Juneteenth Panelists

Baritone Ian Highcock received their Bachelor of Music Performance degree from the College of New Jersey in December 2011. As a member of TCNJ’s Lyric Theatre, Ian sang the roles of Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, Doctor Bartolo in The Barber of Seville, and Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance. Ian again sang the role of the Major-General with Pennsbury Community Chorus in 2013. Ian was the bass soloist for TCNJ Chorale and Orchestra’s U.S. and N.Y. premieres of George Friedrich Haas’s Sieben Klangräume accompanying the unfinished fragments of Mozart’s Requiem. Ian sang the title role of Noah in Benjamin Britten's Noye's Fludde under the baton of James Moyer at Lawrenceville Presbyterian in May 2014.  In November 2014 Ian was the baritone soloist for the Fauré Requiem with Singing City under the baton of Jeffrey Brillhart.  
Ian was a professional chorister with Opera Boheme NJ from 2009-2018, and their major credits with the company were the Notary in 

Don Pasquale, the Marquis in La Traviata and most recently Morales in Boheme’s 2016 production of Bizet’s Carmen. Ian was the Bass Section Leader at Trinity Episcopal Church in Moorestown under Vernon Williams for three years and is now the Bass Section Leader at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Freehold under Brit Montoro. Ian has been professional cantor at the Queenship of Mary Catholic Church in Plainsboro since 2014 and a soloist for Temple Har Sinai's High Holidays since 2012.

Hailed by Opera News for “the most musical and stylistic sophistication onstage, taking everything...as Rossini would have expected, ” John Villemaire, tenor,  recently received numerous accolades for his portrayal of the “stratospheric” Astrologer in The Golden Cockerel in NYC. American tenor Fred Cushman presented twice John the Lynne Cushman Award, made his Carnegie Hall debut in a passionate scene from Roméo et Juliette in 2014.  Engagements include Count Almaviva- The Barber of Seville at Surflight Theatre, Ernesto  in Don Pasquale, Nemorino in L’Elisir d’amore with  Boheme Opera NJ Company, Title Role in Debussy's L’enfant Prodigue and Carlo Tresca  in The Silk City with  Garden State Opera, Il Duca in Rigoletto with Atlantic City Opera Theatre, title role of Le Comte Ory - OC Brooklyn, Ferrando- Cosi fan tutte with Rutgers  Don Ramiro, La Cenerentola (Opera New Jersey/Opera Columbus); Giannetto - Rossini’s La gazza ladra, (Bronx Opera);  Berlioz’s  L’enfance du Christ, Orff's Carmina Burana - Hunterdon Symphony, Gounod’s Faust with Orchestra Society Philadelphia.  Mr. Villemaire maintains an active  voice teaching studios where students have achieved top places in numerous competitions and  performed in national tours of musicals and on Broadway.

Soprano Emily Woodruff performs standard and contemporary vocal repertoire across the U.S. and abroad. On the concert stage, Emily has premiered contemporary vocal works in the Composers Now Festival and Composer’s Voice Concert Series (Manhattan), the Brooklyn College ElectroAcoustic Music Festival, the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival, and the NEXTET new music series at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. She also premiered the role of Geraldine in Christabel, a chamber opera by Jennifer Bellor, and gave the New York premiere of California-based composer George N. Gianopoulos’ Op. 12 Three Songs for Soprano.

Within the standard opera repertoire, Emily has appeared as Gilda (Rigoletto), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), Giulietta and Antonia (Les contes d'Hoffmann), Michaela and Frasquita (Carmen), Mimì (La Bohemè), Marguerite (Faust), Donna Anna and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Contessa (Le Nozze di Figaro), Violetta (La traviata), and Thais (title role), and she also sang the role of Rusalka in the Philadelphia premiere of Alexander Dargomyzhsky’s Rusalka.

Emily holds both a B.A. in Music and an M.A. in Music Theory and History from the Pennsylvania State University’s Schreyer Honors College, as well as an M.A. in Musicology from the Eastman School of Music. She regularly performs opera, operetta, and musical theater in the greater Philadelphia area.