Annie Stokes

Annie's music is the result of surrendering your garden to weeds and wildflowers. And after a decade of honing her creative crafts, she's learned a thing or two about cultivation and surrender.

Raised on the seam of urban and rural living in the foothills of the eastern Blue Ridge Mountains, Annie grew up performing for others. It wasn't until she taught herself guitar at age 21 that she finally blended her loves of storytelling and singing. From there, her budding notion that she was born to share her art with others led her on a meandering journey through the Shenandoah Valley, the evangelical towns of central Virginia, the labyrinth of damp green rooms in DC, sunbaked music festivals, and dozens of rental cars and hotels on the state highways that vein from the Carolinas to Boston. After spending her twenties trying to fit into various boxes and please certain gatekeepers, the experience of motherhood taught her how to surrender to the songs that had been inside of her all along.

Her mesmerizing lyrics and crystalline voice (described by one fan as "Alison Krauss meets Nick Cave") eventually culminated in an EP (2014) and three albums (2015, 2017, and 2021). Her most recent LP, "The One That Gets Away", was awarded "Best Americana/Country Album" at the 2022 Wammies, Washington DC's prestigious music awards ceremony. Annie's music combines traditional country and folk song structure with modern lyrical sensibilities, and her live shows invite audiences into a front-porch conversation about life with biting commentaries about parenthood, heartbreak, and hope.

Her fifth studio project, "Wild Rose EP" -- cowritten and produced with Grammy member Austin Bello -- was released in March 2023. It has been highlighted in numerous publications (see press highlights) and will be featured on season six of The Martha Bassett Show.

She co-writes with her husband, bass player Will Berger. When they aren't making music, they are raising two girls and lots of hell in Virginia.

Learn more at https://anniestokesmusic.com/home

Noah Guthrie

Americana singer-songwriter, Noah Guthrie's sound has been described as possessing Chris Stapleton’s country/rock grit with the authenticity of Jason Isbell. The unique soulfulness in his richly textured voice and the unmistakable Southern influence in his music makes him capable of conveying emotion as only a handful of artists can in today’s musical landscape. Noah's latest album, BLUE WALL, honors the Blue Ridge Mountains where he grew up and still resides. Noah is passionate about making good, honest music - music that sounds like him - music that relates - music that makes the listener feel something.

Noah has built a strong following through powerful live performances, social media and television. He has released three critically-acclaimed albums. He has also performed on NBC’s Today Show and Tonight Show, Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family, and ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. The producers at the hit FOX TV show, GLEE, discovered his YouTube channel and were so impressed with Noah's voice, that they recruited him as a cast member for the sixth season of the show. Noah was also a semi-finalist on the 13th season of America's Got Talent.
 
As a solo performer (as well as with his band, Good Trouble) Noah has performed at major festivals, fairs and clubs all over the United States and Europe. Noah has opened for an impressive group of artists including Ed Sheeran, Ben Rector, Corey Smith, Sister Hazel, Matt Nathanson, Dwight Yoakam and has had the rare privilege of opening 12 shows for the legendary, Willie Nelson! 

Noah Guthrie & Good Trouble are building a strong fanbase through their blistering live performances and are poised to be a force on the cutting edge of a new wave of artists with something to say and the ability to inspire the audience to listen and come along for the ride.

Learn more at https://www.noahguthrie.com/

Stephanie Foley Davis

Stephanie Foley Davis was praised by the New York Times in her Glimmerglass Festival debut in The Tender Land as “a poised, touching Ma Moss" and Opera News said she was “a loving, careworn Ma, warm of voice and presence." Ms. Davis subsequently returned to Glimmerglass to create the role of Mary McCarthy in the world premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s A Blizzard in Marblehead Neck. Of her role debut as Charlotte in Nightingale Opera Theatre’s production of Werther, Cleveland Classical said, “…Foley Davis and Culver were terrific in their singing and in delineating their sadness."



Ms. Davis has appeared in leading roles throughout the US with companies such as Arizona Opera, Nashville Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Roanoke, Buffalo Philharmonic, Vero Beach Opera, Nightingale Opera Theatre, Orlando Philharmonic and almost every professional opera company in North Carolina, including Opera Carolina, Piedmont Opera, North Carolina Opera, and Greensboro Opera.  The Roanoke Times said Foley Davis “gives us a Rosina of fiery impetuousness while also nailing the character’s distinctively wry wit.”

The 2024 season will see a return to Piedmont Opera for Stephanie as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and Sylvia in David Wolfson's opera Rapture. 
 
A sought-after soloist, Stephanie has performed in concert with orchestras and ensembles throughout the US, including Santa Fe Symphony, Carolina Ballet, Richmond Symphony, Greensboro Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Piedmont Wind Symphony, Portland Symphony (Maine,) and Arizona MusicFest.



Other credits include Mercedes in Greensboro Opera‘s Carmen,  Suzuki in Piedmont Opera’s Madama Butterfly, the mezzo soloist in the Winston-Salem Symphony’s Beethoven’s 9th, and as a distinguished alumna in Verdi’s Requiem at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Joseph Newsome (Voix des Arts) said, “Verdi entrusted the first phrases of ‘Lux æterna luceat eis, Domine’ to the mezzo-soprano soloist, and it is difficult to imagine that he could have expected them to be sung more handsomely and incisively than Foley Davis sang them in Greensboro." Stephanie was also asked to perform the world premiere of Kamala Sankaram's Lost Music from the Heart of Everything for NC Opera.



Ms. Davis is the Associate Director and Master Teacher at The Music Academy of North Carolina, where she has been teaching voice since 2011.

Learn more at https://www.stephaniefoleymezzo.com/