Hunter Opera Theater Presents the World Premiere Workshop Reading of
The Secret Melody
by Composer, Luc Baiwir & Librettist, Susan Gonzalez
Hunter College, 695 Park Avenue, NY, NY 10065
LANG RECITAL HALL, 4th floor, 69th Street Entrance
December 11 at 7:00 PM
December 13 at 2:00PM, 2025
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Admission is Free, click here to register
Hunter Opera Theater proudly presents the premiere workshop reading of The Secret Melody, a new opera by internationally renowned composer Luc Baiwir and librettist/dramaturg, Susan Gonzalez. Admission is free and open to the public. Performances will take place on Thursday, December 11 at 7:00 PM and Saturday, December 13 at 2:00 PM at Hunter College, Lang Recital Hall.
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This innovative project marks an exciting collaboration between Luc Baiwir, Susan Gonzalez and the students of Creating Opera: A Workshop for Singers, led by Professor Susan Gonzalez, Director of the Voice Studies and Artistic Director of Hunter Opera Theater. In addition to her leadership of the program, and with assistance of conductor and coach Lana Norris, students have played an integral role in developing this two-act opera in English—shaping its libretto, refining musical elements, and exploring the vocal tessitura, voice type, and character development of each role.
ABOUT THE SECRET MELODY
On a snowy night in Paris, the Sisters of Sacre Coeur Convent discover an abandoned baby, left with a note and a mysterious sheet of music, and vow to raise her if no one claims her. Twenty years later, Emily Providence, along with friends Kathleen Smith, Frankie Moore, and pianist Jonathan Vassy, study at the Paris Academy of Performing Arts under the guidance of Elisabeth Wilson. As they prepare for auditions in New York, Emily discovers the full brilliance of her extraordinary singing voice. Along the way, she and Jonathan develop a deep and enduring romantic bond. In the bustling city, Emily struggles to break into the musical world but perseveres, performing in the subway to support her training. With the help of Jonathan, the sisters, and mentors including Francois Malon, Emily lands a lead role at the New York City Opera. Through her operatic success, she uncovers the truth about her mysterious past, revealing the identities of her parents, and is joyfully reunited with them and Jonathan, culminating in a triumph of love, music, and family.
THE SECRET MELODY
Music by Luc Baiwir
Libretto by Luc Baiwir and Susan Gonzalez
PRODUCTION TEAM
Susan Gonzalez, Director/Producer/Dramaturg
Lana Norris, Conductor/Coach
Archie Worley, Chief Music Editor
Corinne Schaefer, Production Manager
Naoko Aita, Piano Collaborator/Music Editor
Sara Banleigh, Rehearsal Pianist
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CAST
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​ PRODUCTION TEAM BIOS
Luc Baiwir, Composer
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LUC BAIWIR is an internationally celebrated Belgian composer, pianist, and symphonic innovator whose work spans classical concert music, film scoring, electronic sound design, and large-scale multimedia performance. A graduate of the Liège Conservatoire and the University of Liège, he began his career as a prize-winning pianist before turning fully to composition.
He rose to prominence after receiving the prestigious Prix François de Roubaix for his symphonic work Seasong, launching a prolific career scoring major international television productions and award-winning underwater and wildlife documentaries. His film and media compositions have earned him multiple Palmes d’Or at festivals in Antibes, Toulon, Montpellier, Strasbourg, and Rabat.​
Baiwir’s music has been featured in concerts across Europe—including Montpellier, Ajaccio, Calvi (broadcast live on France 3), Strasbourg, London, Lugano, and Liège, where he performed before an audience of more than 30,000. His dynamic performance style and cinematic orchestral language have made him a sought-after collaborator for both stage and screen.​In 2000, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie commissioned his monumental Symphonie des Âges for piano, soprano, choir, and orchestra. Premiered for an audience of 35,000, the work established Baiwir as a distinctive symphonic voice blending classical writing with modern sonic textures. His compositions have since been performed by distinguished soloists and ensembles at festivals throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States.His international reach includes notable success in Asia, where his debut album sold over 100,000 copies, and his score for the Korean film Friends propelled In Memoriam into the Korean Top 50. Today, Luc Baiwir continues to compose for film, television, and the concert stage, bringing his unmistakable blend of lyricism, drama, and symphonic imagination to audiences around the world leading to his first opera, The Secret Melody.
