COME AS YOU ARE
VULNERABILITY IN THE CONCERT SPACE
Traditional concert settings can feel formal and exclusive, creating barriers between composers, performers, and audiences. Come As You Are (CAYA) aims to change that by making concert music more open, interactive, and accessible to all. Through storytelling and unique performance experiences, CAYA invites audiences to connect with music in new ways.
When: May 18, 2025
Where: Zhou B Art Center, 1801 E 18th St, Kansas City, MO 64108
2025 Theme: Opera for Young Audiences
This year, Come As You Are will feature micro operas designed for children and their families. These works will encourage social-emotional learning while exploring CAYA’s core themes of inclusivity, accessibility, and creative expression.
2025 SINGERS
Virginia Reed- Mezzo
New York Virginia Reed (she/they) is thrilled to be spending the season as a Resident Artist with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Versed in a wide range repertoire, favorite roles include Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), the title role in La Cenerentola, Sesto (La clemenza di Tito), Olga (Eugene Onegin) and Der Komponist (Ariadne auf Naxos). Reed was a scholarship recipient in the 2022 3rd Internationale Opernwerkstatt Waiblingen, performing with the Wurttemberg Philharmonic Reutlingen. She has worked as a Young Artist with Wolf Trap Opera, Central City Opera, and Janiec Opera Company at Brevard Music Center. Reed is a champion of concert and oratorio work, having performed as a choral artist with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Avery Fisher Hall, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. She looks forward to returning to Central City Opera this summer. Reed holds a BM from Manhattan School of Music and MM from San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Spencer McIntire- Bass/Baritone
Based in Kansas City, Baritone Spencer McIntire completed his Master’s of Music and a Performer’s Diploma at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Peter Volpe. While at IU, Spencer was seen on the IU Opera Theater stage as Dashwood in Little Women and Dick Deadeye in H.M.S. Pinafore. Other credits include Dick Deadeye (H.M.S. Pinafore), Frank (Die Dledermaus), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), and King Melchior (Amahl and the Night Visitors). Spencer was last seen onstage in Music On Site’s production of Don Giovanni as Leporello.
Riley Buck - Tenor
Tenor Riley Buck (he/him) comes originally from Gardner, Kansas. He is a recent graduate of the University of Missouri- Kansas City Conservatory, where he studied under Dr. Raymond Feener. During his time at the Conservatory, he was actively involved in UMKC Opera, both onstage and offstage. With UMKC he had the pleasure of portraying Frederic in Pirates of Penzance, Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte, and many other partial roles in the scenes program, including Ferrando from Così fan tutte and Almaviva in The barber of Seville. After graduating, he returned to UMKC to stage manage their autumn production of Mozart's The marriage of Figaro. Most recently, Riley made his debut with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City in the chorus of their production of Turandot. In the fall, he will be moving to Michigan to study with tenor Stanford Olsen. Having a deep love for the Kansas City area, he is delighted to be bringing opera and performing arts closer to the community with CAYA.
Bethany Jelinek- Soprano
Bethany Jelinek, soprano, is a versatile young artist, recognized for her “flawless vocal technique.” She is currently a Resident Artist with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City for the 2024–2025 season. This year, she made her mainstage debut with the company as Diana in Leonard Foglia’s Cruzar la Cara de la Luna and created the title role in the world premiere of Lori Laitman’s Maya and the Magic Ring, an opera for families.
Her growing list of accolades includes being named a Semifinalist in the 2024 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, a finalist in the inaugural 2024 Heartland Sings Vocal Competition, and the recipient of the 2023 Jonathan Pell People’s Choice Award from the Dallas Opera Guild Biennial Lone Star Vocal Competition.
Ms. Jelinek holds both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Vocal Performance from Southern Methodist University."
CAYA FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
The CAYA Fellowship offers a paid opportunity for three composers and three librettists to develop and premiere micro operas in collaboration with Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Fellows will work closely with professional mentors, producers, and musicians in an immersive, creative environment.
Ian Y. Chung- Composer
Ian Yeonchan Chung is a composer who creates a distinctive voice by combining elements of classical, jazz, and non-Western music to transcend cultural boundaries and reach a diverse audience globally. Chung recently won numerous awards, including the James E. Croft Grant for Emerging Wind Band Composers, the Dr. Gerald Kemner Prize Orchestra Composition Competition, the ASCAP Louis Armstrong Scholarship, the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music, and the 8th Esko Linnavalli Big Band Composition Competition in Finland. He is currently pursuing a D.M.A. in composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory under Dr. Chen Yi’s guidance. He completed his Master of Music at Brooklyn College under the supervision of Tania León and Jason Eckardt, where he cultivated his cosmopolitan approach to music composition. He also studied jazz composition with Michael Mossman, who helped to build his musical identity.
