Ithaca College

Founded in 1996 by Rosemary Hyler Ritter, SongFest is a unique program that focuses on the art of song.  Participants from all over the world, ranging in age from high school students to working professionals, gather each summer for an intense program to learn from experts in the field of classical art song.  SongFest boasts the best collection of faculty in the world, including pianists Martin Katz, Margo Garrett, and Roger Vignoles. 

SongFest also champions American music and every summer invites composers-in-residence to work directly with SongFest participants in master classes and private coachings.  Over the past 17 years, SongFest has engaged American composers Jake Heggie, John Harbison, John Musto, Libby Larsen, Ben Moore, Tom Cipullo, Lori Laitman, Ricky Ian Gordon, among many others.  SongFest alumni currently sing at all the major opera houses in the United States and abroad and hold faculty positions at leading American universities.

Ivy Walz, mezzo-soprano, is an Assistant Professor of Voice at Ithaca College, School of Music. She is a candidate for the DMA from the College Conservatory of Music and holds the Bachelor and Master of Music from Ithaca College. She was recently a semi-finalist in the Joy of Singing Competition and was a regional finalist in the NATSAA competition in 2010 and 2008. She has performed with Cincinnati Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, Des Moines Metro Opera, Syracuse Opera and Tri-Cities Opera.  She has also performed with the Akron Symphony, Binghamton Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Southern Fingerlakes, and most recently she performed the Soprano II solos in Mozart’s Mass in C minor with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Walz will be featured on a collaborative recording of American Parlor Songs from the 19th century with tenor David Parks. Vocal studies are with Barbara Honn and Mary Stucky. She has coached with Donna Loewy and Kenneth Griffiths.