NE Voices 2026 Instructors

The NE Voices Festival 2026 instructors will be available soon. In the meantime, check out the list below from last year!

NE Voices Festival 2025 Instructors

Adam Tarpey

Adam Tarpey (he/him) is an educator, arranger, and performer based out of Worcester,  MA. A graduate of Ithaca College’s School of Music and a former grade 6-12 chorus teacher, Adam is now pursuing an MFA in Interactive Media from Clark University. Adam continues to work in the a cappella community as Associate Director of NE Voices and Director of Education for Nexus, NE Voices’ summer program. 

Andrew Orsie

Andrew Orsie is a New York City singer, musician, actor, mime, and winsome smiler, now turned tech goblin over the pandemic years. By day, they work as a technical support engineer, but by night, they're the tenor and business manager and one of the arrangers of Black to Gold, a six piece a cappella group that recently won the Aca-Idol competition at Singstrong in 2024 and released their debut album, Wide Awake, in 2022, which won the CARA for Best Debut Album by a Non-Scholastic Group. Also, notably and extremely relevant, the group headlined NE Voices last year, and clearly Andrew had a great time and couldn't get enough! Andrew has been singing a cappella since being a baby; their parents literally met in barbershop groups, so they were basically born for this. Otherwise, they hate long walks on the beach, love a good video game, pretend to have a consistent workout schedule, and will NEVER say no to a hike.

Alyssa Koh

Alyssa Koh (any/all) is an arranger and vocalist from Upstate New York. With their collegiate a cappella group, the University of Rochester's Vocal Point, they were part of the musical direction over the release of an album, multiple successful concerts, and winning the 2024 ICCA Central Quarterfinal. They have arranged for a variety of groups nationwide and have performed across the Northeast, inclusive of the professional Cape Cod a cappella group Cape Harmony.

Amber Bates

Amber Bates is a vocalist and educator at Boston University pursuing her undergraduate degree in music education. She began her a cappella journey in high school with Northern Lights and has since gone on to become the music director of the BU Treblemakers. She is beyond excited to give back to the a cappella festival that gave her so much and pushed her to continue Music in her professional life. 

Angelo Knight

Angelo Knight is an a cappella award winning performer, arranger, and director originally from Dayton, Ohio, now residing in Columbus, Ohio, with so much a cappella zeal and knowledge to share. Knight has been a part of the a cappella community for the last 10+ years arranging, performing, competing, directing, and even audio engineering, studio and live. Knight has competed and won multiple awards for his groups he has directed (Remedy and Vega) and has even won outstanding awards for his solo performances and arrangements. Knight has taught at a cappella festivals (including Kettering National A Cappella Festival and NE VOICES) and has given clinics to numerous groups across the country. Knight is the former director of Vega, an award winning a cappella group based in Dayton, Ohio. Knight is now the director of choirs & vocal music at Licking Heights High School in Pataskala, Ohio. Knight's goal is life is to educate the performers of tomorrow!

Anthony Pulido

Anthony Pulido is based in Boston and serves as the Chief of Staff for the Contemporary A Cappella Society (CASA). He also works with a number of groups in the area as an arranger, director, and producer. He moved from Florida to Boston where he obtained a BS in Biochemistry from Northeastern University. While attending NU, he first joined the a cappella community singing with the Unisons, before performing in professional settings in Boston. He has continued contributions to the community, including judging for Varsity Vocals, joining the festival production teams for BOSS and SoJam, and as the third member of the head/voice podcast. Feel free to reach out to him if you want to talk a cappella, biochemistry, tabletop games, cooking/baking, or food places that he needs to go to!

Dave Grossman

Dave Grossman teaches vocal music at Plymouth North High School in Plymouth, MA. He loves teaching vocal music as much as he hates writing biographies about himself, because that feels super uncomfortable. Honestly, he's not sure what he could write here in this bio that would make you change your mind on whether or not you want to attend his workshop, and aside from that, all that this blurb can really do is back up his role as an instructor at NE Voices with a list of degrees, experiences, accomplishments, awards, etc. If that sort of validation of a clinician is what you're looking for, he'd like to say 'You should trust that the fine folks at NE Voices are getting outstanding instructors across the board for all of the workshops and master classes.' How does he know that? Well, Dave was one of the founders of NE Voices in 2011, and worked with the organization planning this festival until 2022, and is really proud of how this shindig has developed and evolved. Also, he taught like 6 of the people teaching at NE Voices this year, has learned from a bunch of others, and is confident that you're in good hands this weekend. Dave also really enjoys playing guitar. If you know anyone looking to start a 2000s pop punk/emo cover band, please give him a heads up. He can already play all of the songs.

