Voice: Technique & Lyric Interpretation

Other clinicians to be announced soon!

LAUREL MASSE' is a professional singer and educator most known for her "creamy" Jazz vocals and soaring four octave vocal range.  She began her career in the 70's with the award-winning vocal group, Manhattan Transfer, with whom she recorded four albums that earned gold and platinum certification.  Massé achieved international reknown with the group, touring around the globe and appearing on numerous television shows including their own, The Manhattan Transfer Show, which had a short run on CBS the Summer of 1975, only one year after the release of their first album.

In the midst of the early fame The Manhattan Transfer enjoyed, a near-fatal car accident in 1978 precipitated her departure from the group, a long-recovery from her injuries, some soul-searching and the launch of her tremendous solo career in Chicago.  

An incredible, adaptable musician, Massé's musical work encompasses a variety of genres - Jazz, Folk, Bluegrass, Blues, Pop, Standards, Hymns and Spirituals. She has worked with artists such as Barry Manilow, Tim Curry and Carol Hall, and reunited in 2009 with Manhattan Transfer's Janis Siegel to record the critically acclaimed album That Ol' Mercer Magic, a compilation of tunes by Johnny Mercer, with Lauren Kinhan of New York Voices.  In 2012, She collaborated with pianist/arranger Tex Arnold (2018 Songbook South Clinician) to produce her album,  Once In A Million Moons.  She is showcased in the feature film Camilla Dickinson (Kairos Productions) singing one of her own compositions, "The Heavens Tonight", co-written with Tex Arnold and Larry Kerchner.

Transcending the music scene, she established herself as an actor in New York with Project Rushmore's readings of Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart (Lenny) and Shakespear's King Lear (Cordelia).

She has lectured and taught at Yale, Dartmouth and The Royal Academy of Music (UK).  She is a sought after adjudicator and clinician for high school and college choir festivals and has taught at the Ashokan Music and Dance Camp since 1997.

Ms. Massé received the MAC Lifetime Achievement Award in in 2004 which was followed with in 2009 with being awarded Bistro Best Jazz Vocalist.  She is also a member of ASCAP and SAG-AFTRA.

For more information, visit her website: www.laurelmasse.com

Composer/Music Director/Vocal Coach/ Arranger/Accompanist

JEFFREY SAVER has composed the musicals Dodsworth (starring Hal Linden and Dee Hoty) and Time After Time with collaborator Stephen Cole and music for the documentary film In My Hands (directed and produced by Ann Reinking). He has written and arranged special material for: Chita Rivera, Christine Baranski, Rosie O’Donnell, Dorothy Loudon, Joel Grey, Bebe Neuwirth and others. As a music director and pianist, his Broadway credits include Allegiance, (starring Lea Salonga and George Takei), End Of The Rainbow (Broadway and L.A. productions), Sister Act, Chicago, Kiss Of The Spider Woman, Into The Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, The Secret Garden, The Rink and A Chorus Line. Off Broadway: Milk And Honey, A World To Win: the songs of Sheldon Harnick (both at the York Theatre), The Fantasticks, Lucky Stiff. Tours: Dancin’ (U.S. and Japan), A Chorus Line (Paris). Regional: Annie, Sweeney Todd (with George Hearn and Judy Kaye) and Can-Can at Paper Mill Playhouse; Merrily We Roll Along and A Wonderful Life at Arena Stage; Arthur at the Goodspeed Opera House. Also served as musical supervisor of a benefit concert for The Actor’s Fund of A Wonderful Life (starring Brian Stokes Mitchell, Judy Kuhn and David Hyde-Pierce). Cast albums include: Time After Time, Dodsworth and New Songs from New Musicals (featuring Judy Blazer, Christian Borle, Liz Callaway and Walter Charles, available on Original Cast Records OC 6128); Chicago (both Broadway and Soundtrack); Kiss of the Spider Woman (with Vanessa Williams); Lucky Stiff.  He is a graduate of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he subsequently taught in the musical theatre department. Additionally, he taught at Point Park University as a music director and teaching artist-in-residence. Jeff is an honored to be a founding member of NewArts (formerly the 12/14 Foundation) in Newtown, CT where he music directed From Broadway With Love; A Benefit Concert For Sandy Hook (broadcast on PBS), Seussical, the world premiere of A Rockin’ Midsummer Night’s Dream,  Liberty Smith, School Of Rock, The Wizard Of Oz and Joseph…Dreamcoat. Recent credits include Grand Hotel for Encores at New York’s City Center, next to normal at UNCSA in Winston-Salem, N.C., 42nd Street at Southern Utah University and Freaky Friday at North Shore Music Theatre.

You can follow him on social media: YouTube,

DR. BRIANA SOSENHEIMER has directed and assistant directed over 30 different productions with Indianapolis Opera, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Chicago Summer Opera, Ball State University, Anderson University, Indiana Wesleyan University, and Georgia Southern University. Her comedic staging has been praised by the PA Theater Guide as “pure fun”. With a passion for opera outreach, she has pastiche composed four operas for children which have been performed across the country. Her opera for children The Three Little Hoosier Pigs was part of Indianapolis Opera’s 2020-21 season.

As a soprano, she has sung internationally in Austria, Canada, Italy, South Africa, and throughout the United States. This includes performing principle roles in productions of Le nozze di Figaro, La Boheme, Werther, and Carmen. She has also appeared as a soloist in oratorios including Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, and Coronation Mass. As a recitalist, Dr. Sosenheimer delves into contemporary works and late German lieder. She is a former member of the Bowling Green Children’s Opera and Indianapolis Opera Ensemble that presented educational outreach programs and performed children’s operas throughout the Midwest.

As a former member of In Sync Dance Theatre, Dr. Sosenheimer had the opportunity to perform with Chicago Tap Theatre. Choreographed productions include GREASE The Musical, The Little Mermaid, and South Pacific. Dr. Sosenheimer is a member of The Southern Open Rhythm Collective promoting the education and appreciation of the art of tap dance.

Dr. Sosenheimer graduated from Hope College with a B.M. in vocal performance and minor in dance. She holds a M.M. in Vocal Performance from Bowling Green State University and a D.A. in Vocal Performance and Stage Direction from Ball State University. She most recently earned a Level I certification in Somatic Voicework - The LoVetri Method for vocal training in Contemporary Commercial Music styles. She has served as the Stage Director for the I.O. Resident Artist Ensemble and the Resident Assistant Director at Indianapolis Opera as well as held faculty positions at Purdue University Fort Wayne and Taylor University in Indiana. Currently, she serves as an Assistant Professor of Music (Voice) and Director of Singers' Workshop at the Hurley School of Music.

Voice: Technique

Broadway Belting