2026 Alumna-in-Residence

Three time Hogfish artist-in-residence Hailey McAvoy returns this summer to present and star in the world premiere of her new musical Wholly Unwinding, which is the first main stage production at Hogfish that began its life as a regenerative arts seed project. The show and Hailey’s return as an alumna embodies Hogfish’s mission to cultivate artists and productions that regenerate creative and physical health to individuals, communities, and the planet.

Composer-performer Hailey McAvoy, recognized as a “gorgeous-voiced soprano," (Broadway World), is a versatile performer of opera, song, and concert. McAvoy makes her compositional debut with Wholly Unwinding, a chamber opera exploring her life with Cerebral Palsy. She will perform in the premiere with the Hogfish in Portland, Maine in July 2026, and in a New York Premiere at National Sawdust in November 2026. Beyond Wholly Unwinding, McAvoy’s recent operatic performances include appearing as Mem, the lead role in the world premiere of Paola Prestini’s Sensorium Ex at the Common Senses Festival in Omaha, NE, as Julia Child in Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appetit with Opera Praktikos, and as Zora in Svadba with Hogfish. Equally active as a concert performer, McAvoy has appeared in concert with the Metropolitan Opera for their Opera Evolved series, and will perform at the Royal Opera in London in a showcase of Sensorium Ex in June 2026. She has sung at the The Greene Space, the Appel Room at Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, the Baton Rouge Symphony, Opera Ithaca, Seattle’s Sound Salon, Jazz and Classics for Change, and others. As a performer with the neurological condition cerebral palsy, McAvoy is committed to making the performing arts more inclusive for all. She has published essays on accessibility in AGMAzine and Our Singing Bodies and she has appeared as a panelist on accessibility forums with such organizations as the Metropolitan Opera, Opera America, and The National Endowment for the Arts. To learn more, visit www.haileymcavoy.com

2026 Artists-In-Residence

(alphabetical by last name)

Melisa Bonetti Luna

Bio

Dominican-American, mezzo-soprano, Melisa Bonetti Luna’s performances include Carmen in Hogfish's CarmXn, as well as Carmen in Lincoln Center’s Rubenstein Atrium in a new spanish-language and tango arrangement production of the piece, Carlotta in Zorro with Opera San Jose, the premiere of The Climate Opera Project at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), soloist for Bach’s Magnificat & Christmas Oratorio at Carnegie Hall, the grammy-nominated original cast album and premiere of Three Way with Nashville Opera, recording of a new wind orchestra arrangement of Granados’ Tonadillas, Echoes of Ancient Tang Poems with the Philadelphia Orchestra and iSing! Festival in Lincoln Center and the Kimmel Center, and a follow up concert with the Sichuan Symphony orchestra in China, Federico Garcia Lorca in Ainadamar with the Lexington Philharmonic and Kentucky Opera, Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Virginia Opera, Anita in West Side Story at First Ontario Concert Hall in Canada, and a tour of recitals in Bologna, Italy through Ebe-Stignani Masterclass. Melisa also focuses on programming performances representing LatinX composers of today, including a recent event she curated at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. Melisa is also a passionate advocate for disability inclusion in opera and in classical music, educating and developing strategies with organizations on what real inclusion looks like.

This Summer at Hogfish

Kegs & Roses
June 27th in the Beckett Castle Rose Garden in Cape Elizabeth, ME

Wholly Unwinding
Cover for Hailey McAvoy
July 22, 24, & 25 at Halo, Thompson’s Point in Portland, ME

Regenerative Arts Seed Project
Personal Project - What I have to say about performative disability inclusion in the performing arts.
August 8th at 317 Main Community Music Center in Yarmouth, ME

Melisa Bonetti Lun’s seed project will include a performance of her own piece What I have to say about performative disability inclusion in the performing arts. In this piece, Melisa uses different forms of vocalizing in order to experience different emotions of the effects of exclusionary practices on an artist's personhood. Although these effects can cause a cascade of emotional turmoil, Melisa believes that these experiences are often a result of ignorance and not malice from the industry, and hopes that this piece helps to serve as an outlet for the storyteller and a means of understanding from the viewer.

