Artist Profiles

Cheryse McLeod

Lewis mezzo-soprano

Greensboro, North Carolina, native mezzo-soprano

Cheryse McLeod

Lewis enjoys a diverse career in opera, musical theater, concert, commercial, print, and voiceover. Lewis made her Spoleto Festival USA debut as The Mother (Fatima) in the world premiere production of Omar in 2022. She also recently reprised her world premiere role at Carolina Performing Arts in February 2023. Other recent role highlights include Bess Understudy/Ensemble Swing in the first National Broadway Tour of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess; Girlfriend 3/Congregant 3 in Blue (Seattle Opera); Carmen in Carmen (Asheville Lyric Opera, Capital Opera Raleigh); Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Asheville Lyric Opera, Mansfield Symphony, Central Georgia Opera Guild); Hansel in Hansel and Gretel (Connecticut Opera, Greensboro Opera); The Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors (Opera Carolina, Connecticut Opera); Cinderella’s Stepmother in Into the Woods (Village Theatre); and Annie in Porgy and Bess (Seattle Opera).

Lewis has been a concert soloist with Orchestra Seattle, Kirkland Choral Society, Eugene Concert Choir, Eastern Music Festival, Greensboro Symphony, Master Chorus Eastside and Greensboro Oratorio Society. Recent commercial, print, and voiceover credits include national ads for Amazon, Microsoft, Costco, T-Mobile, and Zillow. In addition to performing, she runs her own company, Premier Vocal Entertainment, that provides top-tier, professional vocal entertainment for year-round events in the greater Seattle area, where she is based. Follow @CheryseMezzo and @ PremierVocalEntertainment to learn more.

Described as “radiant” and “expressive” (New York Times) and “nothing less than gorgeous” (Memphis Commercial Appeal), cellist Karen Ouzounian leads a multifaceted career as a chamber musician, soloist, collaborator, and composer. Winner of the S&R Foundation’s Washington Award, she is drawn to unusual collaborations and the development of adventurous new works, and is soughtafter for her open-hearted, passionate, and vibrantly detailed approach to music-making. Recent projects include the creation of an experimental theater work with director Joanna Settle; the world premiere of Lembit

Beecher’s cello concerto Tell Me Again with the Orlando Philharmonic; the world premiere of Anna Clyne’s Shorthand for solo cello and strings with The Knights, which she subsequently toured as soloist with The Knights throughout Europe and the U.S. and released on Avie Records; the release of Kayhan Kalhor’s Blue as the Turquoise Night of Neyshabur for solo cello, kamancheh, and tabla; the development, touring, and recording of Osvaldo Golijov’s Falling Out of Time; and the digital world premiere of Beecher’s A Year to the Day, filmed for The Violin Channel with Augustin Hadelich and Nicholas Phan. She is a founding member of the Grammy-nominated Aizuri Quartet, and appears regularly as a member of the Silkroad Ensemble and The Knights. Her eveninglength video work In Motion, an exploration of heritage, family history, and migration through interviews, her own compositions, and collaborations with visual artists Kevork Mourad and Nomi Sasaki and composerpercussionist Haruka Fujii, was presented by BroadBand in 2021.