We Are

CO-FOUNDER, PIANIST

Morgan Lee has built a dynamic career as a soloist, collaborator, and teacher. She frequently performs with some of the most prominent ensembles and performing arts organizations in the state of Maine, including the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Opera Maine, Classical Uprising, the Colby Symphony Orchestra, and the Amethyst Chamber Ensemble. She has performed and competed in numerous music festivals in the US and abroad and has given recitals in New York City, Italy, Spain, France, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. An experienced collaborator, Dr. Lee is currently a collaborative pianist for the Colby College Music Department and has served as staff collaborative pianist for the University of Southern Maine Osher School of Music and the University of Connecticut Music Department. 

In addition to being an active performer, Dr. Lee is a teacher with over ten years of experience instructing piano. She currently serves as an applied piano instructor for the Colby College Music Department and is on the piano faculty of Bay Chamber Music School. She has previously taught at institutions such as Eastern Connecticut State University, the University of Connecticut, the Bronx Conservatory of Music, and Mannes College of Music. 

In 2022, Dr. Lee received her Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance from the University of Connecticut, where she studied with Angelina Gadeliya. She also holds a Master of Music from Mannes College of Music and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University. Dr. Lee wrote her dissertation on interdisciplinary collaboration as creative practice for classical musicians and is passionate about finding new, unconventional ways to engage with classical repertoire. She is committed to continuing this work to inspire her students and connect with new audiences here in Maine. You can learn more about her work at her website morganleepianist.com and her instagram @morganleepianist.

CO-FOUNDER, MEZZO SOPRANO

Jazmin DeRice, mezzo soprano, is a versatile vocal performing artist and educator thriving in Maine. Recent performances range from the role of “Ulrica” in Verdi’s A Masked Ball with Opera in the Pines, a mini tour of “Specter: a Musical Séance” with Porchlight Ensemble, “Memory Bath” at the Chocolate Church Arts Center, “Post Pardon: the Opera” with Arisa White at Colby College, Dvorak’s “Requiem” at Watts Hall in Thomason, to early music and masterworks with Aurora Camerata and Amethyst Chamber Ensemble, and summer waterfront gigs with BobaFunk at The PortHole. This summer, she is excited to be covering the role of “Stephano” in OperaMaine’s production of Romeo et Juiliette by Charles Gounod. Jazmin was a collaborator on a song installation called “Grand Revolve” with Arisa White and Robin Lane, commissioned by The Indigo Arts Alliance and Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. She is adjunct voice faculty at Bates College, Teaching Artist at 317 Main Community Music Center, has a small private studio in Woolwich, and is part of the Maine Chapter of NATS. Jazmin holds a BM and MM from University of Southern Maine and Professional Studies Degree from Mannes.

For more upcoming projects and concerts, visit jazminderice.com.

FILMMAKER

Presley Ackeret is a writer, filmmaker, and interdisciplinary explorer of the great cosmic shrug we call existence. A Midwest-born, half-Korean, Mainer-aspiring New England transplant, she is drawn to the tension between inheritance and reinvention—what we carry, what we bury, and what returns to haunt us. Her work considers the unstable nature of being and authenticity, tracing how thought, feeling, and memory blur together to form—and unravel—our sense of self.

She serves as Communications Coordinator for Harvard University’s Department of Anthropology and Managing Director of Casey Can Artist Support Agency, collaborating with leading cultural researchers and artists worldwide. For Porchlight Ensemble’s 2025 production Specter: A Musical Séance, Presley produces projected video and visuals that slip between the mundane and the uncanny, circling themes of personal mythology and quiet existential absurdity. Her montage-style approach reflects the liminality of local ghost stories and conjures a distinct sense of ontological unease.

Her projects examine how language and image can summon psychic dislocation, unsettling notions of “home” and how we inhabit our own narratives. Her writing has appeared in Boston Art Review, Streetlight Magazine, Eazel, Eat Like Bourdain, and other publications, and her films have been recognized by Lift-Off Global Network of Pinewood Studios. She aims to create experiences that feel deeply personal yet resonate with a shared sense of dissonance and longing—inviting audiences to linger in moments that resist tidy resolution.

Instagram: @presleyackeret 

PHOTOGRAPHER

S. Nash Callahan is photographer born and raised in Maine. He has spent over half his life developing his photographic skills. Believing in the beauty of life’s imperfections, his images are never edited. Nash spends most of his time repairing bikes at his shop, Capital City Cycles LLC in Augusta, Maine. He still photographs when time allows, and his shop also serves as the gallery for his photography.