Our Team

Founders & Directors

Matt & Edwin met doing what they love: Edwin was directing the New World premiere of Gluck’s 18th century Versailles party piece L’Arbre Enchanté for the inaugural season of Fire Island Opera (which he also founded) and Matt was cast as the lead. They found they enjoyed strikingly similar interests across a wide variety of genres: opera, theater, dance, film, literature, visual art, nature, gardening, cooking, yoga, and meditation to name a few. Their desire to combine all of those things into stories that could help make the world a better place led them to dream of a new company and way of cultivating the next generation of performing artists. That dream is Hogfish.

Edwin Cahill

American director, producer, and librettist Edwin Cahill’s unique background as a concert pianist and Broadway actor “a talented pianist, a first-rate singer, and an engaging stage presence” (New York Times), and linguist with studies at the University of Paris Sorbonne-Nouvelle who served as a French/Italian Political Analyst for Medley Global advisors, informs his “joyful and passionate directing” (onmilwaukee.com) that is “light, effortless, and fits the space like a glove” (Music4awhile), leading to a body of work in theater, musicals, and operas that “will make hearts melt” (Broadway World), is “seamless…completely engrossing the patron in the idiosyncrasies of Mozart’s music” (dosavannah.com), “achieved the nearly impossible...and staged every scene with urgency, inventiveness and most importantly, a reverence for the music” (The Huffington Post), and reached the pop culture breakthrough of the “brilliant and highbrow approval matrix” (New York Magazine). His work has led critics to acclaim that “Cahill has perhaps invented a new style of opera…punk opera comique” (dosavannah.com) and that he created “by far the most enjoyable and thought-provoking Don Giovanni New York has heard in many a year.” (Opera News)

Highlights of recent seasons include: Into the Woods in Milwaukee at the Skylight Theatre; Carmen starring Jennifer Johnson Cano for Sherrill Milnes’ Savannah Voice Festival; Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias in his directing debut in Tel Aviv; a new Off-Broadway adaptation/workshop of Chekhov’s The Seagull starring Tony award-winner Judy Kaye; the Off-Broadway world premiere of the new play Fire On Babylon; Don Giovanni and La Bohème with Savannah Voice Festival; and as founding artistic director of the Fire Island Opera Festival: the east coast premier of Kurt Weill’s The Protagonist, Bon Appétit starring Jamie Barton, L’Arbre Enchanté for which he also adapted a new American libretto, Un Amour de Proust, and a touring residency with Marfa Live Arts in Marfa, Texas.

As an actor, Edwin won a Kevin Kline award for his portrayal of Cosme McMoon in the play Souvenir, co-starred in the feature film My Dead Boyfriend directed by Anthony Edwards starring Heather Graham, and co-starred in the CBS TV series Person of Interest. Broadway productions include LoveMusik, directed by Harold Prince and the national tour of the Tony award-winning revival of Sweeney Todd directed by John Doyle. He has appeared in over ten productions Off-Broadway and his regional appearances include the major theatres of America and Canada. He holds a B.A. in French - Magna cum Laude from Tufts University, a B.M. in voice from New England Conservatory, and has pursued master’s studies in voice at the Manhattan School of Music and in French Literature of the 19th Century at the University of Paris Sorbonne-Nouvelle. He is originally from Maine and lives in New York City & Cape Elizabeth, Maine with his husband Matt Cahill and dog Thisbe.

Matt Cahill

Matt Cahill believes that each of us is inextricably linked with the world around us, and that by shifting the way we pay attention to that world and ourselves, we can find the deep inner beauty, truth, and peace that has been waiting both outside and inside of us all along. His quest to find, live, create, and share that deep inner beauty, truth, and peace has drawn labyrinthine lines through traditional professions and art forms.

His professions include actor, singer, model, writer, director, choreographer, artistic director, administrator, producer, and teacher. His art forms include film, television, physical theater, musical theater, concert, opera, movement, and the Alexander Technique. As Le Monde in Paris declared of his performance of Papageno in Peter Brook’s Molière Award-winning adaptation of The Magic Flute, Une Flüte Enchantée “you really want to hear him in either an opera or a musical. He has a big presence, a warm baritone voice, immense humanity, and the gift of an actor.”

In recent seasons, he has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, American Repertory Theater, Barbican Theatre on The West End, Les Bouffes du Nord in Paris, Piccolo Teatro in Milan, New York City Opera, and The Kennedy Center; sung with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and Leipzig MDR Symphony Orchestra; and appeared in the National Tour of Scrooge: The Musical, on television in Law & Order, and in the feature film The Producers!

Matt received his BM in voice from the Juilliard School, MM in vocal arts from Bard College Conservatory, and completed further studies in Lecoq with Marcello Magni. Dedicated to learning from the leading pedagogues in the world, Matt completed levels one and two in Estill voice work with Tom Burke and received certification in all three levels of The LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework™. He trained at the Balance Arts Center with Ann Rodiger to become an AmSAT-certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, and completed the Developing Self Education Training Course in teaching Alexander Technique to K-12 with Judith Kleinman and Sue Merry. Matt is passionate about educating the next generation of artists in a way that empowers each artist’s inner creative fire and self-agency, and is inclusive, diverse, and “out-of-the-box” in terms of both humans and artistic genres.

An avid activist for equal rights Matt has produced and performed in the concert series You Are Not Alone alongside Betty Buckley, Lea DeLaria, Aaron Lazar, Ricky Ian Gordon, John Tartaglia, Jeanine Tesori, and many more. The concerts have raised tens of thousands of dollars for The Trevor Project, a national suicide prevention hotline for LGBTQIA+ youth.

He is currently teaches at the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program for the Metropolitan Opera as well as the Circle in the Square Theater School. For the past five years he developed the curriculum and led Juilliard Summer Performing Arts voice and musical theater programs. In addition, he has taught for Bard College Conservatory, Montclair State University, Brooklyn College Conservatory, SongFest at Colburn and the Gilman School. He is originally from Baltimore, Maryland and now lives in New York City & Cape Elizabeth, Maine with his husband Edwin Cahill and dog Thisbe.

Executive Director

Bettina Mehne

Hogfish is thrilled to welcome Bettina Mehne to the administrative team in the summer of 2024. Bettina brings decades of experience working with some of the top organizations and artists in Europe, and looks forward to making sure that Hogfish’s regenerative arts movement in Maine is seen by the world.

Highlights of her career include serving as Artistic Manager of The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Head of Artistic Planning at the Wiener Konzerthaus, co-founding the platform HELLO STAGE and as co-author of the book "How to Be Your Own Manager“ (which the ABO, Assocation of British Orchestras, awarded with "Artist Manager of the Year" in 2018). Most recently Bettina served as a director with the team at Keynote Artist Management working with some of the finest musicians in classical music.

Development Director

Zoe Marie Hart

Zoe Marie Hart (they/them) is happy to join Hogfish as a soprano, arts administrator, and organizer celebrated for their "adorable" performances and versatile administrative expertise. With nearly a decade of experience in the arts, politics, advocacy, and development, Zoe has honed a passion for queer empowerment through the arts. Highlights of Mx. Hart’s operatic career includes the NYC premiere of the trans narrative "Michigan Trees" with Fifth Wall Performing Arts, the ungendered role of Florestan in "Ghost Variations," and Denise and Lady 1 in the lesbian opera "Sweets by Kate" at the historical Stonewall Inn. Mx. Hart’s concert work includes their debut at Rockwood Music Hall in an all-queer Handel’s Messiah, and participating as a member of the contemporary choral- composer collective C4. In addition, Zoe enjoys teaching music to all ages through School of Rock, hosting mahjong nights with friends, reading science fiction, and snuggling their cats.

Podcast Producer

Cinnamon "Cinnamontal" Denise is a producer, bassoonist, singer/songwriter, educator, yoga instructor and Founder of Cinnamontal Productions.

Dedicated to creating a safe space for all, she is a member of the inaugural facilitator cohort for Calling All Crows' Here for the Music campaign, a campaign that trains the music community to detect, prevent and intervene against sexual violence at music events and venues.

She has a Bachelor of Music in Media Writing and Production from the University of Miami, Master of Music in Music Technology from Berklee College of Music, and has collaborated with GRAMMY award winning artists in the music industry.

Cinnamontal Productions is committed to making meaningful music, media, and movement. Whether that be an empowering song about being an incredible HUNTRESS, creating a podcast that provides holistic guidance to becoming a sustainable music career like The Music Executive podcast, everything Cinnamontal Productions makes or contributes is intended to perpetuate the greater good of the human experience.

Podcast Host

Hillary S. Webb, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist, author, and host of the Hogfish Resonance podcast.

In addition to her hosting duties, Hillary is a faculty member in the graduate program at Goddard College and is the former managing editor of Anthropology of Consciousness, the peer-reviewed journal of the Association for the Anthropology of Consciousness. Having received her BA in journalism from New York University, Hillary went on to earn an MA in philosophy of mind from Goddard College, and a PhD in psychology from Saybrook University. She is the author of four nonfiction books: The Friendliest Place in the Universe: Love, Laughter, and Stand-Up Comedy in Berlin, Yanantin and Masintin in the Andean World: Complementary Dualism in Modern Peru, Traveling Between the Worlds: Conversation with Contemporary Shamans, and Exploring Shamanism.

As a result of her background and experience, Hillary generates multi-layered dialogues with Hogfish Resonance guests. Her passion for conversation-style interviewing and her love of “deep hanging out” yield rich insights into the relationship between artistic creation and our collective regenerative capacities. As Hillary puts it,

“We so often overlook the transformational power of even the most casual conversations. Human beings are full of such profound, untapped wisdom, and I am continually amazed by how each Hogfish Resonance guest offers some small illumination into the mystery of who we are and what we might become as a result of our engagement with regenerative arts practices. From a mixed-media performer discussing the necessity of artistic “rewilding” to a horticulturist’s inspiring meditation on the inseparable relationship between nature and the arts, I am so excited about Season 1 … and all the seasons to come.”  