Women in Music Festival

Meet the Performers

Moira Smiley – Festival Headliner - Singer, Composer

Moira Smiley (pronounced “moor-uh”) has toured and made records with a renowned variety of artists, including indie-pop stars Tune-Yards; Irish-American legends, Solas; early music pioneers, Theater Of Voices; choral composer, Eric Whitacre; Americana archivists, The Lomax Project; multi-Grammy winning pianist Billy Childs; UK-based folk troubadours, Sam Amidon and Sam Lee, Rising Appalachia, The New World Symphony, KITKA as well as Smiley’s own ensembles VOCO and VIDA.

She is regularly commissioned to write large-scale choral and chamber music works, with millions singing her choral music around the world. Moira has been featured in TED conferences, on BBC Radio and TV, NPR, ABC Australia and live at countless venues from Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall to Walt Disney Concert Hall and Royal Festival Hall. Smiley is known for enchanting audiences whether on stage, atop glaciers, inside ships or in cozy kitchens from Norway to Tasmania. 

Moira’s 2018 solo album “Unzip The Horizon” premiered at the prestigious Savannah Music Festival in 2018, and she published its companion choral songbook in 2019. In February of 2021, she released her vocal album “In Our Voices” featuring international VOCO collaborators. Moira recently appeared with Tune-Yards on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Live on KEXP At Home, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

As a composer, Moira is known worldwide for choral arrangements like “Bring Me Little Water,” “Silvy” and originals, “Stand in That River” and “How Can I Cry.” She’s in demand as a commissioned composer, writing multi-movement pieces like “Time In Our Voices” and “In The Desert With You” for the Los Angeles Master Chorale, “Vonnegut Requiem: Light Perpetual” for Voces Novae, “Loud My Soul” for Ad Astra Festival and “Headwaters” for The Myrna Loy Theater. The European premiere of “Time In Our Voices” was performed by the voices and mobile phones of Ars Nova Copenhagen under the direction of Paul Hillier. In 2018-2019 Moira released the album and choral songbook “Unzip The Horizon” as companion to her “The Voice Is A Traveler” solo show. She continues composing and improvising in collaboration with artists in film, video game production, theater and dance, and her work can be heard on feature film soundtracks, BBC and PBS television programs, NPR and on more than 70 commercial albums. Upcoming premieres and current projects include “Greta Sails” for youth choir, “Utopias” for voices and strings and a re-telling of Ovid’s tale of Narcissus for mobile phones and voices.

Melissa Dunphy – Vocal Composer

Born in Australia and raised in an immigrant family, Melissa Dunphy herself immigrated to the United States in 2003 and has since become an award-winning and acclaimed composer specializing in vocal, political and theatrical music. She first came to national attention when her large-scale work “the Gonzales Cantata” was featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, National Review and on Fox News and The Rachel Maddow Show, where host Rachel Maddow described it as "the coolest thing you've ever seen on this show." Other notable works include the song cycle “Tesla's Pigeon,” which won first place in the NATS Art Song Composition Award, and choral work “What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach? ” which won the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Competition and has been performed nationally by ensembles including Chanticleer and Cantus.

In 2024, Dunphy was awarded and Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts. She was the recipient of a 2020 Opera America Discovery Grant for “Alice Tierney, ” an opera commissioned by Oberlin Conservatory which premiered in 2023 at Oberlin and Opera Columbus. She has been composer-in-residence for the Immaculata Symphony Orchestra, Volti and the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, and her commissions include works for the BBC Proms, the BBC Singers, VOCES8, Cantus, the Mendelssohn Chorus, ACDA Eastern, the American Guild of Organists and the Kennett Symphony. Dunphy is also a Barrymore Award-nominated theater composer and served from 2014-2023 as Director of Music Composition for the O'Neill National Puppetry Conference.

Dunphy has a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.M. from West Chester University and is on faculty at Rutgers University. She is president of the board of directors for Wildflower Composers and serves on the board of Lyric Fest. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Matt. The Dunphys are currently the owners and developers of the Hannah Callowhill Stage, a new performance venue in Old City Philadelphia which they hope to open in 2026, and co-hosts of the popular podcast ”The Boghouse” about their adventures in Philadelphia colonial archaeology.

Jasmine Fripp – Grammy-Nominated Music Educator

Grammy-nominated music educator Jasmine Fripp is the Interim Director of Choral Activities at The Tennessee State University. She is also the founder of The Passionate Black Educator. Fripp has dedicated her career to providing Black and Brown students with a quality music education. With almost a decade of teaching experience in public and charter schools, she has built award-winning choral programs that consistently receive excellent and superior ratings at festivals. In addition, her students have performed alongside several gospel recording artists and served as opening acts for Grammy award-winning artists Vanessa Bell Armstrong and The Clark Sisters and rising country music star Tiera Kennedy. Fripp’s former students' accomplishments include acceptance into several elite collegiate music programs, performing alongside famous recording artists, obtaining roles within professional music companies and creating musically-based social media content garnering millions of followers.

Fripp’s passion for providing Black and Brown students with a quality holistic education through music and empowering educators are her sole reasons for creating The Passionate Black Educator. The Passionate Black Educator aims to advocate for students of the global majority by providing opportunities to learn and advance through music, fine arts and education. PBE also empowers music educators of all cultural backgrounds to create student-centered classroom environments that promote anti-racism, culturally responsive pedagogy and healing-centered teaching. Fripp’s ability to fuse hip hop, choral music and creative teaching strategies has led to her being heavily sought after as a clinician by universities, school districts and professional organizations worldwide.

