Laurie J. Hays, soprano, is a soloist at St. Anne's Parish, the Upper School director of music at Severn School in Severna Park, and teaches privately. She has performed with the Carmel Bach Festival, Monterey County Symphony, San Diego Symphony and Master Chorale and the Oahu Choral Society (Honolulu). An accomplished singer and pianist, Ms. Hays holds a degree in Music Education from Wittenberg University with studies at Christ’s and Notre Dame Colleges in Liverpool, England. Recent operatic roles include La Traviata (Annina), Amahl and the Night Visitors (Mother), Pirates of Penzance (Edith) and Die Fledermaus (Ida/Sally). Local audiences have seen her in numerous musical theater productions including Pippin (Fastrada), Carousel (Nettie), The Music Man (Mrs. Paroo), Camelot (Nimue), The Secret Garden (Rose), Fiddler on the Roof (Tzeitl) and Sweeney Todd (Quintet). Ms. Hays' recent performances in oratorio include the Mozart Requiem, Bach's Magnificat and St. Matthew and St. John Passions, Schubert's Mass in G, the Pergolesi Stabat Mater, Handel's Messiah, and the Faure Requiem. Ms. Hays is the director the Annapolis Youth Chorus, who made their Carnegie Hall debut in June 2006 under the direction of John Rutter.