Michael Brewer is a lifelong Classic City resident; he was born in Athens and has lived in or near the area his entire life, playing in the Classic City Band while he was in high school. Mr. Brewer is currently employed as a Web Developer at the University of Georgia, and is also a board member and secretary of the US PostgreSQL Association. A Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of UGA, with degrees in music and mathematics, Mr. Brewer was a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity. He has played trombone for the Athens Symphony for the last 20 years; he also directs the Athens Brass Choir, a community brass ensemble he founded in 2002. He has studied instrumental conducting with Albert Ligotti, H. Dwight Satterwhite, and Mark Parker. A member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), his compositions have been performed at UGA, Brevard Music Center, and the Interlochen Arts Camp; his arrangement A Christmas Carol Sing Along has been performed by the Athens Symphony on their Christmas concerts for the past several years, and he recently composed, orchestrated the score, and directed the pit orchestra for a one-act musical drama, Song of a Child.
Aimée Marcoux is a classically trained singer, actor, and award-winning journalist. A highly sought after musical actress known for her depth of character, interpretation and musical sensitivity, Marcoux has performed over fifty operatic, musical theater and oratorio roles with leading orchestras and opera companies across the globe. These include Florida Grand Opera, New World Symphony Orchestra, Florentine Opera, Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, The Bulgarian National Orchestra, Opera Frankfurt, Paraguay Symphony Orchestra, and The Hungarian State Opera. Her role in Marin Alsop’s revival of Gershwin’s rare Blue Monday with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra was described as “sumptuously sung” by the Denver Post. In 2013, Marcoux premiered The Yellow Wallpaper, a one-woman opera written for her by composer and Duke University Professor Michael Trinastic. The concert event was accompanied by a special master class for Graduate students in Music Composition taught by the singer. In a dramatic departure from her singing career, Marcoux worked as a reporter and producer for Reuters Television, Showtime, the BBC, NBC, and Fox affiliates throughout the United States, and was a reporter/producer for Entertainment Drive, one of the first online news outlets. Marcoux has been spotted at The Emmys, The Tony Awards, and the Academy Awards interviewing such celebrities as Sir Anthony Hopkins, Salma Hayek, Tony Bennett, and Mariah Carey. At the United Nations, she interviewed Kofi Annan, Senator Bill Richardson, President Bill Clinton, and HRH Prince Phillip. In addition, Marcoux spent fourteen seasons covering New York’s Fashion Week for fashion and entertainment news outlets. On one such occasion, September 11, 2001, Marcoux was in New York covering an early morning fashion show when she received a call from Reuters urging her to grab her cameraman and “go to a plane crash downtown.” She was one of the first reporters on the scene at the World Trade Center, embarking on a tragic day of news. Her footage and story were featured in the HBO documentary In Remembrance. In addition, Marcoux was lauded by The Royal Television Society as “an invisible giant of TV news” for her coverage at Ground Zero and received an award of recognition. In another fascinating twist, the true story of Aimée Marcoux and her former husband, Michael Spurlock, was told in the Sony Affirm pictures release All Saints (2017). The film recounts the story of salesman-turned-pastor Michael Spurlock (actor John Corbett), Aimée Marcoux (actress Carla Buono), and a group of refugees from Southeast Asia, who risk everything to save their tiny church in Tennessee and transform their future. Marcoux premiered a one-woman show featuring the music of Kurt Weill entitled The Women of Bilbao with Musical Director Doug Martin (Baz Lehrmen’s La Boheme), and Michael Feingold (Village Voice), Director. Upcoming engagements include a Premiere, Summer With Sondheim, a one-woman show with Musical Director Doug Martin, which celebrates the work of composer Stephen Sondheim at The Triad Theater in New York City. Aimée holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The Boston Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music degree in Opera from The New England Conservatory of Music.