Emmie Kelly

Emmie Kelly is a proud alum of Plymouth North High School’s Northern Lights, and is thrilled to be returning to NE Voices as an instructor! She was also a member of Cape Cod’s professional treble a cappella group, Cape Harmony, from 2020-2022, acting as Business Manager of the group for her last two seasons. A recent graduate of Emerson College, where she studied the Business of Creative Enterprises, Emmie currently works in venue operations and guest services for Live Nation, as well as pursuing her passion as a singer-songwriter. She released her first single in early 2023, which garnered over 1,000 streams in its first 24 hours, and has been consistently releasing new music and content since then! She prides herself on writing music that comes from a place of vulnerability and reflects her lived experiences. 

Jess Garcia

Jess Garcia is a Boston-based creative and singer. With training in classical, jazz, musical theatre, and pop, Jess loves to exercise all aspects of her musicianship in every performance. She spent five years in Pitch, Please!, Northeastern University's premiere women-centered a cappella group. There, she led the group to a 3rd place finish at ICCA Finals in 2023, serving as their President for three years and their Secretary and PR Manager for one and a half. In her time in Pitch, she won the Varsity Vocals award for Outstanding Soloist for the song "Titivating" and the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award for Best Upper Voices Collegiate Lead Vocal for the song "Meteorite". She also produced, directed, creative directed, styled, and movement directed numerous music videos for the group. Nowadays, Jess works full time at a nonprofit organization in the Boston area that focuses on creative youth development through the performing arts. She also sings at the occasional wedding and is working on her own personal creative endeavors! @jesstgarcia

Julia McBride

Julia McBride, graduate of the University of Delaware School of Music, and current graduate student of Longy School of Music of Bard College, is a music educator with a passion for contemporary a cappella. Julia teaches elementary general music by day and directs the competitive high school a cappella group, “Spectrum”, after-school. She also serves as the Education Manager for the NE Voices A Cappella Festival. Julia has sung with a wide range of contemporary a cappella groups, including the professional a cappella group, Cape Harmony.

Kari Francis

Kari Francis (b. 1988) is an American choral musician whose composing and teaching explores the resonances between improvisation, ritual, and liminal spaces. As choral director of The Walden School Young Musicians Program, Kari engages with contemporary and underrepresented voices to inform an equitable, creative, and singer-centered choral pedagogy. As composer-in-residence at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Detroit, she crafts new liturgical works infused with elements of vocal jazz, renaissance polyphony, and contemporary a cappella. She can be heard beatboxing on Season 3 of NBC’s The Sing-Off with Kinfolk 9 and on GRAMMY-winner Cory Smythe’s album Accelerate Every Voice, and her writings on contemporary a cappella have been published by GIA Music and the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Kari holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Teachers College Columbia University, and the University of California, San Diego. She is currently completing her doctoral thesis in the Sacred Music Program at the University of Notre Dame.

Kat Smith

Kat Smith, a Pittsburgh native and graduate of the University of Dayton, is a professional a cappella choreographer and director. Choreographing since 2017, Kat has had incredible opportunities, teaching at A Cappella Academy, Camp A Cappella, NE Voices, NACC, BOSS, and So Jam. Kat spent three years as director of Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School's "Vega" and now serves as Voice Director at the Miami Valley School in Dayton, Ohio. There, she currently directs the award winning high school group "Ars Nova."

Kevin DeLisa

Kevin DeLisa is a charismatic vocal educator with degrees in Music Education from Ithaca College and Columbia University. His efforts in voice teaching have brought his students to NYU Tisch, Broadway, and a nationals win at Harmony Sweepstakes.  His expertise is in functional contemporary voice, with a focus on Musical Theater and Popular Music.  His teaching is holistic, intuitive, and fun!
Kevin has also been nationally recognized for his Vocal and A Cappella arrangements, receiving Nominations from the ICCA vocal competition in 2018, and CARA (Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards) for Best Male Collegiate Arrangement in 2021 and multiple nominations in 2023. He has written over 150 vocal arrangements, with experience writing for High School, Collegiate and Professional vocal ensembles.  He currently performs in multiple groups in New York City.

