Choral Society of the Hamptons: ‘Lux Perpetua Luceat Eis’ / Works by Liszt & Faure / 3.30th

Conductor, soprano, singing teacher, choir conductor and Kodály instructor Kinga Cserjési is the Associate Artistic Director of the Libero Canto School of Singing in New York City. She has been teaching singing in Budapest and New York City since 1999 and since 2007, has taught several workshops. From 2013-2015, she joined Deborah Carmichael to teach at the Il Cuore Canta summer workshops in Upstate New York. She moved to New York City in 2014 to establish the Libero Canto School of Singing together with Deborah. It is currently the only licensed center worldwide for the Libero Canto Approach. In 2020, Kinga and Deborah launched their first official Libero Canto Teacher Education program. Kinga has a master’s degree in choir conducting and in the Kodály Method from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest, and a postgraduate degree in Early Vocal Music from the Brabants Conservatory in the Netherlands. In July 2022, she received a certification from the Kodály Summer Institute at New York University/Steinhardt (director Dr. Jerry Kerlin), founded in 1989, which is endorsed by the organization of American Kodály Educators. Kinga has twenty-five years of experience teaching music and singing and leading vocal ensembles. Her work is based on world-renowned Hungarian approaches to music education, including the work of Zoltán Kodály, Béla Bartók, and Lajos Szamosi (founder of the Libero Canto Approach). She has taught countless singers and musicians between the ages of 5 and 70. As both a soloist and as a member of various choruses and vocal ensembles, Kinga has sung internationally with various groups.

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Lily Arbisser is an “individual-timbred soprano” (Opera News) whose voice “floats effortlessly” (www.feastofmusic.com) over the orchestra. Highlights of recent seasons include joining Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute in Chicago as a vocal fellow and winning first prize in the National Federation of Music Clubs’ Biennial Young Artist Competition. In addition to frequent appearances as a soloist on oratorio and operatic stages, Lily is dedicated to the art of the recital, performing beloved songs from the traditional canon alongside lesser-known works. She’s enjoying a busy 2025 concert season, which began in Davenport, Iowa with a recital co-curated with pianist Dimitri Malignan on the theme of friendship, featuring music of Dimitri Shostakovich, Mieczław Weinberg,  Arnold Schoenberg, and George Gershwin, and continues with appearances as Marianne in a new operatic setting of Sense and Sensibility and Amour in Gluck’s beloved Orphée et Eurydice. Lily’s artistry is grounded in the understanding gained from studying in the Libero Canto^TM School of Singing with her teachers Deborah Carmichael and Kinga Cserjési. Libero Canto is a process-oriented approach which holds that the body instinctually knows how to sing but is frequently blocked by psycho-social factors that inhibit freer singing. Lily graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University with a Bachelor of the Arts in Art and Archaeology and a Certificate in Vocal Performance. She also holds a Master of Music degree from Mannes College. When not singing, she can be found outdoors cultivating her passion for ecological restoration and native plant gardening. www.lilyarbisser.com

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Stan Lacy, baritone has been commended for his “impressive, oaky, resonant” voice (Opera Chaser). His debut with Bronx Opera as Sid (Albert Herring) garnered praise as “handsome” and “hot-blooded,” and was heralded as a “sensual” portrayal of a “working class ladies’ man.” (Opera News) Stan was also recently heard in the roles of Tonio (Pagliacci), Tarquinius (Rape of Lucretia), Lescaut (Manon), and Ping (Turandot). At home in difficult, contemporary repertoire, Stan sang Mittelstaedt in the American premiere of Nancy Van de Vate’s “All Quiet on the Western Front,” sang the role of Babbage in Kamala Sankaram’s “The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace,” created the role of Remo in Haim Elisha’s serialist opera “A Certain Quiet” (2015). In concert he has sung Elijah, Liebeslieder Walzer, and Messiah, as well as works of Vaughan-Williams, Howells, Ariel Ramírez, and Tanía Leon. Stan pursued a Master’s degree at the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, and graduated from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor of Music. Since 2016, Stan has devoted himself to performances and administrative roles with New Camerata Opera, a company he co-founded. He is the proud father to a precocious daughter, Megan, who like her father and mother, loves music!