Victoria Moy- Librettist
Victoria Moy is a librettist, author, playwright, and screenwriter, born and raised in New York City’s Chinatown. She is a 2023 Opera America IDEA grant awardee. She composed her first aria, "Freedom to Express Taste" last year, which was performed at the inaugural Opera Austin Festival in November. She is the founder of Owl’s March, a diverse new media and theater club geared toward innovation and creativity. Moy is also the author of the book-length oral history "Fighting for the Dream: Voices of Chinese American Veterans from WWII to Afghanistan," which was number one on Amazon’s Hot New Releases in Asian Studies, and was featured on NPR, NBC News, and KCET.
Ashi Day- Composer
Ashi Day’s vocally driven works explore the intersections between music and theater; strategic humor and absurdity; the interplay between the experiences of performers, audiences, and the canon; and animal songs. Her operas, art songs, choral pieces, and theatrical works have been commissioned or performed by Whistling Hens, Hartford Opera Theater, KC Vitas, Fresh Squeezed Opera, Renegade Opera, Artifice, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Calliope’s Call, N.E.O. Voice Festival, Choral Arts Initiative, Cappella Clausura, Denison TUTTI, StageFree, District New Music Coalition, Cantate Chamber Singers, and more. She has collaborated with multidisciplinary artists to co-create theatrical shows for DC’s Source Festival and the Capital Fringe Festival. She has four operas for which she was the composer-librettist: The Fishwife, a reimagining of the Grimm fable about greed, “The Fisherman and His Wife”; Waking the Witch, an immersive chamber opera in which the audience plays an accused witch interrogated by a zealous witchfinder; For Whom the Dog Tolls, a mini-opera about a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever; and The Green Child, for clarinet and soprano, an imagining of the legend of the Green Children of Woolpit. She is a DC Arts and Humanities Fellow and an Opera America Discovery Grants for Women Composers awardee. Ashi earned her BM and MM in Composition at Bucknell University and Westminster Choir College, respectively, and her Ed.M. in Arts in Education at Harvard. In addition to composing, she manages several education programs for the Washington National Opera and sings professionally as a church musician.
Cliff Hoitt-Lange- Librettist
Music at soundcloud.com/altoscliff
Cliff Hoitt-Lange (they/them) is a queer performer, writer, and experimental violist based in Lawrence, KS. Originally from New York, they have a B.F.A. in Theater with a minor in English from New York University. They have been a curator and stage manager with the Exponential Festival, a Brooklyn-based festival dedicated to pushing the boundaries of theater and performance art. Cliff was also a participant in Fresh Ground Pepper’s Creative Leadership Lab on Building Strategies to Imagine a Liberated Theater. In the midwest, they performed as a musician and actor in the Queer Narratives Festival (NoDivideKC), 1309 (Mazzy Mann/Greenwood Social Hall), Dark Waters (The Ship), Something Rotten (Theatre Lawrence), Exultant Stag (Lawrence Arts Center), and the Replay Lounge. They are so very excited to work as a librettist with No Divide & composer Ashi Day for Come As You Are!
Rodrigo Camargo- Composer
Rodrigo Camargo holds a Master’s degree in Composition from Louisiana State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Composition from UFRJ. He studied with Dr. Mara Gibson (USA), Liduino Pitombeira (Brazil), and Marcos Nogueira. (Brazil) He has participated in events such as the Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Music, the Composer Series, the Atlantic Music Festival in the United States, and the Bienal da Música Brasileira Contemporânea. His works have been performed by groups from Brazil and the United States. Some highlights are his EPs “5 Poemas de Fernando Pessoa” and “Two Duos”, that can be found on various streaming platforms; His opera “Emily Somebody” premiered in May 2023 in the United States and was awarded Second Place in the American Prize for Opera Composition (College/University division). His most recent opera “Lira dos Enganos” will be premiered in Brazil in August 2025. Rodrigo is currently the recipient of the National Opera Association’s Dominick Argento Fellowship for Opera Composition. He is currently pursuing his DMA at the University of Missouri – Kansas City.
Marísa Adame Grady- Librettist
Marísa Adame Grady is what you get when parents push law school but there’s a prima-hermana (cousin-sister) constantly playing showtunes. Marísa houses her original projects within her small business, Colibrósa Productions. She has three poetry books released, and two short films completed. She was a Writing Resident at Charlotte Street from 2022-2024. She has been published in Crab Fat Magazine, Mad Swirl, the Glass: Poets Resist series, and more. Learn more at www.colibrosaproductions.com.