2025 Program Faculty

Each summer’s core team of faculty consists of five vocal coaches and five music directors who work with each of our students to guide them through Songbook Academy Week in a personalized coaching capacity. Additionally, we are honored to welcome other specialty faculty who work with our students in a vocal technique, choral and choreography capacity throughout the week and in development of The Songbook Academy in Concert.

Explore the 2025 lineup of artists from all corners of the music industry who will be working with our finalists!

Core Faculty

SHEREEN AHMED - Vocal Coach

Shereen Ahmed was most recently seen starring as Ellen in Arena Stage’s original adaptation of The Age of Innocence. She made her Broadway debut in the Lincoln Center Theater production of My Fair Lady and headlined the national tour as Eliza Doolittle, which earned her a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle nomination. Her Off-Broadway credits include Claudia in Nine at The Kennedy Center, Franca in The Light in the Piazza at City Center Encores! and Adele in Classic Stage Company’s A Man of No Importance. Shereen originated the role of Ellen in the world premiere of The Age of Innocence at The Old Globe.
 
Her concert highlights include performing for President Biden at the White House in honor of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and starring as Joan Fletcher in Strike Up the Band and as Iolanthe in Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta Iolanthe at Carnegie Hall. She has appeared in New Amsterdam (NBC) and Beltline to Broadway, and performed in the PBS live telecast Eyes of the World: From D-Day to VE Day with the Boston Pops.
 
Shereen has been profiled in Vogue Arabia and named one of "40 Under 40" accomplished Arab Americans for her work in the theatre. She has served as a guest speaker at the United Nations’ 14th Conference of States Parties and is a global ambassador for Education for Employment (EFE). Shereen holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Towson University.

Instagram: @shereen_ahmed 

CAELAN CARDELLO - Music Director

Born and raised in Teaneck, NJ, Caelan Cardello has been playing piano since the age of 5. He grew up studying jazz and classical separately, and was performing professionally by the age of 16. He attended Jazz House Kids for 7 years, and was given opportunities to learn from the greatest jazz mentors and play on stages like Dizzy's Club, The Jazz Standard, and the Newport Jazz Festival.
 
Caelan has performed with Christian McBride, Joe Farnsworth, Jimmy Cobb, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Bill Charlap and Rufus Reid, to name a few. He was selected as one of 5 finalists in the prestigious 2023 American Pianists Association Jazz competition. Caelan graduated from William Paterson University with a bachelor’s in Jazz Performance in 2022 and just graduated this year with his master’s degree from the Juilliard School. He regularly plays in NYC leading his own bands or as a sideman, and tours around the country frequently.

KATHLEEN HACKER - Vocal Coach

Kathleen Hacker, soprano, made her New York debut as soloist with the American Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Center (Alice Tully Hall) and has sung with major symphony orchestras across the country, including those of Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. She appeared as a regular cover for Sandi Patty in the Indianapolis Symphony Yuletide Celebration and can be heard as soprano soloist on the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir 75th anniversary release of Mendelssohn’s Elijah. As a chamber musician, where she is most at home, Kathleen has appeared throughout the country and abroad, with more than 250 varied concerts to her credit.
 
Dr. Hacker is Professor of Music Emerita at the University of Indianapolis where she taught all things vocal, led professional development and creativity classes, and served as Artistic Director of the Opera Theatre. She is an avid supporter of young singers and has served as mentor and judge for The Songbook Academy, founded by Michael Feinstein, and Schmidt Vocal Arts, which is a foundation dedicated to fostering young students’ passion for classical music.

JEFF HARRIS - Music Director

Jeff Harris is equally at home as a pianist, composer, arranger, conductor, and lyricist. He has worked with such diverse singers as Bernadette Peters, Maureen McGovern, Chaka Khan, Jack Jones, Barbara Cook, Marilyn Maye, Lea Salonga, Michael Feinstein, Freda Payne, Karen Akers, and Cleo Laine. His longest association has been with Maureen Mcgovern, playing and arranging seven of her CDs (co-producing her most recent “You Raise Me Up”), writing many songs for her (she has recorded seventeen including “Why Can’t I Forget?”), and appearing with her frequently on television, in concerts, and by request of President George H.W. Bush at The White House.
 
Mr. Harris has worked extensively on Broadway as both pianist and conductor in the shows GYPSY (directed by Arthur Laurents; starring Patti Lupone), ON THE TOWN (both revivals), CHICAGO, FOSSE, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and CRAZY FOR YOU. Jeff Harris is a frequent guest as a pianist and conductor with many of the leading symphony orchestras including the Boston, St. Louis, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, National, and was, for several years, the regular pianist for the New York Pops. Born in California to a musical family, Mr. Harris attended the University of Southern California on a full scholarship receiving his Bachelors of Music in Composition. He now makes his home in the New York City area.