Lauren Garcia

Lauren Garcia is a local performer from Plymouth, MA. She previously spent her summers with the professional Cape Cod a cappella group, Cape Harmony, where she sang all over Cape Cod and the islands and was their Brand Manager. She’s also formerly a member of The Nor’easters at Northeastern University, Northeastern’s premier award-winning a cappella group, where she brand managed, as well. Most notably, Lauren is a proud alumni of NE Voices and Plymouth North High School’s Northern Lights and Girl Treble. Today, she is directing Girl Treble, Plymouth North’s student led premiere treble group, where she got her start. Lauren is thrilled to return to NE Voices for her 7th year!

Leah Raquel Petraglia

Leah Raquel Petraglia is a singer/songwriter and a cappella enthusiast based in the NYC metro area! Leah studied Music Business at Hofstra University and while attending, was a member of The Hofbeats, one of Hofstra’s co-ed a cappella groups, and was actively involved in the music business department as a MEISA board member and winner of Hofstra’s MEISA 2019 Songwriting contest. Leah is a founding member and 1/6th of Black to Gold, an award winning professional a cappella group based in NYC, where she’s spent the last five years making strides in the a cappella community including performing across the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic regions, headlining the NE Voices festival, being awarded multiple CARAs across three seasons as well as an AVA for their most recent music video, “In The Morning”, and winning Sing Strong’s 2024 “Aca Idol” competition. As a songwriter and solo performer, Leah is a 2024 CARA nominee for Best Original Song written for Black to Gold, and continues to write and release her own music in the pop/r&b space including her most recent single, “Holiday”. She is also currently a collective member of VICE A Cappella, an all women collective based in NYC, and a member of eVoco Voice Collective on Long Island.

Louis Shriber

Louis Shriber (b. 2002) is a New England based composer, singer, and director. Currently pursuing a Bachelors in Music Composition and Jazz Performance from the University of Rhode Island (ant. 2025) where he studies and performs with world renowned faculty such as Zaccai Curtis, Mark Conley, Dr. Emmett Goods, and Atla DeChamplain. Louis performs a wide variety of music, including jazz, classical, contemporary, musical theater, and pop, with multiple ensembles. He serves as the Music Director of the Rhody Rhapsodies, URI's premier acapella group. For 2 years he also served as the Assistant Music Director of the Narragansett Bay Chorus, Rhode Island's largest barbershop choir. In addition to his ensemble work, Louis performs as a solo artist around New England, most recently, he hosted and performed as the guest artist for the 2024 Quarterfinals of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. As a composer and arranger, Louis has had his works performed by multiple ensembles across New England, even having his choral work How Can I Learn to Love be featured at the first Arlington Choral Festival in 2023. He has had numerous vocal arrangements of his be performed by groups all over Rhode Island, songs such as Cruella De Vil, Bridge Over Troubled Water, and Make You Feel My Love to name a few.

Makynzie Barton

Makynzie Barton is a Choir and Theater Director in Elkton, MD. Graduating from University of Delaware and currently studying at Berklee College of Music, she takes a non-traditional approach to teaching music with her students, incorporating primal/informal music-making, songwriting, music technology, as well as arranging the vernacular music we all love today for her ensembles. You may have seen her on Instagram or TikTok, arranging music for/with her choirs, facilitating a space for them to create music themselves and be active participants in musicking.

Spencer Camacho

Spencer Camacho (he/him) is an instructor at West Chester University, teaching Music Theory, Aural Skills, and Music Technology courses in the Wells School of Music and Civic & Professional Leadership within the Honors College. Spencer, currently completing his PhD in Leadership at the University of Southern Maine, holds a Master of Music Technology from NYU and Bachelor of Music Education from West Chester University. He thrives at the intersection of music, education, leadership, creativity, and technology, looking for ways to collaborate, contribute, and grow in these cross-disciplinary fields. Spencer holds expertise in contemporary a cappella, having produced 3 studio albums, arranged for collegiate groups and presented at a cappella festivals across the country including Boston Sings, the Los Angeles A Cappella Festival, and SoJam A Cappella Festival. Award winner for several International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella arrangement titles, Spencer thrives working with groups in both writing music and helping musicians bring the art to life.