Coast to Coast

Soprano, Amy Cofield, is a highly sought after performer and teacher. Praised by the New York Times for her "lovely, rich tone," Ms. Cofield has performed to critical acclaim across the U.S. and in Italy, France, Croatia, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, England, Santo Domingo, Guam, Taiwan and Japan. Highly regarded for her technical facility, her beauty of interpretation and an arresting presence, her operatic roles have included Violetta, a role that marked her debut at Houston Grand Opera where she covered Renee Fleming’s Traviata, Cleopatra, Micaela, and Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Roanoke, Elcia (cover) in Rossini’s Moses in Egypt at New York City Opera, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Nevada Opera, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus with Greensboro Light Opera (Eastern Music Festival), Violetta with Annapolis Chamber Orchestra and Chorale, Mimi, with Pro Cantus Lyric Opera (TX), Cunegonde and Susannah with Fort Worth Opera, Musetta and Pamina with Knoxville Opera, Gilda, Norina and Violetta wi Lyric Opera San Antonio, and Konstanze and Violetta with Teatro Lirico D'Europa. Recent highlights included the role of Violetta in Opera Roanoke's production of Verdi's La Traviata, and a world premiere in NY, performing the role of Belinda in the opera/oratorio, The Rape of the Lock (Alexander Pope), by NY composer Deborah Mason.

Amy’s busy concert schedule has included performances of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Brahms’ Requiem with the U.S. Naval Academy, Orff's Carmina Burana with Virginia Symphony, Handel’s Messiah with Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Einhorn's Voices of Light, Haydn’s Creation and Handel's Messiah with Annapolis Chamber Orchestra and Chorale, Ravel’s Sheherazade with Garden State Philharmonic and Norfolk Chamber Consort, Mendelssohn's Elijah and St. Paul Oratorio, Haydn's The Seasons, Bach’s St. John Passion, Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus and Beethoven’s Mass in C with Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society and in works including Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C Minor, to Handel’s Messiah and Brahms’ Requiem with Garden State Philharmonic and Fort Wayne Philharmonic. In addition Amy has appeared with Opera Camerata of Washington, Norfolk Chamber Consort, Virginia Arts Festival, Festival Chamber Music in recital at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and with The Masterwork Chorus (NJ) in Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall. Recent highlights included a return to SNMAS for Mendelssohn’s Elijah, to Roanoke Symphony Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah, and a debut with Tulsa Symphony performing Brahms’ Requiem. In addition, Amy performed recitals in Maine and Virginia, Handel’s Messiah with Annapolis Chorale and Chamber Orchestra, Haydn’s Creation with Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart’s Grand Mass in C Minor with Tucson Masterworks Chorale.

In 2019, Amy made her debut with Space Coast Symphony as a soloist on their Broadway concert: One Singular Sensation. She returned for Villa Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 in the 2019-20 season. She also debuted with the Brevard Symphony Chorus and Orchestra for Bach’s B Minor Mass and will return for Handel’s Messiah. Upcoming engagements include recitals, a debut with Opera Orlando performing the role of Minnie in their Opera on the Town production of The Girl of the Golden West, a return to Roanoke Symphony Orchestra for Mozart’s Requiem and to Opera Roanoke for the role of Blanche in Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire.

American soprano Mary Anne Kruger graduated with a Master of Music degree from Indiana University where she studied voice with world-renowned voice teacher Margaret Harshaw.  She then went to Germany where she established an impressive repertoire of over 40 major operatic and concert roles.  Her repertoire spans in vocal range from Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) to Salome, and in stylistic range from Poppea (L’Incornazione di Poppea) to Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress), as well as some world and German premieres. Among innumerable accolades, Opernwelt called her Contessa (“Le Nozze di Figaro”) “dazzling”, and Orfeus International declared her Salome to be “worthy of the greatest houses.” She built her repertoire primarily as a member of the Hessisches Staatstheater Darmstadt, but she has performed in over 20 European theaters including the Bayerische Staatsoper- Nationaltheater in Munich, Staatstheater Stuttgart, the Latvian National Opera and Theater Basel.

Her prizes include a nomination in the category “Best Singer” in the Opernwelt Jahrbuch for her portrayal of Alcina.  She was awarded the role of Donna Elvira in the Don Giovanni production  at the Athens Concert Hall directed by Ruggiero Raimondi and conducted by Gustav Kühn. The “Sonderpreis der Wiener Staats-und Volksoper” at the Belvedere Competition secured for her a performance as Hanna Glawari (Die Lustige Witwe) at the Wiener Volksoper.  She was also awarded a DAAD scholarship (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdient) to study at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich.  She currently lives in Satellite Beach with her husband and two dogs.

Sean Sexton was born in Indian River County and grew up on his family's Treasure Hammock Ranch, eight miles west of Vero Beach, Florida. He divides his time between taking care of a 600 acre cow-calf and seed stock cattle operation, painting and writing. He is married to artist Sharon Sexton, they have two grown children and live on their homestead on the ranch in a house they built with their hands.  He has kept journal-sketch books drawn from his life since 1973 and was awarded an Individual Artist’s Fellowship from the State of Florida in 2000-2001. He is the author of Waldo’s Mountain, Brief History of a Small Elevation, Waterview Press, 2001, Blood Writing, Poems, Anhinga Press, 2009 and The Empty Tomb, University of Alabama's Slash Pine Press, 2013. He was a presenter at the National Grazing Lands Coalition Conference in Orlando on the subject of Art and Agriculture. He has been a panelist at the Florida Literary Arts Coalition Conference in St. Augustine, FL since 2012, and a regular performer at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada since 2011. In 2017 He completed a three city Southern Poetry Tour with Alice Friman and presented his poetry at "O' Miami" with Campbell McGrath and Dylan Brennan at the Betsy on South Beach last April. He became inaugural Poet Laureate of Indian River County in 2016.  He was part of an exhibition commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the University of Florida Gallery this summer entitled "Reading Between Lives" featuring Art and correspondence of a 35 year friendship with Artist, Michael Kemp, of Micanopy, FL. On Feb. 21st, 2014, He received Citizen of the Year from the Environmental and Land Use Law Section of the Florida Bar. On February 19, 2015 he gave a presentation on Florida's Cattle Industry from an Art and Poetry perspective as part of the 2015 Florida Humanities Speaker Series at the Emerson Center in Vero Beach.