Melisa also hopes to explore the practice of circle singing with the community and resident artists during her residency at Hogfish.

Cinnamon Denise

BIO

Cinnamon Denise (she/he/they) is a Cultural Media Producer & Performer - vocalist, songwriter, producer, and bassoonist known for blending R&B, soul, funk, and often incorporating her bassoon, "James the Bassoon," into her performances. A 500-hour certified Hatha yoga instructor, Cinnamon Denise (CD) brings a somatic, whole-body intentionality to everything they create. CD holds a Bachelor of Music in Media Writing and Production from the University of Miami and a Master of Music in Music Technology Innovation from Berklee College of Music. When not creating (because when is that?!), CD is building a life she loves with her sondog, Sir Luther Vandross Murray — aka "My Lufie." CD loves hiking, being outdoors, and learning about nature.

THIS SUMMER AT HOGFISH

Kegs & Roses
June 27th in the Beckett Castle Rose Garden in Cape Elizabeth, ME

Wholly Unwinding
Role of “Friend”
July 22, 24, & 25 at Halo, Thompson’s Point in Portland, ME

Regenerative Arts Seed Project
Personal Project - Stay G.R.E.E.N.
August 8th at 317 Main Community Music Center in Yarmouth, ME

Stay G.R.E.E.N. is both my story and the story of most. Learning to love oneself is not really learning at all - it is remembering. Remembering who we were before labels, before trauma, before life reshaped us. And seeing that in our purest form, we are nothing but little plants yearning for basic nourishment. G.R.E.E.N. is an acronym: Grounded, Removing, Exhaling, Emptying, Nourishing - five steps that helped me fall back in love with James the Bassoon, with my own voice, and with myself. Which, as nature would have it, makes it a whole lot easier to love other people too. Love, Cinnamon Denise (and James the Bassoon)

Halley Elwell

Bio

Originally from Hallowell Maine, Halley Elwell is a singer-songwriter whose evocative music blends elements of jazz, folk, pop and rock, drawing inspiration from artists like Laura Nyro, Carole King, and Joni Mitchell. Known for her rich voice and insightful lyrics, Elwell's music has been featured on radio stations across Maine and Massachusetts and recognized by ASCAP and the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. In 2025 she released the Spontaneous Mutation project, a concept album and podcast exploring her experience living with a facial difference and neurofibromatosis.

THIS SUMMER AT HOGFISH

Kegs & Roses
June 27th in the Beckett Castle Rose Garden in Cape Elizabeth, ME

Wholly Unwinding
Role of “Friend”
July 22, 24, & 25 at Halo, Thompson’s Point in Portland, ME

Regenerative Arts Seed Project
Personal Project - Your Technology is Obsolete
August 8th at 317 Main Community Music Center in Yarmouth, ME

Your Technology is Obsolete is an exploration of the impact of generative ai and the myriad of questions that arise with its use. Through song and dialogue, this project will ask the questions of who or what is becoming obsolete: the human, the technology, or our world order? Based on Elwell's own experiences with the tool fabricating details of her biography and creating images of her with a "fixed" face she did not ask for, she was inspired to begin delving into the psychological and environmental implications of a rapidly mutating technology that 10s of millions of people have adopted.

Jerzy Gillon

Bio

Jerzy Gillon, a native of Silver Spring, Maryland, is a soprano and educator recognized for her dynamic stage presence and expressive storytelling. She holds a Bachelor of Music from Bethel University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and a Master of Music from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her performance work spans operatic, orchestral, and community-centered projects. Selected roles include Cendrillon (Pauline Viardot) with CJ Productions, a company dedicated to bringing opera and professional training to inner-city students; the title role in Bill Banfield’s Edmonia with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra; Mariola in Jake Heggie’s Two Remain Out of Darkness; Annina in La Traviata (Verdi); and Cendrillon (Massenet) with Opera for the Young. She has also organized and performed music of the Holocaust for an annual community Yom HaShoah program in collaboration with colleagues and the Jewish Federation of Madison. In addition to performing, Jerzy is a dedicated educator and currently serves on the voice faculty at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the Carter School of Music at New Shiloh Baptist Church, where she is committed to nurturing the next generation of artists. She is excited to spend the summer with Hogfish as an artist in residence, creating and collaborating with fellow artists.

