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Acclaimed pianist Julie Bearden Carver is an accomplished musical director, orchestrator, arranger, and performing arts coach, as well as Artistic Operations Manager for Gulf Coast Symphony and Music Director of Southwest Florida Theatre Company. A life-long musician and natural performer, Julie made her Broadway debut playing Piano 1 for Mary Poppins at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City, where she also accompanied Actors Equity Association principal and ensemble auditions, classes at NYU, and students at the Barnard-Columbia Theatre program. At the Juilliard School and Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Center), and stages across the country, Julie has played for many notable composers, conductors, and vocalists, including Jamie Barton, Andrea Bocelli, Bernadette Peters, and Eric Whitacre. In Rome, Georgia, she served as the choral master for the February 2017 presentation of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, co-produced by the Rome Symphony Orchestra and Peach State Opera. Julie’s new orchestrations and music for Rome Shakespeare Festival’s production of Two Gentlemen of Verona premiered in 2018, and A Shakespeare Cabaret, starring world-renowned soprano Indra Thomas, Sherri Sutton, and Jill Hames, with music compiled and arranged by Julie Carver, premiered in May 2021. Julie’s extensive musical direction credits include multiple local and regional productions, including Berry College Theatre Company’s production of Dogfight, The Fantasticks for the Rome Shakespeare Festival, and Matilda and The Spongebob Musical for The Grand Theatre. As Music Director of Southwest Florida Theatre Company, Julie’s productions have included Next to Normal, Grand Night for Singing, Nunsense, Route 66, Forever Plaid, Camelot, and The Bridges of Madison County, among many others, as well as Once Upon a Christmastime, an original holiday musical she created, and her special cabaret series, Julie Carver Presents. Julie lives full-time in Southwest Florida – where she also serves in the music ministry of Vanderbilt Presbyterian Church in Naples – with her husband Bryan, three children, and a fur-child named Mochi.
Branch Fields, described by Opera America as “a bass of resonant richness,” is a versatile performer engaged throughout North America and beyond in opera, musical theater, and concert. He has sung with Santa Fe Opera, New York City Opera, Ogunquit Playhouse, St. Pete Opera, Sarasota Opera, Utah Festival Opera, and many others throughout the U.S. and Canada. Branch’s Broadway debut was in South Pacific, as ensemble and standby for Emile de Becque in the 2008 Lincoln Center Theater production. Recent performances include Sir Lancelot for Opera Montana, Robert in Bridges of Madison County for The Ghostlight Theater in Michigan, Leporello in Don Giovanni for Indianapolis Opera and Greensboro Opera, and roles in several productions for Opera in Williamsburg. He has been Capt. Von Trapp for Charlottesville Opera, Montana TheaterWorks, and The Southwest Michigan Symphony. Branch lives in Williamsburg, Virginia close to his family. His recent album “Be Thou My Vision” can be heard on all major streaming platforms.
A resident of Greenville, SC, soprano Siri Howard is a Broadway actress, concert performer, and teacher. Her Broadway credits include Les Misérables and The Sound of Music (Broadway Revival cast recording), and her national tour credits include The Phantom of the Opera, Parade, Les Misérables 25th Anniversary Production, and The Sound of Music starring Richard Chamberlain. Siri has made multiple appearances at Greenville Theatre, including White Christmas, Something Rotten, and Into the Woods. Her regional theatre credits include The Music Man (as Marian Paroo, for which she received an IRNE Nomination for Best Lead Actress), Fiddler on the Roof at Maine State Music Theatre, and the Gulf Coast Symphony productions of South Pacific and She Loves Me. As a concert soloist, Siri has appeared with the Detroit Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Nashville Symphony, NJ Festival Orchestra, Steamboat Springs Symphony, Wheeling Symphony, and The Florida Orchestra. Siri has performed major classical works and operas, and for active duty military and veterans with the USO, including the 2016 Times Square New Year’s Eve ball drop. Siri is an Associate Professor of Music at USC Upstate, and a guest teaching artist at prestigious institutions around the USA. She is married to director, producer, and performer Max Quinlan, and is proudest of her role as mother to their 2 children, Jack and Sofie.
Nathan James has been a professional singer for over two decades, launching his career at just eleven years old and going on to perform on some of the world’s most legendary stages. A classically trained tenor known for his power and versatility, he has appeared in major arena productions across the United States, Europe, and Asia, including touring with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, where he earned two multi-platinum records. He has also headlined international rock festivals with his UK Official Rock Chart–topping band Inglorious, whose releases have amassed more than twenty million Spotify streams.
Nathan is a frequent collaborator with the BBC Concert Orchestra, performing in productions such as Rock the Opera, Ultimate 80s for BBC Radio 2, and symphonic tributes to rock legends. His extensive stage credits include Superstar, Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, Led Zeppelin and Queen Symphonic at the London Palladium, Thriller Live, Vampires Rock Symphonic, and numerous UK and European tours. He has recorded regularly at the iconic Abbey Road Studios.
Throughout his career, Nathan has worked, recorded, or toured with an extraordinary list of artists, including Ginger Baker, Steve Hackett, Paul Rodgers, Gary Barlow, Cynthia Erivo, and Uli Jon Roth, among many others connected to bands such as Deep Purple, Whitesnake, Genesis, Cream, and The Moody Blues.
In addition to his rock credentials, Nathan fronts the supergroup Iconic alongside members of Whitesnake and other legendary acts, and regularly celebrates the music of artists such as Bryan Adams, The Beatles, Elton John, and Queen in concert. Widely regarded as one of the industry’s most in-demand vocalists, Nathan continues to bridge rock spectacle and theatrical performance with commanding stage presence and world-class musicianship.
David Marino is a young vocalist and rising international star performing at prestigious theatres and jazz clubs across the world. Fresh off releasing his debut EP, The Debut Sessions, Marino has made himself a home at the iconic Birdland Jazz Club in New York, alongside musical director Billy Stritch, and has recently completed tour dates in California, Florida, Germany, France, Italy, and the UK. As an actor, Marino recently played the role of Tobias in Opera Maine’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, and is currently holding the lead role of Maxence in the run of Michel Legrand’s highly acclaimed musical Les demoiselles de Rochefort at the historic Lido Theatre in Paris. Marino is currently working on recording his debut album, and is excited to soon be going on a tour by Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2027 with singer Kate Kortum. Marino is also a proud advocate for mental health causes, and through big band concerts in Montreal, has helped raise $50,000 for the psychiatric facility at the Jewish General Hospital.
Max Quinlan has been a Broadway Resident Director, Broadway Performer, Jeff Award-Winning Actor, Casting Associate, Acting Teacher, and Director. He currently serves as the Producing Artistic Director for Greenville Theatre in Greenville, SC, a position he has held for the past five years. At Greenville Theatre, Max has directed over 20 productions of plays and musicals, including Jersey Boys, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Tuesdays with Morrie, Spamalot, Shrek the Musical, and The Play That Goes Wrong. Max served as the Resident Director for both the 2014 Broadway revival of Les Misérables and the National Tour of The Phantom of the Opera, and as the Associate Director for the World Premiere of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Unmasked at Paper Mill Playhouse. Other directing highlights include production for the Gulf Coast Symphony with The Music Man, Cabaret, Songs For A New World, Show Boat, and She Loves Me. In addition to theatre performance, Max has been a guest concert soloist with the Omaha, Utah, Indianapolis, Chicago, Florida, and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras. He earned his BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music (CCM). Max’s favorite roles are Husband to actress Siri Howard and Father to Jack and Sofie.