MARYANN HU - Vocal Coach

MaryAnn Hu's Broadway credits include Queen Iduna in Disney’s Frozen, The Queen of Transylvania in My Fair Lady, Sunday In The Park With George (starring Jake Gyllenhaal), Lincoln Center’s The King and I (Lady Thiang u/s), South Pacific (Bloody Mary u/s) and Miss Saigon. Off-Broadway, she has appeared in The Audience (Transport Group), Falsettoland (NAATCO), at the Signature and the Vineyard. Regional credits include Allegiance (The Old Globe), La Jolla Playhouse’s comedy Tiger Style! (also at O’Neill Theater Conference) and numerous shows at East West Players. Workshops include Disney’s Hercules as Hera, My Life in Pink aka Ma Vie En Rose by Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater and Our Lady J, and Farewell, My Concubine by Jason Robert Brown. Film credits include Elanore in the indie film Wilde Wedding (2017), DeLoba, Falling for Grace. TV credits include the HBO Max mini-series The Flight Attendant (recurring guest star), Elementary, Madam Secretary, Nurse Jackie, Law & Order and also recurred on the NBC sitcom WHOOPI as SooLin. She was most recently featured in Pasadena Playhouse’s HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR! directed by Sam Pinkleton and written by Randy Blair.
 
Hu studied under Wynn Handman and is a graduate of the Upright Citizens Brigade for Improv Comedy and Sketch Writing. She also performs on the indie-improv scene with Baby Grand: The Improvised Musical and The Picklebacks. She serves as chair, in addition to proudly being on the NFAA/Youngarts Theater Panel (2019-present); as well as the solo performance coach for the National High School Music Theater Awards, also known as the Jimmy Awards (2018-present). She has also served as an adjunct professor at NYU Tisch New Studio Broadway and guest lectures at numerous institutions. She is the recipient of the 2021 Ron Van Lieu Teaching Fellowship in the Teacher Development Program from the National Alliance of Acting Teachers. She also became a Meditation and Mindfulness Teacher in early 2021, having trained in a two-year professional certification program for teaching awareness and compassion-based practices with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach through the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. MaryAnn Hu was most recently a faculty member at the USC School of Dramatic Arts.

DARYL KOJAK - Music Director

Daryl Kojak, pianist, arranger, producer, musical director, composer, songwriter and educator, is honored to have worked with a long list of talent, including Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Phoebe Snow, Sheila Jordan, Jane Monheit, Marni Nixon, Cheryl Bentyne, Kristin Chenoweth, Jay Clayton, Vicki Sue Robinson, George Coleman, Randy Brecker, Kurt Elling, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sheldon Harnick, Sandra Bernhard, André De Shields, Mary Testa, Rita Rudner, Richard Belzer, Tiny Tim, Tovah Feldshuh, Ben Vereen, Billy Stritch, Marilyn Maye, Larry Kerchner, Catherine Russell, Laurie Krauz, Heather Mac Rae, Annie Hughes, Stephanie Pope, Jackie Hoffman, Randa McNamara, Amy Beth Williams, Spider Saloff, Leslie Orofino, Marieann Meringolo, Nancy Lamott, Portia Nelson, Alison Fraser, Emily Skinner, Paige Price, Mark Nadler, Phillip Officer, Varla Jean Merman, Miss Coco Peru, and a whole bunch of others. An accomplished and widely diverse composer, Daryl has created and scored music for film, television, stage, artist’s recordings and video games. Among feature films that include Daryl’s work are “True Love," “Nola,” “Warrior Class" and "Reunion, The Movie." He composes regularly for the New York City Parks Department’s Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater.
 
Daryl is a recipient of Backstage's Bistro Award for Outstanding Musical Director, The Caribbean Gospel Music Award for Top Gospel Arranger, and The Daryl Kojak Trio received the MAC Award for Best Jazz Group (The Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs). Laurie Krauz and Daryl share a Bistro Award for Outstanding Theme Show for "Tapestry Rewoven." Daryl arranged Anthony Cochran’s “Lives," (Music Of Elvis Presley,) which also received a Bistro Award. Daryl has been nominated numerous times for a MAC Award for Best Musical Director.
 
In Daryl’s successful and popular “Notes From The Pilgrimage,” an album of original compositions in new age and classical genres, Daryl "stirs up a rich blend with performances and lush orchestrations evocative of George Winston, Fred Hersch and Paul Winter."