THIS SUMMER AT HOGFISH

Kegs & Roses
June 27th in the Beckett Castle Rose Garden in Cape Elizabeth, ME

Wholly Unwinding
Role of “Friend”
July 22, 24, & 25 at Halo, Thompson’s Point in Portland, ME

Regenerative Arts Seed Project
Personal Project - Listening as Score: Empathetic Melodies
August 8th at 317 Main Community Music Center in Yarmouth, ME

Listening as Score: Empathetic Melodies is a performance project that transforms real people’s voices into music. Through recorded conversations, I want to use the rhythm, breath, tone, and emotional texture of speech as the foundation for composition. Rather than writing about emotions, the work centers the lived presence of each speaker and the way their voice naturally carries feeling and experience. The project explores how shared emotions can connect people across differences in identity, culture, and lived reality, while also questioning whose voices are truly heard or valued. At its core, the work is an act of deep listening and an invitation to hold space for voices that are often overlooked.

Bethany Pietroniro

Bio

Pianist Bethany Pietroniro is guided by a conviction that music can be a medium for community, healing, and lasting meaning in a world full of fluctuations. She frequently joins colleagues in the creation of distinctive programs that expand the traditional concert experience. A devotee of chamber music and song in many genres, Bethany holds equal reverence for the established canon, the overlooked corners of classical literature, and living composers who are writing it forward. To this end, she has performed the world premiere of Bebop Riddle II for cello and piano by American composer Augusta Read Thomas at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Louise Farrenc’s sextet for piano and winds at Concerts in the Village, and Martin Bresnick’s Caprichos Enfáticos for percussion quartet and piano with the Evolution Contemporary Music Series. Larger ensemble appearances include the Tanglewood Music Center, the Bach Institute at Emmanuel Music, and The Orchestra Now. A recent program with Seattle’s Sound Salon series brought together repertoire for voice, flute, cello, and piano by Maurice Ravel, Nadia and Lili Boulanger, and Robert and Clara Schumann under the theme of healing through music. In summer 2026, Bethany will join Hogfish Regenerative Arts in Portland, Maine as a pianist in residence for the premiere of Wholly Unwinding: a piece that explores themes of disability and embodiment through the composer’s lived experience. Other upcoming events include chamber music and solo performances at Downtown Music at Grace in White Plains, NY. Visit bethanypietroniro.com for calendar and additional info.

THIS SUMMER AT HOGFISH

Kegs & Roses
June 27th in the Beckett Castle Rose Garden in Cape Elizabeth, ME

Wholly Unwinding
Pianist
July 22, 24, & 25 at Halo, Thompson’s Point in Portland, ME

Regenerative Arts Seed Project
Personal Project - Imitation & Inspiration
August 8th at 317 Main Community Music Center in Yarmouth, ME

Lately, I often fall into existential contemplation about the role of art in our world as artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent. One recurring theme in my thoughts is that, while AI may become increasingly skilled at imitating human output, it will never be truly inspired, because there is no real agency or lived experience behind it. With this in mind, for my regenerative project I'd like to work on a solo piano program based on the idea of “inspired imitation.” The program features pairs of pieces in which one composer clearly and indelibly influenced the other. There's imitation involved, but it's tethered to human experience and the passage of time. Each of the “imitator” composers imbues the derivative work with their unique circumstances, perspectives, and voice. This, I believe, is the organic process by which art "pollinates" across generations and thus regenerates itself. Playing these pieces within this framework is regenerative for me as I, too, contemplate the way my musical offerings and voice can contribute to this unique moment in history.

