I Wanna Be Ready

Justin Austin

Praised in Opera News as “a gentle actor and elegant musician” and in The Wall Street Journal for his “mellifluous baritone,” baritone Justin Austin has been performing professionally since the age of four. Born in Stuttgart, Germany, to professional opera singer parents, Austin began his singing career as a boy soprano performing at venues such as Teatro Real, Bregenzer Festspiele, Lincoln Center, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. While working with directors such as Götz Friedrich and Tazewell Thompson, he was able to realize early on his love for music and performance.

Jeryl Cunningham-Fleming

Jeryl Cunningham-Fleming’s vocal artistry has been heard in more than 10 countries and on four continents. Her versatile and vibrant voice, paired with her fervent advocacy of African American music, makes her a favored soloist for leading ensembles, including the Boys Choir of Harlem and the American Spiritual Ensemble, and prestigious venues, including the United Nations and Lincoln Center. Cunningham-Fleming’s repertoire encompasses opera, oratorio, choral masterworks, jazz, and art song. But, interpretation of the African American spiritual is a high point of her artistry, drawing on her rich heritage. Cunningham-Fleming is a regular soloist and Assistant Director with the American Spiritual Ensemble that performs classic spirituals, opera, jazz, and Broadway tunes highlighting the black experience in concerts in the United States, Europe, and South America.

Joseph Joubert

Joseph Joubert is a hugely versatile musician whose wide-ranging accomplishments and talent as a pianist, arranger, orchestrator, Broadway conductor, and music director have taken him around the world. Most recently Joubert was musical director and orchestrator for Harriet Tubman star Cynthia Erivo in three sold out Tokyo performances. His Broadway orchestration credits include: The Color Purple (Drama Desk Nomination), Disaster, Violet (Drama Desk Nomination), Leap of Faith, and Caroline or Change. He was Musical Director for Berry Gordy’s Motown The Musical and was assistant conductor for Nice Work If You Can Get It and Billy Elliot. He was also a guest conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Christmas Concert featuring Take 6. He appeared in the Metropolitan Opera’s revival of Porgy and Bess as the piano-player Jasbo Brown. Critics have hailed Joubert’s “sensitive and supportive” performances as an accompanist and the “uncommon tonal beauty” of his playing. He has collaborated with such classical singers as Denyce Graves, Esther Hinds, and more and performed with Kathleen Battle at the White House for President Bill Clinton as well as Carnegie Hall.

The Concert Chorale

The Concert Chorale is the official choral ensemble of Courtney’s Stars of Tomorrow. Established in 2014, the Chorale performs a wide range of choral repertoire from early Baroque classics through 21st-century choral literature. The Concert Chorale has performed for enthusiastic audiences at New York’s Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and the Langston Hughes Auditorium at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.