Susan Gonzalez, Director/Producer
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SUSAN GONZALEZ is the Director of Hunter Opera Theater (HOT) at Hunter College, where she champions the development and production of new operatic works. Since launching HOT’s inaugural season in 2007, she has cultivated a dynamic platform for emerging composers, librettists, and singers. The 2025 season continues this mission with a workshop of The Secret Melody by Luc Baiwir, for which she also serves as dramaturg and librettist.
Dr. Gonzalez’s international career spans decades across film, theater, and opera. Her screen work includes the BBC series Sailor, honored with the British National SUN Award for Excellence. She began her professional singing career
with the National Opera Company in leading roles such as Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), and Norina (Don Pasquale). She later performed Violetta in La Traviata with the Lyric Opera of Chicago at Grant Park, as well as with Chicago Opera Theater, New Orleans Opera, and many other companies. Her international credits include acclaimed debuts with the Bolshoi Opera in Cheboksary and Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Her televised performance as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia earned an Emmy nomination. Her concert appearances include performances at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall with the National Symphony and at Carnegie Hall with the American Composers Orchestra. She has been featured with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, and Annapolis Symphony. A passionate advocate of contemporary music and women composers, she has recorded for Naxos, Artek, Leonarda, and Westland Music Inc., showcasing works by Nicholas Flagello, Luc Baiwir, Joyce Hope Suskind, Ruth Schonthal, Elisenda Fábregas, and Elizabeth R. Austin.Dr. Gonzalez holds degrees from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the Eastman School of Music, where she earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Literature and Performance.
Lana Norris, Conductor/Coach
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LANA NORRIS is a NYC-based conductor and educator known for dynamic musicianship. In addition to her Hunter professorship facilitating both new opera and classical performances, Lana is the first-ever Associate Conductor of Ember Choral Arts; Teaching Artist with Musica Sacra; Staff Musician at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine; and a Staff Contributor to I CARE IF YOU LISTEN powered by American Composers Forum with her music journalism in the Library of Congress. She is on the creative team for the Lincoln Center 2025 production of Jeanine Tesori’s BLUE. Lana is a member of the Maestra Music network.
James Archie Worley, Music Editor
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JAMES ARCHIE WORLEY, Hunter College adjunct assistant professor, has covered roles at the Metropolitan Opera, and has appeared as tenor soloist in a variety of major venues in the US and abroad. Archie premiered P. D. Q. Bach’s Four Next-to-Last Songs at Carnegie Hall, and sang the role of The King on Philip Glass’s recording of The Witches of Venice. He has toured with the Mark Morris Dance company and the New York Vocal Arts Ensemble and appears as an Irish singer in the movie The Other Guys, and the opera singing vendor in A Complete Unknown.
Corinne Schaefer, Production Manager
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CORINNE SCHAEFER serves as Production Manager at Hunter Opera Theater and Assistant to Artistic Director Susan Gonzalez. Her operatic roles include Die Königin der Nacht (Die Zauberflöte), Olympia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Nanetta (Falstaff), Musetta (La Bohème), Clotilde (Norma), Norina (Don Pasquale), and Beth (Little Women). She has performed internationally as a soloist, including appearances with the New Jersey Symphony and for the U.S. Consulate in Hamburg, Germany. Corinne also performed in the German production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera in Hamburg, where she appeared as Carlotta over 100 times. In 2022, she founded Creative OPERAtions, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Monmouth County, NJ, dedicated to sharing the transformative power of opera, classical music, and the arts through accessible performances and community partnerships.
Naoko Aita, Piano Collaborator
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NAOKO AITA, Piano, is an adjunct accompanist at Hunter College, a pianist at Ron Raines’s voice studio, the music director at the Japanese American United Church. She has over 34 years of experience teaching piano. Naoko has been performing throughout Metropolitan area as an accompanist. She has YouTube channel as Ministry Thru Piano, there are over 1000 piano accompaniment tracks to sing along with.
Sara Banleigh, Rehearsal Pianist
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SARA BANLEIGH is a graduate student at Hunter College, pursuing her Master of Arts in Classical Voice and Music History. As a singer and pianist, she has performed at Lincoln Center, The Institute for Sacred Music at Yale University, The Library of Congress, the New England Folk Festival, the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival, and many others stages nationally and internationally. She performs regularly with The Red Skies Music Ensemble, an innovative group combining music, research, theater, and live performance. She is also an ensemble pianist with Country Dance New York, playing Baroque and Classical dance tunes for CDNY’s English County Dance events. Her original folk music and arrangements can be found at http://sarabanleigh.bandcamp.com.