Meet the Staff
Jennifer Cooper,
Artistic Director / Host
While earning degrees in Solo Vocal Performance (B.A. - University of Maryland Baltimore County, M.M. - Arizona State University School of Music), Cooper studied the art and science of Vocal Technique and Pedagogy with an intense appetite for knowledge and understanding about the anatomical and synergetic mechanics of the Breathing and Phonation systems. Over the past twenty years, Cooper has achieved an extraordinary capacity for learning, processing, clarifying and teaching others the intricacies of meeting their greatest potential in singing beautifully, competitively, efficiently, and healthily in any genre. Her four-year stint as the sole voice instructor at EMU (Harrisonburg, VA) provided opportunities for new course development, including Musical Theater and Opera Scenes classes which she created and directed to high acclaim. She also served as Music Director and Conductor for major musical productions and choral ensembles.
Cooper currently serves as a highly respected private voice instructor of the Cooper Voice Studio, also as a member of the St. Mary's College of Maryland Voice Faculty, and an expert vocal technique master class and workshop facilitator. She is a member of the National Association forTeachers of Singing and the SpeakEasy Cooperative (a unique forum of Independent Voice Studio Teachers).
Cooper has created, produced and starred in several original music productions, including her one-woman, auto-biographical musical cabaret, “Go-DIVA! ~ of Song, Silence & the Abuse of Chocolate” (written and directed by LB Hamilton),“Velvet Nights” (international cabaret), and “Only Yesterday” (Carpenters tribute). Her popular showcase series, “Opera Night” and “Broadway Night” consistently played to sold-out audiences in the southern Maryland region while her highly acclaimed “Sentimental Journey” (WWII era tribute) presentation continues to tour the east coast. Most recently, Cooper enjoyed a successful debut of her auto-biographical operatic showcase, "The Opera Life".
Cooper and her current jazz/blues/pop ensemble, GrooveSpan, remain in high demand for numerous venues, music festivals, concert series, and special public and private events. She co-founded the collective of seasoned professional musicians in 2010 with guitarist, Carl Reichelt. The pair comprise the GrooveSpan Duo which performs most frequently at wineries and intimate private events. The GrooveSpan Trio adds a saxophonist, while the the full band is completed by adding bass and drums.
As president and CEO of Go-DIVA! Productions, Inc. (a live music presenter company), Cooper strives to provide exceptional quality entertainment, spanning four centuries of genres and styles, while continuing to educate, inspire, and support the next generation of creative artists.
President/CEO of Go-DIVA! Productions, Inc. and professional vocalist, Jennifer Cooper, offers a unique, deeply varied repertoire of entertainment, blurring the boundaries of genres and styles. Before taking the stage as a jazz, blues and pop songstress, Cooper sustained a successful, professional opera career yielding rave reviews for more than thirty principle roles and various concert appearances throughout Europe, Canada and the U.S.
LB Hamilton,
Associate Producer / Co-Host
LB Hamilton, artistic director of The Profession, Inc., began her career in theatre at age 4 when she rose from a hospital bed following a tonsilectomy, raised her hands to the heavens and cried, “I’m dying!” At which her mother fainted and her father said “Oh god, she’s going to be an actress." She didn’t die but she did proceed to march to her own drummer, discover theatre and “collect and tell stories." By age 11 she was known as a weird, artistic, bohemian type and, as such types do, she eventually ended up working in Hollywood.
LB developed a habit of forming her own production companies just so she could tell the stories she wanted to; she founded and co-founded small theater companies and youth programs including the award-winning Las Vegas fringe theatre, Our Backs to the Walls Players; and was co-founder of the 15-year strong Maine Youth Summer Theatre Institute. She began her career as an actor, training, and working in Los Angeles; then worked behind-the-scene in the television, movie, and recording industries. She also contracted as an arts writer, critic, teacher, director, coach and even a wedding planner. She holds a B.A., Summa Cum Laude, in Behavioral Science and Psychology (University of Maine), and an MFA in Theatre from the University of Nevada, where she studied with Julie Jensen and the late Davey Marlin-Jones. She won critical and audience praise as a director and playwright. She declared that “Life is just production and storytelling.” She believed that the urge to make and enjoy Theatre is a natural human drive and that her assignment in this life was to keep those stories coming.
As Director of Special Programs, Publicity, and Development for Washington Shakespeare Company (WSC), she created the Arlington Dramatist Project, which presented several staged reading series for new works by emerging American playwrights, as well as the fully produced, Seniority - a collection of Hamilton’s published short plays. Also, for WSC, she directed the world premiere of Chris Stezin’s A Walk Across the Rooftops. Her commissioned new libretto Don Giovanni (of Long Island) garnered critical and audience acclaim for her, it’s director, Joe Banno, and its producer, D.C. based music presenter, InSeries. Also for InSeries, her Kaberet der Liebe und Kriege, and The Diary of One Who Vanished that she re-envisioned as opera - both enjoyed sold-out audiences at the Embassy of the Czech Republic.
Through The Profession, Inc., Hamilton presented Julie Jensen’s The Lost Vegas Series at the Minnesota Fringe Festival; was lyricist/dramaturge for the new musical, Life 101: London in Springtime, (presented at Spokane Civic Theatre, after playing in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival); and has written and/or directed numerous youth plays - which have been produced in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington, and Virginia. Her published short plays including Phone Arts, A Midnight Clear, and Buyers’ Market have been produced at several college and professional venues.
As Guest Director she developed and directed Fannie Kimball’s Tempest (Shenandoah International Playwrights); directed 12 Angry Jurors and Music Man (Eastern Mennonite University); and directed the world premiere for In the Land of the Lioness (UNLV).. As Invited Guest Playwright, her Strange Growing Season was developed at University of Texas, El Paso and presented at the Chamizal Nat’l Memorial Theatre (Mexico), her Running from Nineveh, was developed and produced by Washington’s Gray’s Harbor College, and her “Good Friday” was developed and presented at ATHE - San Antonio.
She wrote and directed two musical murder mysteries, Wild About Harry (Blue Ridge Theatre Fest), LaProblem in LaPlata, both of which containted roles specifically written for Jennifer Cooper. And now, her most recent work enjoying paramount success, Go-DIVA! ~ of Song, Silence & the Abuse of Chocolate.
Cara Transtrom,
Project Liaison
(Biography coming soon!)