2024 Honors Chorus

Aaron Peisner is dedicated to making honest and thoughtful music through his work as a conductor, singer, and educator. He serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he conducts the Concert Choir, Chamber Choir, and Opera Workshop, and teaches courses in aural skills, choral methods and repertoire, and voice. Dr. Peisner is the artistic director and conductor of the Cape Fear Chorale, a community choir based in Wilmington, NC. Prior to working at UNCW, Dr. Peisner served as Interim Director of Choirs at Goucher College in Towson, MD, and assistant conductor for the University Singers at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

During his DMA coursework at the University of Maryland, Dr. Peisner served as assistant conductor of the University of Maryland Chamber Singers during the 2017-2018 season, preparing the ensemble for collaborations with major orchestras and conductors, including performances of the Mozart Requiem with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Jeannette Sorrell, and John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda. He also served as the conductor of the University of Maryland Chorale and the University of Maryland Summer Chorus, as well as the chorus master for the Maryland Opera Studio, preparing the chorus for their role in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites.

A professional bass-baritone, Dr. Peisner has sung with hexaCollective, the Washington Master Chorale, the choir at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the San Francisco Choral Artists, Polyhymnia (NYC), and Yale Schola Cantorum.

Dr. Peisner has a wide array of research interests, including applying critical pedagogy to choral rehearsals, Spanish Renaissance polyphony, Kurt Weill's Das Berliner Requiem for men's chorus and wind band, and Georgian and Bulgarian vocal music.

Dr. Peisner holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in choral conducting from the University of Maryland, where he received the Daniel L. Pomeroy Prize for outstanding work in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music. He earned a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from the Yale School of Music and a Bachelor of Arts in music from Wesleyan University. Dr. Peisner has studied conducting with Edward Maclary, James Ross, Marguerite Brooks, Jeffrey Douma, David Hill, Masaaki Suzuki, Kenneth Kiesler, and Neely Bruce.

Laurie Russ was the Music Director for Southport Presbyterian Church for 16 years.  Additionally, Laurie is Director-Owner of A Nesting Place Preschool in Southport. She has broad experience as a music professional and educator,  serving as a music director and pianist in area churches and schools as well as a piano instructor, accompanist, and independent piano teacher.  Laurie studied music at Meredith College and at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Ms. Russ enjoys collaborating with many vocal artists and music groups. 

Elizabeth Stovall received her Master’s degree in Voice Performance from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2019 and her Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance from East Carolina University in 2017. In January of 2021 she accepted a full-time position as a lecturer in voice at UNC Wilmington. Some of her recent operatic roles include: Papagena in Opera Wilmington’s production of The Magic Flute, Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen, Serpetta in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera, and Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. In March of 2020, she made her musical theater debut with the role of Maria in Opera House Theater Company’s production of The Sound of Music. In 2014, she was crowned Miss North Carolina and went on to compete in the Miss America competition where she was awarded a non-finalist talent award. While competing in the Miss America system, Stovall promoted her platform: Inspiration Art. In addition to speaking to thousands of students across the state of NC, she also spoke to legislators about the importance of arts education on the House floor in Raleigh. Her passion for arts education is still a very important part of her life, and she plans to continue performing professionally and teaching voice for as long as she can.

NANCY KING is chair, professor of voice at the UNCW Department of Music, and is an active performer and guest lecturer. King has served as the artistic director of Opera Wilmington since its founding in 2014, and stage directed several productions, including Tosca, La Traviata, Magic Flute, La Bohème, Hansel and Gretel, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Die Fledermaus, Carmen, and Rigoletto. Operatic roles include Hannah Glawari in Lehár’s The Merry Widow, Cunegonde in Bernstein’s Candide, Adele in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, and Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. King frequently tours and records with Robert Nathanson, guitar, as Duo Sureño, performing new works for voice and guitar, and was a member of the Grammy Award-winning Oregon Bach Festival Chorus from 1998-2004, under the direction of Helmuth Rilling.