ABOUT

Photo by Alexis Elliot

As composer: Romeo and Juliet (HVSF Spring Tour, 2023;) Much Ado About Nothing (Opera House Arts, 2022;) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Connecticut Shakespeare Festival 2021;) As You Like It (Scranton Shakespeare Festival;) Much Ado About Nothing (Easy Leap Theatre Company/The Brick;) Othello (Easy Leap Theatre Co/The Underground Lounge.) Musical arrangements: Henry IV (Scranton Shakespeare Radio Plays, 2020.)

Born in Cambria, California, Ray has been performing all her life. Playing her first shows at only 13 years old, by 16 she had formed the duo Ranchers for Peace with her father, songwriter Charles Duncan. After releasing her debut solo EP “This Road” in 2016, Ray moved to Nashville in 2019, where she now works as a background singer and freelance composer, in addition to performing as a solo artist. Ray also co-hosts podcast “Book of Jude,” which is a series of interviews with her mother, hit songwriter Jude Johnstone, that tells the story of Johnstone’s career in the music business.

In 2020 Ray formed R&B/swamp-rock duo New Daddy with songwriter Stefbbaby, and finished recording her EP “Break My Heart.” In 2022 Ranchers for Peace released their third EP titled “One Kind of Free,” and Ray released a new solo single “Don’t let it get to you.” Ray is now poised to release her debut full length record, but with a twist. The twelve song collection titled “Under the Greenwood Tree” consists entirely of music Ray has composed for Shakespeare’s plays over the course of her career in sound design thus far, and is set to be released in early June of 2023.