Joëlle Santiago

BIO

Joëlle Antonia Santiago (b. New York, NY) is a choreographer. She is a Fulbright Scholar and a recipient of the Harriet Hale-Woolley Award for the Arts, acting as an Artist in Residence at the Fondation des États-Unis where she created work throughout the 2023-2025 season (Paris, France). She has presented work at X-posed on the Chelsea Highline, Roulette Intermedium, Chelsea Piers, The Clark Art Institute, NYU Tisch School for the Arts, The International Studio and Curatorial Program, la Fondation des États-Unis and CitéSHORTS Festival de Court Metrage (Paris). Santiago was a choreographic fellow for AXIS Dance Company, one of the nation’s most acclaimed ensembles of disabled, d/Deaf and neurodiverse performers. She is an adjunct professor at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she directed the Summer High School Dance Intensive. She currently teaches Dance History/Theory and acts as a choreographic mentor to the Pre-College students. Santiago has guest lectured at the Fulbright Association and published writing in The Whitney Review of New Writing, IMPULSE Magazine, and CultureBot. Upcoming projects include premieres with director Anne Bogart (BAM Next Wave Festival) and Pulitzer Prize Finalist Nazareth Hassan (Performance Space New York). Santiago began her training in the dance studios of NYC. She graduated Cum Laude from Barnard College of Columbia University, studying with Jodi Melnick, Katie Glasner, Caroline Fermin, Dr. Seth Williams and Dr. Janet Jacobsen (2020). She is a nominee of the Barnard Bold Award, honoring philosopher and activist Grace Lee Boggs.

THIS SUMMER AT HOGFISH

Kegs & Roses
June 27th in the Beckett Castle Rose Garden in Cape Elizabeth, ME

Wholly Unwinding
Role of “Friend”
July 22, 24, & 25 at Halo, Thompson’s Point in Portland, ME

Regenerative Arts Seed Project
Personal Project - Dance 1
August 8th at 317 Main Community Music Center in Yarmouth, ME

Dance 1 is a composition for a group of intergenerational performers set to live music.

Gileann Tan

BIO

Gileann Tan is a Filipino-American soprano and experimental performer based in NYC. Her past operatic roles include Zerlina (cover) in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, the Baker's Wife in Sondheim's Into the Woods, and Amina in scenes from Bellini's La Sonnambula. She competed in the Vassar College Concerto Competition where she received the Lucia V. Torian '69 Prize, the Kneisel German Lieder Competition (finalist), and the Friends of Eastman Opera Theater Competition (finalist). Sacred works include Handel’s Messiah and Dixit Dominus, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass, BWV 199, BWV 78, and Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Gileann made her professional operatic debut as Dormouse and Alice (cover) in City Lyric Opera's production of The Garden of Alice by Elizabeth Raum. She is a collaborator with American Opera Projects and has performed in the premieres of several new operas since 2023. Gileann is a Haus girly and works as the Soprano II Section Leader at Church of the Epiphany in NYC. She loves bel canto, musical theater, improvisation, and experimental theater making, and is always looking for people to help her stretch and grow. Thank you to the Hogfish team for this incredible opportunity!

THIS SUMMER AT HOGFISH

Kegs & Roses
June 27th in the Beckett Castle Rose Garden in Cape Elizabeth, ME

Wholly Unwinding
Role of "Friend”
July 22, 24, & 25 at Halo, Thompson’s Point in Portland, ME

Regenerative Arts Seed Project
Personal Project - AM I AN ENTERTAINER?
August 8th at 317 Main Community Music Center in Yarmouth, ME

AM I AN ENTERTAINER? My short answer is that I historically am more of a performer a la "dance monkey dance." I may entertain people, but am I the source of the entertainment, or am I the vessel? I think if anything, my actual self is a source of confusion and contemplation. In an attempt to investigate this question, I would like to produce a Feinstein’s/54 Below-style cabaret concert which includes various monologues and musings as a way to explore this question. The setlist will include musical theater, opera, french art song, and tagalog pop ballads.