WHO WE ARE

General Director 

A native of Southern California, Megan Weston is a soprano, teacher, and the co-founder of Athena Music Foundation. She is an instructor of voice and piano at Teachers College, Columbia University as she completes her master's degree in Music and Music Education. She has received acclaim for her numerous operatic portrayals, including Lightfoot McClendon in the premiere production of Carlisle Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree with San Diego Opera ("Magnificent" - KPBS), and Lisa in La sonnambula with the Caramoor International Music Festival ("Remarkable virtuosity and charm" - Financial Times). In 2020, she appeared as The Swallow and Match Girl in Sergio Cervetti's "The Happy Prince" with DCINY at Carengie Hall. She has sung in programs with the Metropolitan Opera Guild at Lincoln Center and appeared on PBS and NHK. Premieres include Constance in Mitchell Bach’s Les trois mousquetaires (Phoenicia Festival), Nico Muhly's “Impaired Vision” (Symphony Space), and Anne in Harold Farberman's Diamond Street (Albany Records). She has won awards from the Gerda Lissner International Competition, Metropolitan Opera Western Regional Auditions, and Zachary National Competition. She was a member of the Young Artist Programs of San Diego Opera and Utah Opera, and has taught master classes for the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, La Sierra University, and was a guest teaching artist with the Conductors Institute at Bard College for several summers. Megan is a founding member of The Athenians

Music Director

Born in New Jersey and raised in California, Dr. Michael Fennelly is a pianist, coach, conductor, and the co-founder of Athena Music Foundation. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music and Manhattan School of Music, where he completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree. Michael Fennelly premiered his own arrangement of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for solo piano, orchestra, and symphonic chorus at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall with the National Chorale. The Huffington Post said his performance “hit like a lightning bolt which catapulted the audience 2,000 feet in the air, taking them on a rocket-ride around the Chrysler building."  Dr. Fennelly recently appeared in concert with international opera star Renée Fleming and has performed in many of the world's great concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, The Opéra de Monte-Carlo, David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, Munich’s Prinzregenten Theatre, and Berlin’s Komische Oper. As a staff pianist for The Juilliard School and the Metropolitan Opera, Michael has collaborated with many of the world’s most celebrated musicians including Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Renata Scotto, Itzakh Perlman, and Lorin Maazel. He was the US winner of the Horowitz Competition and made his Carnegie Hall debut as a winner of the Artists International Competition. As a conductor, he has lead Madama Butterfly (Amore Opera), La traviata (Berkshire) and the premieres of  Les Trois Mousquetaires (Phoenicia Festival), Faustine, Big Jim (Center for Contemporary Opera), and assisted in Japan Society’s Four Nights of Dream in sold out performances in Tokyo.  Dr. Fennelly was invited as assistant conductor to many prestigious music festivals (Wolftrap, Castleton, Ashlawn, Bruges) and has led innumerable chamber and operatic concerts from the keyboard. Michael Fennelly's recordings include The Legend of Faust: Part One, Debut, and Grand Tour. Michael is a founding member of The Athenians.   

Advisory Board Chairman

Dr. Alice S. Kandell is a child psychologist, author, lecturer, photographer, opera enthusiast, and art collector interested in Himalayan culture. The New York City native is a graduate of Harvard University and Sarah Lawrence College, and worked extensively in Sikkim as a photographer between 1965 and 1979. She initially visited Sikkim in 1965 to attend the coronation ceremony of her friend Hope Cooke, an American woman who married the King of Sikkim. At his request, she started a photography project to illustrate cultural initiatives in Sikkim. Her private collection of Tibetan art was covered in A Shrine for Tibet: The Alice S. Kandell Collection of Tibetan Sacred Art. In 2011, she donated a collection of Tibetan art to the Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian, and about 300 photos to the Library of Congress. She has also donated pieces in her collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rubin Museum. She is a long-time supporter of The Metropolitan Opera, and has participated in numerous Met productions as a supernumerary. Alice has hosted many opera gala soirées at her home in New York City, which eventually lead to the idea and formation of The Athenians.

Special Projects

 Originally from Southeast Texas, tenor Cody Austin is a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts and Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington. His voice has been described as “a warm, rich quality… produced with an evenness that’s rare.” Recent engagements include Alfredo in La Traviata with Pittsburgh Opera, Don Jose in Carmen with Sarasota Opera, and Pinkerton in Madama Buttefly with Pa Skaret Opera in Swede and Central City Opera. In concert, he performed Verdi’s Requiem with Symphoria at Syracuse University, La Traviata with New Jersey Festival Orchestra and made his Carnegie Hall debut with Mid America in Requiem by Michael Glasgow. Past engagements include the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto for Opera Santa Barbara, Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata and Roméo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette for Virginia Opera, Alfredo for Utah Opera, Lensky in Eugene Onegin for Des Moines Metro Opera, Don Jose in Le Tragedy de Carmen for Shreveport Opera, and Belmonte in Abduction from the Seraglio with Opera Grand Rapids, Faust in Boito’s Mefistofile with Knoxville Opera, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and Alfredo in La Traviata for Opera Tampa. Cody's future engagements include his debut with Grange Park Opera as Rodolfo. Cody is a founding member of The Athenians.

Education Coordinator

Puerto Rican soprano Samarie Alicea received her Master of Music in Vocal Performance degree at CUNY-Brooklyn College and her Bachelor’s degree from the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. She is on the voice faculty of The Bronx Conservatory of Music and also teaches music in Harlem. She recently sang Frasquita in Carmen at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center and Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Heartbeat Opera in New York City. She reprised her role in Heartbeat Opera’s remount of Don Giovanni at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. With New York City Opera, she sang the Statue in Rameau's Pygmalion and returned as Aire in the spanish baroque opera Los Elementos. She repeated this role at New York's Fashion Week, Opera Carolina's Opera Recycles, and for NYCO’s Series at Bryant Park. Praised by the New York Times as "bright-voiced and endearing"  she made her Off-Broadway debut as Susanna in Figaro 90210!  She won the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions in Puerto Rico. Samarie has been a core member of The Athenians since 2017.

Guest Conductor and Music Advisor

A native of Montgomery, Alabama, Dr. Everett McCorvey received his degrees from the University of Alabama. Maestro McCorvey holds an Endowed Chair in Opera Studies at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. He has performed throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Kennedy Center, Aspen Music Festival, Radio City Music Hall, Birmingham Opera Theater, Teatro Comunale, Florence, and Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. He is the Artistic Director of the National Chorale and Orchestra in New York City. He is also the founder and director of the American Spiritual Ensemble specializing in the performance of spirituals and other compositions of African-American composers. He has served on the faculty of the New York State Summer School of the Arts in Saratoga Springs, New York where he was Artist-in-Residence and Associate Conductor and is also a frequent advisory panelist and on-site reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts Opera/Musical Theatre program in Washington, D.C. He has also served on the faculty of the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria.