Collaborative artist Perry Mears currently maintains an active teaching and performing career in southeast Tennessee. He has collaborated with many singers and instrumentalists, performing in venues such as the Arts Club of Washington D.C., and the Aspen Music Festival’s Harris Hall. He has also accompanied singers in master classes with renowned artists Steven Blier and John Greer. He completed his M.M. in Collaborative Piano at the University of Maryland under the tutelage of Rita Sloan. As an opera coach, his credits include Carmen and My Fair Lady with the Ash Lawn Festival Opera, Susannah and Patience with the Lee University Opera Theatre Workshop and the workshop premiere of Kirke Mechem’s The Newport Rivals with the Maryland Opera Studio. He received undergraduate and graduate degrees in piano and church music from Lee University where he studied piano with Michael Wittenburg and Phillip Thomas and conducting with David Horton. Mr. Mears is also an alumnus of the Aspen Music Festival and School where he was part of the prestigious Collaborative Artist Program.