Duquette Johnston's optimism is born out of much personal evolution and expansion, over what he calls his “wild, incredible life.” Raised in Birmingham and the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, he started playing music and promoting punk rock shows in high school, which led to him playing bass in late '90s Merge Records buzz band Verbena. “We were having all this crazy success, touring with the Foo Fighters, then everything fell apart in my life,” Johnston recalls. “I left the band, my home life at the time fell apart, and I started doing drugs. I thought I had to live in misery to create great art. But that is a freaking lie the world will tell you.” In the early '00s, a drug charge landed him in Etowah County Correctional Facility. Resolutely positive (“There is beauty in darkness if you seek it out” Johnston says in Etowah, a short documentary about his time in lock-up), he got out and and went on to release four solo albums, including Etowah (2006), Rugged & Fancy (2010), Rabbit Runs A Destiny (2013), and his newest album The Social Animals (2022). “Music is center for me,” Johnston says. (photo by Miller Mobley)

Allison Sanders, a Birmingham native, studied at the Curtis Institute of Music where she earned her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Music. While studying she performed roles such as Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Elettra (Idomeneo), Marguerite(Faust) and Cleopatra (Antony and Cleopatra). She also performed numerous roles with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, some of which include Giovanna (Rigoletto), Clotilde (Norma), Bianca (The Rape of Lucretia), and Flora (La Traviata). She performed the title role in Joplin’s Treemonisha with New York City Opera, and performed in The Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia with Opera Memphis. Recently, Ms. Sanders performed the role of Ruth (Pirates of Penzance) with Opera Birmingham and she will also be the featured artist in Opera Birmingham’s one woman production of Driving While Black. She has performed numerous orchestral works with The Lansing Symphony Orchestra, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Symphony Orchestra, The Chautauqua Orchestra and the Alabama Symphony. Ms. Sanders works as an adjunct professor at Miles College teaching voice. (photo by Joe Songer)