Soprano Hannah De Priest
Kickoff America 250 in Liberty with a concert featuring music from musical theater, the classical world as well as some of our greatest patriotic tunes. This program is a celebration of our country and community. Starring artists who were born in Liberty, as well as former residents, this concert will be a reflection of the talent and artistic passion inherent to Liberty.
Details:
Friday, Jan. 16
7:30 p.m.
Second Baptist Church, 300 E. Kansas St.
This event is free and open to the public. Seating will be on a first come, first served basis.
For more information about the performers and for a list of upcoming America 250 events in Liberty, visit the Visit Liberty website.
Featuring
Hannah DePriest, soprano
Soprano Hannah De Priest is a fearless performer especially renowned for her “masterful” (Olyrix) performances of Baroque repertoire. Consistently described as a “standout” and praised for her “bright, ideally-focused sound, allied to a probing expressive intelligence” (Chicago Classical Review), the young soprano enjoys a fast-rising career in North America and Europe. Recent highlights include debuts with the Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra (Bach’s Johannes-Passion), the Innsbruck Early Music Festival (Gilde, L’amazzone corsara), and her Kennedy Center debut with Opera Lafayette (Serpina, La servante maîtresse). With the storied Boston Early Music Festival, Hannah has performed lead roles across multiple productions. Her 2025-26 season includes three operatic tellings of the Orfeo myth; Gluck’s Orfeo (Amore, Music of the Baroque), Jacopo Peri’s Eurydice (Proserpina, Haymarket Opera), and Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Ars Lyrica Houston (Proserpina).
She also returns to the Boston Early Music Festival for her first title role with the company in Provenzale’s La Stellidaura vendicante. On the concert stage, she will perform Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Washington Bach Consort, Handel’s Messiah with the St. Louis Bach Festival, a new version of Bach’s unfinished Markus-Passion with Bach in the City (Chicago).
Later this spring, she will headline a concert and tour of Handelian cantatas with Les Délices. Her debut solo album with the ensemble, Arcadian Dreams, is set to release in Spring 2026. Hannah has earned acclaim at numerous international competitions, winning 2nd Prize at the Cesti Competition for Baroque Opera in 2021. She is also a laureate of the London Handel Competition, the Handel Aria Competition, Le Concours Corneille, the Bethlehem Bach Festival, and the Luminarts Cultural Foundation Competition.
A native of Saint Joseph, Missouri, Hannah currently resides in Philadelphia with her husband and their rescue dog, Teddy.
David Morgans, tenor
Three-time Grammy Award-winning tenor David Morgans is known for his riveting performances and dynamic voice. So far this season, David will be engaged with Houston Grand Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Mingo for Porgy and Bess along with three other notable appearances to be announced shortly.
This past season, David was seen as Narraboth in Salome with Heartbeat Opera, covering Kevin Richardson in The Central Park Five with Detroit Opera, and was highlighted in a semi-staged concert with Metro Opera Tech at the Kaufmann Center in New York City. He also appeared as Third Jew in Union Avenue Opera’s Salome.
Recent highlights include Mr. Morgans’ return to the Metropolitan Opera as Ally in the critically acclaimed X: The Life and Times of Malcom X, a debut Lensky in Opera Baltimore’s Eugene Onegin, a reprise of Nate in Highway 1 USA with St Stephens Festival Opera.
Mr. Morgans stars as Julio (a tenor) in the feature film, She Came to Me (directed by Rebecca Miller) alongside Anne Hathaway, Peter Dinklage, and Marissa Tomei. She Came to Me is currently available to stream on Disney Plus and Hulu.
Recently at the Metropolitan Opera, David could be seen as Pledge in Fire Shut Up In My Bones, Prayer in the Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, as well as an appearance in Terrence Blachard’s Champion. All three recordings have won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.
Follow Mr. Morgans on his journey at DavidMorgans.com, facebook.com/HunkenTenor and on Instagram @HunkenTenor.
Daniel Belcher, baritone
Grammy Award-winning baritone Daniel Belcher has performed in many of the world’s music capitals, including Paris, London, New York, San Francisco, Berlin, Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Geneva, Madrid, Toronto, Montreal, Tokyo, Seoul and Houston. With a repertoire of more than 90 roles, Belcher has championed roles from the Baroque to those composed expressly for him. He came to international attention in 2004 creating the role of Prior Walter in Peter Eötvös’ Angels in America for the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris for which he was hailed by London’s The Guardian as “possessing the kind of powerhouse stuff that indicates a star in the making.” He received his Grammy in 2011 for the role of Jaufre´ Rudel in Kaija Saariaho and Amin Malouf’s L’Amour de Loin under the baton of Kent Nagano on the Harmonia Mundi Label. He also premiered Saariaho’s Sombre at the Rothko Chapel in Houston with DaCamera.
Belcher recently created the roles of Inspector Kildare in Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell’s Elizabeth Cree at Opera Philadelphia, James Addison III in Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek’s The House Without a Christmas Tree at Houston Grand Opera (recorded on the Pentatone label), Lord Bellingham in Lori Laitman’s The Scarlet Letter at Opera Colorado (released on the Naxos label), Brian Castner in Jeremy Howard Beck’s The Long Walk with Opera Saratoga, and Robert Kennedy in Robin de Raaff’s Waiting for Miss Monroe for his debut at The Netherlands Opera and Holland Festival. Other world premiere roles include John Brooke in Mark Adamo’s Little Women (released on the Ondine label and recorded by PBS’ Great Performances), Andy Warhol in Michael Daugherty’s Jackie O (released by Decca on the Argo label), and multiple roles in Tod Machover’s Resurrection (released on the Ondine label), all with Houston Grand Opera.
Last season, Belcher performed the role of Lawrence in The Wreckers with Houston Grand Opera, Frank and Fritz in Die Tote Stadt at Opera Colorado and the Narrator and Mysterious Man in Into the Woods, with the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival. In the 2023-24 season, he returns to Houston Grand Opera as Max Detweiler in The Sound of Music, performs as Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus at Pensacola Opera, Benoit and Alcindoro in La Bohème at Utah Opera and Harold Hill in The Music Man with Charlottesville Opera.
In addition to his active performing career, Belcher is a sought-after voice teacher, administrator and clinician. He is currently an Instructional Assistant Professor of Voice at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. He is formerly the Director of the Artist Diploma at William Jewell College. His students have won numerous prizes in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Lotte Lenya Competition, Zachary Awards and others. They have performed with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Central City Opera, Opera Saratoga, Opera Maine, Chautauqau Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Colorado, Minnesota Opera, Seattle Opera and many others.
He serves as the voice teacher for the Artists-in-Residence at Opera Colorado and formerly, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City Resident Artist Program. He has judged for the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. In the past, he has served on the faculties of the Florida State University, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, IVAI – Tel Aviv, and Creative Dialogue at the Sibelius Akademie in Helsinki. He has led master classes at USC, University of Utah, Manhattan School of Music, Peabody Conservatory, and others, as well as with the young artist programs of Portland Opera, Utah Opera, Madison Opera, and Chautauqua Opera.
He is married to Metropolitan Opera stage director Kathleen Smith Belcher, Director of the Moores Opera Center at University of Houston and is the father of soprano Madeline Belcher.
Turner Staton, bass baritone
Turner Staton (bass-baritone) hailed for his “sonorous and floor shaking” singing, is a native of Kansas City, Missouri. As an Artist in Residence with Opera Colorado from 2022-2024, Turner was seen in performances of Don Giovanni (Masetto, Leporello cover), Samson et Dalila (Old Hebrew), Rigoletto (Ceprano, Monterrone cover), Turandot (Timur cover), as well as the touring shows of La Cenerentola (Alidoro/Don Magnifico), The Pirates of Penzance (Pirate King), L’elisir d’amore (Dulcamara), and Romeo & Juliet (Capulet/Tybalt). In 2025 he was hired back to Opera Colorado as Sergeant Sulpice in La fille du régiment. In 2022, he spent time with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City as an Apprentice Artist where he performed in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Steve Jobs (Paul Jobs cover), Tosca, and was a featured soloist in the premiere of a Baseball: A Musical Love Letter. Additional performances include Le Nozze di Figaro (Figaro), Cosi fan Tutte (Don Alfonso), La Calisto (Mercurio), and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle. Summer festivals include Des Moines Metro Opera as an Apprentice Artist (2025), Opera Saratoga as a Festival Artist (2022), and Tanglewood Music Festival as a Vocal Fellow (2020/21).
Turner holds degrees from Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (M.M.) and Pepperdine University (B.M.), and received an Artist Diploma certificate from William Jewell College.
Mark Ferrell, piano
Mark Ferrell began his professional music career with a Young Artist Development Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, enabling his appointment to the Houston Grand Opera music staff. This led to continuing artistic collaboration with such world-renowned opera companies as L’Opera de Montreal, Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, Dallas Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Tulsa Opera, under the baton of notable conductors including Bruno Bartoletti, Leonard Bernstein, Bruno Campanella, Sarah Caldwell, Franz-Paul Decker, Marek Janowski, Raymond Leppard, Andrew Litton, Stephen Lord, John Pritchard, Patrick Summers and Gary Wedow.
Beyond his work in the field of opera, Mr. Ferrell also has extensive experience as a collaborative pianist and vocal coach. Declared by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to be “everything one could hope for in an accompanist”, Ferrell has toured all over the United States, Central America and Japan, appearing in recitals and master classes with artists such as Christine Brewer, Joyce Castle, Frank Corsaro, Phyllis Curtin, Joyce DiDonato, Rosalind Elias, Denyce Graves, Evelyn Lear, Judith Raskin, Renata Scotto, Beverly Sills, Diana Soviero and Beverly Wolff.
He has served as Music Director for the Tulsa Opera Young Artist Program and developed the KU/Lyric Opera of Kansas City Apprentice Artist program, KU’s first such professional program.
Mr. Ferrell holds a degree in Piano Performance from Wheaton College Conservatory of Music and a Master’s Degree in Vocal Coaching and Accompanying from the University of Illinois, where he honed his professional skills under the tutelage of prestigious accompanist John Wustman (personal pianist to Luciano Pavarotti). Formerly an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Kansas, Mr. Ferrell was the Music Director for KU Opera and was an adjunct professor for the Artist Diploma program at William Jewell College and a Staff Coach/Accompanist at KCKCC. Though recently retired from the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, where he served as Head of Music Staff/Chorus Master, Mark remains busy in the professional world by Music Directing and Conducting at musical theater venues such as Musical Theatre Heritage.
