This playlist has most of the dates from Speed Dating Tonight! that have been written since the 2013 premiere at Brevard  In the order composed/premiered. There is also a you tube playlist that may may have some demos missing here (and vice versa)

Speed Dating Tonight! demos

Dater #40 from Speed Dating Tonight! Performed by Seth Hanson at Taos Opera Institute June 2022. 

Tried to capture the attitude of an off piste skier.

This was originally commissioned by Emerald City Opera (now Opera Steamboat)

Speed Dating Tonight! #40 Existential Skier Sung By Seth Hanson

Dater 34 35 "Is it Just Me" performed by Monica Malas And Blayne Stonecipher from Baylor University 2024. Bar/Ms, key of E. From Speed Dating Tonight! (2013). Words and Music by Michael Ching. Based on a concept by Dean Anthony.

Dater 34 35 "Is it just me" performed by Monica Malas/Blayne Stonecipher

Recorded by Emily Pace at Baylor University 2024 High Key

THIS IS NOT FOR ME
THIS IS NOT MY SCENE
IT WAS A MISTAKE TO COME HERE
A MISTAKE
THESE PEOPLE SEEM LIKE THEY’RE FROM ANOTHER PLANET
ALL LAUGHS AND SMILES
MASKING HOW THEY FEEL INSIDE
READING FROM SOME SCRIPT
NOT BEING THEMSELVES
TRYING TOO HARD
SO HARD
WHY IS THIS SO HARD?
WHERE IS THERE A WALL BETWEEN MYSELF AND OTHERS?
HOW’M I GONNA FIND LOVE
WHEN I CAN’T EVEN FIND LIKE?
LOVE’S OUT THERE SOMEWHERE
SOME WHERE LOVE’S OUT THERE
BUT NOT TODAY
AND NOT THIS WAY

Dater #12B Leaving performed by Emily Pace

Recorded by Emily Pace at Baylor University 2024. High Key.

I’VE NEVER BEEN GOOD AT MEETING PEOPLE
INTROVERTS NEVER ARE
I’VE ALWAYS BEEN THE KIND OF GIRL/GUY WHO SITS
WITH HER/HIS BACK TO THE WALL
TAKING IT IN
BUT REALLY WANTING TO BE HOME
MY FRIEND SHERYL/SHERRILL CONVINCED ME TO TRY THIS
SHE’S/HE’S SITTING OVER THERE
YOU CAN TELL THAT ITS HER/HIS KIND OF THING 
SHE’S/HE’S COMFORTABLE ANYWHERE
TAKING IT IN
SHE’S/HE’S REALLY GLAD TO BE HERE
ANYWAY I WORK IN A LAB
I TAKE CARE OF THE MICE
IT’S A LITTLE SAD WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT
ONCE AND ONLY ONCE I RESCUED A MOUSE
THERE WAS SOMETHING ABOUT THE WAY IT LOOKED AT ME
SO THERE WE SIT
ME AND THE MOUST AT HOME
in a panic I NEVER SHOULD HAVE TRIED TO COME HERE
THIS WAS A MISTAKE
I THINK IT’S TIME FOR ME TO GO NOW
THIS WAS SUCH A MISTAKE
I’M SO SORRY
IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT.

Dater #12 Panic Attack performed by Emily Pace

A Canadian take on the Bus Boy song from SPEED DATING TONIGHT! Sung by Lee Clapp, Steven Hargreaves Pianist, Additional Canadian dialogue by Jonathan Patterson. From performance by Opera McGill, November 2015

5B Bus Boy Song from SPEED DATING TONIGHT!  Performed by Lee Clapp MCGILL 11 15

Amarillo Dates. A new piece for the ensemble premiered in Amarillo 2016.

Speed Dating Tonight AMARILLO DATES

Bar bugs Ensemble (AMARILLO DATE) [Insects in the bar] use as many singers as you want

Amarillo Dates. Not numbered in the dates. For the "owner of the bar" an optional character introduced in Amarillo, October 2016.

Amarillo Dates 

"Dater" 31 Break in the Action "Interlude" AMARILLO DATES [for a new character "The Bar Owner,"]

Dater #27 Carrie (AMARILLO DATE)[Dater has a gun in her purse] acting/singing challenge

Premiered at Amarillo Opera. Included in future licenses. Better version from a performance here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgPsKap9bto

#26 Nosy Parent (AMARILLO DATE)[Drop-in opportunity for older singer]

Amarillo Dates. Duet, or kind of a trio... premiered at Amarillo Opera. Now included in SPEED DATING TONIGHT! licenses.

