LISA GRAHAM, Music Director
Lisa Graham is in her twenty-first season as Music Director of the Metropolitan Chorale. Under her leadership, the Chorale’s membership has grown in size to 100 members who hail from communities throughout the Boston area. Dr. Graham has shaped the Chorale’s programming to include contemporary, American, and lesser-known programs, alongside the masterworks of the repertory. She has enhanced the reputation and reach of the Chorale through collaborations with acclaimed vocalists and instrumentalists, as well as established composers of our day. In a review of her guest appearance conducting the Metropolitan Chorale and the Boston Pops, Broadway World praised Dr. Graham as “a spellbinding maestro, balletic in her direction … a great connection with her performers on stage.”
JULIA SCOTT CAREY, Collaborative Pianist
Julia Scott Carey began her music training at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, where she received the Lanier Prize for Most Outstanding Graduating Senior. She was one of the first students admitted to the Harvard-New England Conservatory joint degree program, through which she received a master’s degree in composition. She received a second master’s degree in collaborative piano from Boston University.
Artists in Residence
SOPHIE CARPENTER, Soprano
Sophie Carpenter is a Boston-based lyric soprano, composer, librettist, and stage manager. Her experience spans across styles ranging from opera to musical theater to recital and sacred music. A dedicated and zealous young artist, she is diligent at maintaining a versatile outlook on the music industry. She strives to perform and create new, uplifting and powerful pieces, and has been in over ten world premieres of new opera and musical theater. Recent roles include Second Spirit (The Magic Flute), Jane (The Yellow Wallpaper, a new opera),
Momus (Phoebus und Pan), River (In Pieces), and Prospero (Red Death, a new micro-opera).
Sophie was a semi-finalist at the 2023 Hal Leonard Competition in the Young Adult Musical Theatre division, district qualifier for the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition 2023 and an Honorable Mention at the Calliope’s Call Competition 2022. She was an Artist in Training with MassOpera 2022-2023 and with Boston Opera Collaborative from 2021-2022.
Co-Founder and Executive Director of Ted and Togo Productions, she works interminably to make sure she is becoming the best modern musician possible, while actively focusing on providing space for women in the arts. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Vocal Performance from Carnegie Mellon, and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Longy School of Music. She is thrilled to return to the Metropolitan Chorale for the 2024-2025 season!
LISA BARONE, Mezzo-soprano
Renowned for her exceptionally velvety voice and magnetic stage presence, Lisa Barone is an accomplished mezzo-soprano from Methuen, MA. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, she holds degrees in Professional Studies, Masters, and Bachelors degrees in vocal performance. Lisa has taken on diverse roles, such as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with Raylynmor Opera, Despina in Così fan tutte, and Maria Aegyptiaca in Mahler’s 8th Symphony at St. John the Divine under Kent Tritle.
Lisa’s repertoire spans from opera to choral works, having performed in
festivals such as the Verdi Square Festival and with the Oratorio Society of New York, where she was Alto Choral Scholar. Her choral highlights include Verdi’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, and Carmina Burana. She has earned multiple accolades for her excellence in music, including the Alexander Hunt Award, the Candace Macmillen Achtmeyer Award, and the Barbara E. Maze Award for Musical Excellence.
Lisa is a sought-after performer throughout Greater Boston for weddings, memorials, and other services, and recently toured with the Boston Pops for their holiday tour under Keith Lockhart. This past summer, she was featured as the alto soloist in the Masterworks Chorale Summer Sings series, performing Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Mozart’s Requiem. This fall, Lisa will perform the Duruflé Requiem with the Wellesley Hills Congregational Church under the baton of William Cooper, continuing her commitment to sacred music. This spring, she will be competing in the Music International Grand Prix Competition as a semi-finalist. Her artistry has been praised by classical masters such as Stephanie Blythe, Marilyn Horne, and Thomas Hampson.
In addition to performing, Lisa is the music school administrator at Jammin With You in Wellesley, and serves as the alto soloist at Wellesley Hills Congregational Church.
MICHAEL MERULLO, Tenor
Noted for his “flexible and expressive voice”, tenor Michael Merullo is a Boston-based performer rooted in the local opera, musical theater, and choral communities. Michael is thrilled to rejoin the Metropolitan Chorale after a few years away focusing on his real estate career. Recent engagements include performing as a tenor soloist in BWV 93, the Cantata titled “Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten.” Michael enjoys working with many local companies including Boston Lyric Opera, Concord Players, and the Cantata Singers, among others.
Recent role highlights include Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm in A Little Night Music; Arbace in Idomendo and Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro.
Michael was awarded second place at the 2014 Piccola Opera Vocal Competition and also received the Chancellor’s Talent Award at his alma mater all four years of his studies.Michael’s joy for storytelling is also shared through his nationally recognized professional real estate services.
NATE RAMSAYER, Baritone
Nate Ramsayer is an accomplished professional singer in Boston; as a freelance artist he has sung backup for classical and Broadway greats such as Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, Audra McDonald, Heather Headley, and multiple tours for Josh Groban.
He has also performed as a singer for the international tours of The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, Game of Thrones: Live Concert Experience, and Star Wars: In Concert. Nate frequently serves as a ringer for community and church choirs all around the Greater Boston Area. For a decade of his career, he performed regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops as part of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. An avid lover of musical theater, Nate has played numerous leading roles in various shows throughout New England in recent years. He serves nationally as an artistic consultant for Les Misérables, and has worked on 14 different productions of the show. Nate also performs at dozens of senior living communities, spreading the joys of jazz standards, musical theater, and holiday-themed programs. Additionally, Nate holds a Master’s degree in Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East from Brandeis University, and is an archaeologist who has excavated at numerous sites in Israel, Russia, and the U.K. Other Nate fun facts: he sang in an award-winning barbershop quartet called Deadline, and is a former karaoke host, samurai sword tournament champion, and one of America’s top-scoring Ms. Pac-Man players.