Senzel Ahmady (Daisy Buchanan) is paralyzed with happiness to be bringing Daisy around the country for the first time! She most recently spent time outside of the country playing Daisy in the original Seoul production of The Great Gatsby. Other credits include Aladdin National Tour (Jasmine) and The Prince of Egypt at OFC Creations (Tzipporah). Endless love and gratitude to her family, friends, CGF, the Gatsby team and all the children of immigrants whose dreams know no limits. 

Lauren Michelle Acoba is a Los Angeles–based music teacher and songwriter. Her work has been featured as guest director for Community Vocals LA (a premiere community choir in LA), music directing the Season 2 finale of the viral vertical series Eavesdropping, and writing an original Christmas song for Joe Serafini (from “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.”) She is the founder of a music and mindfulness studio in Santa Monica called “Berkeley Street Music,” where she teaches technical mastery and emotional expression as inseparable skills that enrich her students as artists to lead meaningful and musical lives. A recent participant in the Johnny Mercer Songwriting Project, her original musicals including “The Girl, the Ghost, the Piano, and the Moon” (workshopped in Hollywood in 2023) tell powerful feminist stories about how to heal. Across her teaching and writing, Lauren creates spaces where people discover presence, connection, and the joy of expressing a life worth remembering.

Henry is a composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist whose work spans stage, screen, and live performance. His music has appeared on Netflix, Showtime, PBS, and Audible, and he has performed on Broadway, at Carnegie Hall, and at venues worldwide; The New York Times once described him as “the connective tissue” of the NYC music/comedy scene. A frequent collaborator with Alan Cumming, Ari Shapiro, Matt Rogers, and Matteo Lane, he made his Broadway debut as music director for Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age at Studio 54 in 2024 and previously produced and hosted Downtown at the Kennedy Center Cabaret. In addition to piano, he performs and records on saxophone and accordion—his saxophone appears on Troye Sivan’s 2023 song “How To Stay With You”—and he has appeared on The Today Show, The Late Show with Seth Meyers, and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Most importantly, he releases original music under the name Henki Skidu. Search Henki Skidu on any streaming service to listen to his album "Spring Water".

Vanessa A. Allen has directed music for more than 30 musical productions at various theatres over the years, including Grand Rapids Civic Theatre and Circle Theatre. Vanessa's credits include The Color Purple, Knight at Dawn, Once On This Island, and Black Bold and Beautiful. Her passion for music is evident. She absolutely loves people and creating music with them. She is grateful for the opportunities.

Lisa Knight has been performing since the young age of 4 and has always had a passion for music and performance. So her move into leading Girls Choral Academy, was a natural fit.

Beyond her business ventures, Lisa’s creative essence is evident, as she is an accomplished performer, playwright, and director, with a respected reputation that spans both local and national stages. Her artistic endeavors are matched only by her commitment to family as the proud mother of 11 adult children, grandmother to 13, and great-grandmother to 3. Lisa’s belief in the power of connection is at the heart of her philosophy.

Hannaniah Whitley is a Chicago-based fitness and wellness professional who’s spent 15+ years believing that music and movement were never meant to stay in separate rooms. She’s built her career — and her passion project, House of Niah — around the idea that a beat can turn a room full of strangers into a community, and a body in motion can be its own kind of song. She works with young voices to explore how music lives not just in the throat, but in the whole body — in posture, breath, energy, and rhythm. Because when you teach a girl to move like she sings — freely, fearlessly, and in full voice — you’re not just building performers. You’re building confidence that lasts. For Hannaniah, it always comes back to the same idea: bring people together, make it joyful, and make it feel like home.

Trevor Lee Straub is a proud alumnus of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy; BFA 2014. On-stage credits include: Civic Theatre's The Rocky Horror Show (Dr. Frank-N-Furter), Disney's Beauty and the Beast (Lumiere), Newsies (Race), Disney's The Little Mermaid (Scuttle), Disney's Beauty and the Beast (Lefou - Grand Award nominee), Circle Theatre's A Chorus Line (Gregory Garnder), STAGE-M's Mary Poppins (Bert). Professional credits: Camino Real (Kilroy) at Ansonia Theatre, One Thousand Words (Luke) Underscore Theatre. Production credits include: CATS with Civic Theatre (Ast. Director), Willy Wonka with STAGE-M (Co-Director), Moon Over Buffalo with STAGE-M (Ast. Director). Straub works professionally in film/print and is Founder/CEO of Michigan Drag Brunch.

Mary Kate Murnen is thrilled to join this intensive as both a GCA staff member and a theater lover. Audiences may recognize her from recent roles such as Elsa Alternate in Frozen (Grand Rapids Civic Theater), Shelley in The Prom (Circle Theater), Grizabella in CATS (Grand Rapids Civic Theatre), Maleficent in Descendants The Musical (Grand Rapids Civic Theater), the Narrator for select performances in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Circle) and Hildy in On The Town (Circle Theatre). As Director of Development and Communications at Girls Choral Academy and a proud Grand Valley State University theatre alum, Mary Kate loves sharing the magic of storytelling with audiences of all ages.