Upstream By Chesney Snow and Faye Chiao

Faye Chiao is a composer and performer working in musical theater and opera.  Faye has been artist-in-residence at The New Victory Theater LabWorks, The John Duffy Institute for New Opera at the Virginia Arts Festival, and Boston Chamber Symphony.  Her work has been commissioned by Single Carrot Theater, Prospect Theater, Houston Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, 24-Hour Musicals, and The Canales Project.

Recent works include: Fountain of You (book and lyrics by Tasha Gordon-Solmon) [The Z]; Katie: The Strongest of the Strong (book and lyrics by Anton Dudley) [Houston Grand Opera]; The Secret Code of Mary Bowser (book and lyrics by Anton Dudley) [Pittsburgh Festival Opera].  Faye also wrote, produced and performed in To See the Stars, a multi-media song cycle celebrating the history of astronomy, which premiered in planetariums at the Maryland Science Center and The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

Faye has been honored with awards from The Presser Foundation, The Puffin Foundation and OPERA America.  She is excited to be working with Chesney Snow on their new show, Upstream.

SUZANNE SABA HUGHES (she/her/hers) is a cellist based in New York City with performances at The Metropolitan Opera House and Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, The United Palace Theater, Carnegie Hall, and Feinstein’s/54 Below. Suzanne has performed with ensembles including American Ballet Theatre, Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra, Empire Chamber Orchestra, New England Symphonic Ensemble, and with members of the Metropolitan Opera Dance Company and with Broadway singers. Suzanne is a founding member of Corvus Ensemble, a trio that has premiered new works and presented concerts of diverse traditional and contemporary chamber music. With members of Corvus Ensemble, Suzanne has performed at the Artscape Music Festival, Teachers College Columbia University’s Academic Festival, The Maryland Science Center, The Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., Harford Community College, and The Howland Cultural Center. Suzanne has given performances in Europe, and was assistant principal of the Rome Festival Orchestra. Suzanne has a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University, where she was principal cellist and soloist of The Georgetown University Orchestra and chamber ensembles. She studied chamber music at Mannes College of Music with the Alaria chamber ensemble, and received a Master of Arts in Music and Music Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she was a music studies scholarship recipient. Suzanne was also selected to perform in a masterclass with acclaimed cellist Mark Kosower. A dedicated educator, she is on the faculties of The British International School of New York and Bank Street School for Children, and has a private studio in New York City.

Chesney Snow is a Drama Desk award winner and a 3-time artist in residence at Harvard University with the Office of the Arts. Snow was a 2020 guest artist at Princeton University (Pre-Pandemic). His work was most recently presented at Syracuse Stage with collaborator Faye Chiao for the 2021 Cold Read Festival alongside Kate Hamill and Evan Starling-Davis. He wrote and performed in Soil Beneath: An Empirical Decay with original music by Diedre Murray and directed by Kimille Howard presented off-Broadway in 2020 by Primary Stages and 59E59 Theaters. He appeared in Two River Theater’s production of Oo-Bla-Dee written by Golden Globe winner Regina Taylor and directed by Tony winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson. He was a composer and lyricist for the McCarter Theatre’s 2018 production of Crowns alongside Pulitzer finalist and Obie winner Diedre Murray at Princeton University. He also appeared in McCarter Theatre’s Princeton and Slavery Plays directed by Carl Cofield. Snow is an interdisciplinary artist. He released his debut album on Warner Music in Europe as the songwriter for his group Spoken Love. He is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. Considered a pioneering figure in American beatbox culture, Snow co-founded the American Beatbox Championships where he served as the executive producer for 7 years. The annual event held in New York City is a 3-day international arts festival featuring performances, film screenings, workshops, gallery exhibitions, panel discussions, and of course beatboxing battles of all kinds. Snow also created, produced, and starred in the feature documentary American Beatboxer which was placed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame archive as well as Schomburg Center for Black Research, the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, and the Harvard University Hip Hop archive. The film was licensed by Sean “P Diddy” Combs’ Revolt TV (Time Warner) after receiving accolades at numerous domestic and international film festivals. He has performed live with KRS One, Kayah, and Nile Rodgers while opening for many legendary performers including Snoop Dogg, Gloria Gaynor, and more. In 2016 Snow starred on Broadway in the a cappella musical In Transit at Circle In The Square. He originated the role of “Boxman” both on and off Broadway. He has headlined Carnegie Hall twice with Distinguished Concerts International alongside Deke Sharon. His critically acclaimed autobiographical choreopoem The Unwritten Law was commissioned by Dixon Place experimental theatre and hailed as “Political Theatre at its best. The most powerful theatre I have ever witnessed” by Broadwayworld. For over two decades Snow’s work as a teaching artist has centered on engaging the arts as a vehicle for social change and empowerment. He has been a collaborator with Emmy award-winning filmmaker Lisa Russell for over 10 years developing performances, workshops, and dialog surrounding the arts and education with the United Nations. He has taught workshops and masterclasses in countless prisons, hospitals, public and private schools and universities including Harvard University, Juilliard, New York University, University of Wisconsin Platteville, the Kingdom of Bhutan, and the U.S. State Department with American Voices, as well as numerous theaters throughout the country. He is a long-time teaching artist with New Victory Theater and more recently with The Town Hall in New York City where he created a storytelling intensive with young incarcerated men in Rikers Island Correctional facility.