of us probably expected of the cabaret form, but his performance was as brave as it was honest and always emotionally true. Sharing the stage with him were two fine artists, pianist Erin Lee and Ukrainian-American singer and musician Marie Nikolaevna Herrington.
Alan’s standout strong and expressive voice will be heard again next season when he will join the ensemble in a Weimar-inspired preview of our new work - “Cabaret Mephisto.”
This is our lineup for our 2026-2027 Cabaret Season
October 6, 2026. CARMEN MEETS LOLA
Crossover Artist, Company Member, and Dominican Republic songstress Melisa Bonetti blends different music genres, pairing operatic arias with jazzy standards to express wild and deep emotions.
December 1, 2026. CURTAIN CALLS: HOWARD EDITION
Company Member Daniel ‘Deacon’ Smith takes the lead, helps us embark on a partnership with Howard University, leading award-winning student performers from a cabaret competition.
February 2, 2027. A GATSBY FOR OUR TIME
This cabaret will feature songs from Company Member Josh Cleveland's adaptation of Fitzgerald's novel with original music and lyrics inspired by 20’s jazz.
April 6, 2027. SUZY PLAYS THE SAXOPHONE
Prominent silent film musician Andrew Earle Simpson screens an exuberant 1928 French/German silent film, Saxophone Suzy, accompanied by a new live score plus new arrangements of Weimar-inspired cabaret.
May 4, 2027. SING THE UNSUNG
Company Member Cara Schaefer shares her wit, expressive voice, and enormously generous heart, especially for all creatures great & small whose stories are overlooked in the mainstream narrative.
June 1, 2027. MEPHISTO AS A WEIMAR CABARET
Join us when our whole cabaret ensemble reassembles in a season finale and a preview of a new work based on Klaus Mann’s novel, Mephisto, about making art in a growing Fascist society.
Alan Naylor with Lincoln Hop
(our Featured Artist this month)
at the Arts Club on June 2.
Subscribe to our 2026-2027 season
All six cabarets for the discounted rate of $330.
To sign up, please contact us or purchase here.
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2026 Composer-Librettist Studio
Save June 28 at 3:00 pm for the Showcase Performance!
Alliance for New-Music Theatre will offer its fourth annual DC Composer-Librettist Studio this summer starting Saturday June 13.
On Sunday June 28 at 3 pm, the work culminates in an informal recital where artists will share everything that has been written in the 16 days – all 25 pieces! Save the date and join us in the little recital hall of the UDC’s Music Department. Many alumni have called the experience “life-transforming.”
The University of the District of Columbia’s Music Department is once again hosting the sixteen-day intensive. Sonja Thompson returns as Music Director to co-facilitate the program.
The CL Studio provides a rare opportunity for composers, librettists and singer-actors to deepen their understanding of the principles and practice of the art of collaboration that is music-theater. Artists are encouraged to explore and take chances in a series of assignments without the pressure or expectation of a finished “work.”
The 2025 CL Studio Alumni
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Live & About with New Music-Theatre
Our rounded out our fifteenth Live & About season by taking our participants to our June Cabaret - combining these two core programs for this event. The Live & About Series provides opportunities to sample a variety of music-theater genres each month during the season, in some cases be introduced to productions from area companies big and small, and come together to enjoy each other’s company and engage in lively conversation following the performances.
We will announce our 2026 Fall Season when the monthly Outings are finalized.
Please let us know if you are interested in joining - info@newmusictheatre.org
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Featured Artist - Lincoln Hop
Lincoln Hop may be the youngest member of our company family but already he has made his mark as a singer and with other valuable contributions. He joined our youth chorus, coro de la comunidad, in the winter of 2023 while New Music-Theatre was still developing its bilingual chamber opera, On the Road to Arivaca, by composer Rosino Serrano and librettist Susan Galbraith.
The coro was led by Leo Herrera, and I asked Lincoln what he thought of working under our “maestro.”
I was introduced by another coro member Sophia Door, as we shared a class. She wondered if I spoke Spanish, and as my mother is Mexican, it seemed like a good opportunity to sing in both languages. Maestro Leo gave me so much more. As a singer himself, he was such a model as a singer -- he has an amazing range and conveys so much expression. But his talent as a teacher as well, his ability to work with so many different ages and levels. He was so encouraging and able to bring out some artistry even in the younger students. He also gave us a foundation in music theory. He taught me how to approach dynamics in a choir. And of course, we all had a lot of fun, and these coro friends were fabulous. I hope it comes back, for sure.
(Our coro was put on pause in 2025 when ICE agents roamed the street and began terrorizing school-age kids and their families).
Would you speak to your experience working alongside professionals developing a new opera?
Well, I especially remember how the Baritone Javier Arrey worked with us, so generously, not only helping with singing, but approaching our roles as actors and developing characters. Then just to see the professionals come in, Javier and Isarel Lozano especially with all the preparation they had put into it.
So, when did you really get the bug to make music a passion you wanted to pursue?
It was really ignited in the Composer Librettist Studio. I was invited in as an intern-assistant in the summer of 2023. I got to sit in as new small pieces were being created. It was such a great experience. Just hearing a song sometimes and getting that feeling – a tingling nervousness-excitement. I remember the piece “Get ‘em off the Field” it showed me how to get a message across through a story and then the music is so beautiful. The medium is so powerful how to get people’s attention.
And now? You’re a major in the music program at George Mason University? And you are happily a bilingual artist? What are you discovering?
I still love to sing. And I’d like to compose for a variety of genres, but certainly music-theatre. I prefer writing in English because it’s my formal education language. But I prefer singing in Spanish. The vowels are more beautiful, richer, and it seems to me a more romantic language. I’ve written two songs for my mom in Spanish. She enjoyed them and appreciates how they express my adoration of her.
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Artists on View
Robert Feng, a composer and singer who participated in our Composer Librettist Studio in 2025, will be performing with Opera Neo in San Diego in the US Premiere of Louise Bertin's Fausto as Mefistofele June 26-27 and in Rossini's Il Turco in Italia as Don Geronio (both villains) on July 24-25.
Tickets and Info: Opera Neo | San Diego's Premier Summer Opera Festival
at Dada Lab – 2008 Alexander Ave, Austin, TX
Robert’s first opera, Having Guests for Dinner, will be performed with One Ounce Opera in Texas as one of the winners of their 8th Annual Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera (FSOO) Competition. July 17-25 at Dada Lab in Austin. - One Ounce Opera Production Company
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Thanks to all our Friends and Supporters of Alliance for New Music-Theatre:
We are looking ahead to 2026 and are celebrating over 30-Years as a Not-for-Profit 501 (c) (3) designated Public Charity serving the greater DMV.
These are precarious times for the arts, but we are determined to continue our important work in our community to fulfill our mission to:
· Develop new works of music-theatre
· Foster the growth of professional and aspiring artists
· Engage the community into the creative process to promote a deeper understanding and critical appreciation of the
transformative power of music-theatre.
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