Fripp is a credited songwriter, background vocalist and recording artist. She is also an active member of The W. Crimm Singers, known as The Wakanda Chorale in Nashville, Tennessee. As a member of this prestigious group, Fripp has performed with recording artists Stars Go Dim and Grammy award-winning songwriting duo Louis York.

Fripp holds a Bachelor's in Music Education with a concentration in Choral Music from Winthrop University and a Master's in Music Education from Belmont University under the legacy of Dr. Jeffery Ames. She is a proud member of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated.

Theresa Martin – Composer, Clarinet

Dr. Theresa Martin (b. 1979) is an internationally recognized composer of energetic, melodious and rhythmically driven music who often draws her inspiration from literature, images, nature and personal experiences. Martin enjoys writing music for chamber groups and large ensembles, and given her expertise in clarinet performance, is frequently commissioned to write for the instrument. Martin has been commissioned by internationally prominent soloists including clarinetists Robert Spring, Joshua Gardner, Jana Starling and Wesley Ferreira, tubist Sam Pilafian, oboist Michele Fiala, bassoonist Albie Micklich as well as organizations such as the Barnett Foundation of Chicago, the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, the Arizona Wind Symphony, the Kairos Trio, Eufonix Tuba-Euphonium Quartet, the 10th and Broadway Clarinet Quartet, the University of Wisconsin Fox Valley Concert Band and the Arizona State University Wind Ensemble.

She has been awarded recognition by the American Composer’s Forum, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer's Competition and NACUSA Young Composer’s Competition, has received several ASCAPlus awards. Her music has been performed in Canada, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Sweden, Spain, China, Taiwan and Tanzania. Martin’s pieces are performed at international and national conferences such as the International Double Reed Society Conference, International Alliance for Women Congress, European Clarinet Association Festival, Xi’an International Clarinet Festival, multiple International Clarinet Association Clarinetfests, the Society of Composers, Inc. National Conferences, College Music Society Regional Conferences, Aspen Summer Music Festival, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, Georgia Music Educators Association Conference, American Composer’s Alliance Summer Music Festival, the TMEA Convention and the CBDNA National Conference. Studying both composition and clarinet performance, Martin received her DMA in composition at the University of Michigan and master’s degrees in composition and clarinet performance at Arizona State University.

Dr. Martin currently has a studio in Wisconsin, where she teaches private lessons in composition, clarinet and piano. She also appears as guest lecturer at universities around the country and locally. Her music is self-published via Verdant Publishing. As a clarinetist and pianist, she performs regularly in local ensembles. In addition to her musical activities, she enjoys spending time with her husband, son and daughter.

Madison King – Soprano

Madison King received her Bachelor of Vocal Performance (2014) and Master of Vocal Performance (2016) from Pittsburg State University. Under the instruction of Mr. Patrick Howle, she performed Pamina in “The Magic Flute,” Josephine in “HMS Pinafore,” Serpina in “La Serva Padrona” and Adina in “The Elixir of Love.”King was a member of the Tulsa Opera chorus (2015-18) under the leadership of Lyndon Meyer, and Tulsa Opera’s Filstrup Young Artist Outreach program (2018-2020). She performed with Landlocked Opera in Kansas City as Pamina in “Die Zauberflöte” and Hèro in “Beatrice et Benedict” in 2020.

King enjoyed participating in the programs of Manhattan Summer Opera, Chicago Summer Opera and Midwest Institute of Opera. During these programs, King had the opportunity to study and perform the roles of Despina in “Cosi fan tutte,” Susanna in “Le nozze di figaro,” First Knitter in “A Game of Chance” and Edith in “Pirates of Penzance.” With MIOpera, Madison understudied the role of Antonia in “Les contes d’Hoffmann” (2018), and participated in their virtual role studies as Violetta in “La Traviata” (2020) and Gilda in “Rigoletto” (2021). She had the pleasure of starring as Violetta Valery in MIOpera’s first film production of “La Traviata,” and as Micaela in the stage production of “Carmen.”

In 2022, Madison performed as the soprano soloist in Handel’s “Messiah” with the Missouri Southern State Symphony Orchestra, scenes from Dvorak’s “Rusalka” in collaboration with Heartland Opera Theatre and Missouri Southern State University and in Michael Ching’s “Remove Shoes Before Entering.” In 2023, King performed with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra in their concert, Scintillating Shakespeare, as Juliette, Desdemona and Maria. She then made her company and role debut as Donna Anna in Ozarks Lyric Opera’s production of “Don Giovanni” as well as with the Lawrence Opera Theatre as Micaela in “Carmen” and Lola in “Gallantry.” Recent performances include the premiere of “Emily’s Bees,” a song cycle by Michael Murray, and Soprano soloist in Haydn’s “Lord Nelson Mass” (2024). Upcoming engagements include Dido in MIOpera’s “Dido and Aeneas” and Giannetta (Adina cover) in Landlocked Opera’s “L’Elisir d’Amore.”

When Madison is not performing, she collaborates with Heartland Opera Theatre in Joplin, Missouri as a music and stage director. She directed their 2022 production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” and the 2023 productions of Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel” and “Dido and Aeneas.” Madison has also directed several cabaret productions with Heartland Opera.

Madison King resides in Carthage, Missouri with her husband, son and daughter. She teaches a private voice studio where several of her students perform regularly in school and local productions. King is an adjunct vocal instructor at Missouri Southern State University teaching voice, vocal pedagogy and diction, and was music director for the 2023 fall production of “Guys and Dolls.”

Rashi Grewal – Composer, Flute

Rashi Grewal is a mad mix of technical, legal and creative. A patent agent by profession, she spends her non-working hours tuning into her muse—the inner voice that guides her composing. She is generally compelled to write sad and serious themes in minor keys, though there are occasions of bright, happy tunes.