Daters #29 30 You have lovely eyes (Duet) Amarillo Dates [After Bononcini's "Per la gloria"]

Demo of SDT! Dater 32 Hike. Steamboat Dates.
This piece is embargoed until after the February 2017 premiere by Emerald City Opera.

Date 32 Hike (STEAMBOAT DATE)[Hiker offers to take date hiking] lyrical

Steamboat Duet "Food Truck" Demo. This piece is embargoed until after the February 2017 premiere at Emerald City Opera. It will be included in licenses after that date.

Dater 36 37 Duet Food Truck (STEAMBOAT DATE)[Food seduction] upbeat

Dater #33 UFO. The Steamboat Dates for Emerald City Opera, 2017(now Opera Steamboat). This performance is by Alexander Paul Sheerin from the 2020 Zoom Speed Dating Tonight! production at the Janiec Opera of the Brevard Music Center

Dater 33 UFO (STEAMBOAT DATE) [UFO believer] classical, contemporary

Dater #39 for THE STEAMBOAT DATES, new dates for SPEED DATING TONIGHT! commissioned by Emerald City Opera, Steamboat Springs Colorado for their production in February 2017.

Speed Dating Tonight #39

Dater #39 Cannabis Scientist (Steamboat Date) [come to work in the industry]

Dater #38 from Speed Dating Tonight! Music and Lyrics by Michael Ching
"Dress Up" performed by Kristina Costello. Demo Recorded at Savannah Voice Festival, 2018. Commissioned by Opera Steamboat.
I like to dress up as a raccoon
It's such fun, so liberating
What do you think about that?
Does it fascinate you? Does it disturb you?
When we were children we would play in the attic
And find flapper dresses, bell bottoms, safari outfits
Now that we're grown, we repress that urge
But why? Why? Why? Why?
I spent hours on my costume
It's such fun to make my character come to life
It's got a beautiful furry tail
And a little mask, complete with whiskers
Ah....
Would you like to see me in my costume
Or try one on for yourself?

Dress up (Dater #38) from Speed Dating Tonight!

#28 Do you like kids? Sung by Adam Henning, a junior at Northern State University, getting ready for their  production in January 2019. Dater #28 was commissioned by Amarillo Opera.

Speed Dating Tonight!

Dater #28 Do you like kids? Tenor Adam Henning

Recorded at Converse College (2020) Verity is a senior there and was in their SPEED DATING TONIGHT! production. Accompanied by Michael Ching.

Dater #9 Talkative Girl sung by Verity Arden

from the Zoom Speed Dating Tonight production by the Janiec Opera of Brevard Music Center, summer 2020. Originally written for Alamo City Opera, 2017.

Dater #41 Overthinking, performed by Sarah Coit

#10 Steampunk Girl, performed by Dominique Santiago from the Zoom Speed Dating Tonight! production at the Janiec Opera Center of Brevard Music Center, 2020. Steampunk Girl is one of the original 25 characters of Speed Dating Tonight!

Dater 10 Steampunk DOMINIQUE SANTIAGO

Lurking, Dater 5 from SPEED DATING TONIGHT! performed by Danielle Bavli from the Zoom Speed Dating Tonight! production at the Janiec Opera of the Brevard Music Center 2020.
Dater 5 is one of the original 25 pieces from the 2013 Brevard premiere.

Dater 5 Lurking performed by DANIELLE BAVLI

Michael Ching is an opera composer/librettist, songwriter, and conductor. His opera SPEED DATING TONIGHT! has had over a hundred forty productions since its 2013 premiere. It is constantly being expanded and this is the place to hear the demos of new dater songs. This summer, Savannah Voice Festival will premiere his opera CINDERELLA'S ROYAL FEAST, a sequel to Rossini's opera. In 2024, the University of South Dakota-Vermillion premiered his opera, NOTES ON VIARDOT. It has subsequently been performed by Arizona State University and On Site Opera. His other sequel--to Puccini's GIANNI SCHICCHI is BUOSO'S GHOST. BUOSO is published by E.C. Schirmer Classical and has been performed by the Florida Grand Opera, Detroit Opera, OperaDelaware and several other companies. In 2020, the University of Alabama commissioned and premiered his opera RSBE. It is now on its sixth production. In 2018-19 high school students in Palm Springs premiered his opera, THRIVERS. His opera about Grant Wood, EIGHT WOODS AND A VAN, premiered at Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre.  Michael has written four one act operas for Savannah Voice Festival, including ALICE RYLEY and ANNA HUNTER, both about Savannah. Michael developed confidence in his ability to write words by trying to write songs. His favorite composer is George Gershwin. 

Most of these files are working files here for reference by the commissioning and producing organizations that Michael works with. There are also some singer-songwriter songs.