Beth Ann Bonnecroy

Beth Ann Bonnecroy is in demand as a singer, conductor, and teacher of voice. An accomplished soprano, she has distinguished herself as a recitalist and performer in the Seattle area. Bonnecroy is a member of the artistic staff of the Northwest Girlchoir, where she conducts Vivace, the choir of middle school level singers. Under her direction, Vivace traveled to Japan to perform at the Japan-American Grassroots Summit in Hiroshima. She has over 20 years experience in church music, conducting choral groups and handbell choirs of all ages. Bonnecroy is currently on the music staff of Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church in Seattle. She holds a BM from St. Olaf College and an MM from Arizona State University.

Sue Coffee

Sue Coffee is the founding Artistic Director of Resonance, the 100-voice Women's Chorus of Boulder, which made its debut in 2003, and Sound Circle, a women's a cappella ensemble, currently celebrating its 10th Anniversary season. She directed the Denver Gay Men's Chorus from 1999 to 2005. Sue received a Legacy Award from the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses at the 2004 GALA Festival in Montreal, in recognition of her contributions to the gay and lesbian choral movement. She has served GALA Choruses on the Board of Directors and numerous advisory committees and has presented workshops at GALA Choruses events on topics including long-range artistic planning, mission and relevance, and musical excellence. She directed the women's chorus at the first Singers' Weekend in Toronto in 1997 and co-organized the Voices of Women concert at the 2004 Montreal Festival.

Pamela Cook

Pamela Cook is regarded as a leading authority on vocal and choral techniques, and is much in demand for solo and choral workshops at home and abroad. These have included working with choirs in Israel, Finland, Belgium and Canada and in the USA, where 400 ladies from the Ivy League Colleges of Radcliffe, Harvard, Smith, Mount Holyoak and Amherst were involved. She is also an external examiner for University and Conservatoire final degrees.

Many students from around the world have visited Mansfield to observe the methods used in training Cantamus, the girls choir with which she has gained 22 first and 4 second prizes in 24 international choral competitions. Among these are a double first (jury and audience) in Montreux (1978), the City of Vienna trophy for best choir in Vienna (1982), BBC/Sainsbury's Choir of the Year (Adults) 1986 and the same in the Youth Section in 1994, the Grand Prix in Riva del Garda 1996, Choir of the World (Llangollen Eisteddfod) 1997, as well as championships and two gold medals in the World Choral Olympics in Bremen, 2004, repeated in China in 2006.

Morna Edmundson

Morna Edmundson is one of Canada's best-known choral conductors, with special interests in the areas of tone colour, language, and interpretation. As a conductor, singer, and administrator, her professional music career spans over twenty-five years, including eight years as a professional singer in the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Ms. Edmundson is best known for her 22 years of accomplishment as Co-Founder and Co-Conductor of Elektra's Women's Choir, with which she has received numerous honours and awards. At the end of the 2008/2009 season, Morna was appointed Artistic Director of Elektra at the same time as her long-time colleague Diane Loomer, C.M. stepped into the Conductor Emeritus role.

Sharon A. Hansen

Sharon A. Hansen is the Founder and Music Director of the Milwaukee Choral Artists, one of only five professional women's vocal ensembles in the country. Founded in 1998, The Milwaukee Choral Artists has been named to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Top Ten Milwaukee Performances list in four consecutive years, most recently being named "Milwaukee's #1 Performing Arts Event for 2007." The ensemble has sung in more than 40 languages from some twenty-six world cultures, and is a champion of new music, regularly commissioning new works. MCA frequently collaborates with Present Music, Milwaukee's internationally acclaimed contemporary music ensemble. Equally well versed in early music, the Milwaukee Choral Artists has appeared twice with the Boston Camerata, and performed with KITKA professional women's ensemble in May 2009. In August 2009, at the invitation of the National Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, MCA performed for their biennial conference at the Milwaukee Art Museum. MCA has also performed for the National Convention of Catholic Cathedral Musicians; as part of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist's Fine Arts Series (Milwaukee); as part of the Cathedral of St. James Fine Arts Series (Chicago); at the French Mass at Milwaukee's Bastille Days; and in state and regional conventions of the American Choral Directors' Association.

Sigrid Johnson

As the associate conductor of VocalEssence, Sigrid Johnson provides invaluable input on repertoire decisions, choral blend and balance, and in the audition process. Her unique ways of working to achieve excellence in choral blend and intonation have garnered her great praise.

Sigrid is a member of the voice and choral faculty of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and the conductor of the Manitou Singers, St. Olaf's 100-voice first-year women's chorus. Sigrid Johnson maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor and clinician at choral festivals, workshops and all-state music festivals across the country. She is known internationally for her work with musicians at all levels, having conducted workshops in Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland. In August 2008, she was one of the featured lecturers for the Eighth World Symposium on Choral Music in Copenhagen; in 201, she will be featured in the Ninth World Symposium to be held in Argentina.

Nancy Menk

Nancy Menk holds the Mary Lou Morris and Judd Leighton Chair in Music at Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana. At Saint Mary's, Dr. Menk conducts the Women's and Collegiate Choirs, teaches Conducting, and prepares the Madrigal Singers for the annual Christmas Madrigal Dinners. Under her direction, the Women's Choir has performed on tour throughout the United States, and it regularly commissions and records new works for women's voices. The choir also hosts the annual Saint Mary's College High School Women's Choir Festival in which choirs from four states perform for each other and a panel of commentators.

Dr. Menk holds the B.S. and the M.A. in Music Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and the M.M. and the D.M.A. in Choral Conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She has conducted high school choirs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she founded the Pittsburgh Youth Chorus to perform annually with the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Linda Raney

Dr. Linda Raney has been music director of the Women's Ensemble since 1988. Indiana University provided her an excellent musical education, and she received a doctorate, as well as master's and bachelor's degrees, from that famous institution. Since graduation she has also studied with many inspiring teachers in master classes, most recently Jerry Blackstone, Mack Wilberg and Craig Jessop. This year she received a Santa Fe Mayor's Recognition Award for Excellence in the Arts.

also prepares the Santa Fe Symphony Chorus for performances with the Santa Fe Symphony. Their 2010-2011 season's repertory includes Handel's Messiah, Cherubini's Requiem, Holst's The Planets and Debussy's Nocturnes.

Catherine Roma

Catherine Roma became one of the founding mothers of the women's choral movement, an international network of over 70 women's choruses, when she started Anna Crusis Women's Choir in her native Philadelphia in 1975. She began MUSE in 1984 after coming to Ohio to do graduate work at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music where she completed her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in 1989. Catherine is currently Professor of Music at Wilmington College. Through her association at Wilmington, Catherine founded and directs UMOJA Men's Chorus at Warren Correctional Institution, in Lebanon, Ohio.

She is Minister of Music at St. John's Unitarian Universalist Church in Cincinnati, and is co-founder and director of the Martin Luther King Coalition Chorale. Recent honors include the Jane Schlissman Award for Outstanding Contributions to Women's Music (1993), Race Relations Recognition Award (1999), the GALA Legacy Award (2000), the Maurice McCracken Award (2000), the Cincinnati Leading Woman Award, Arts/Entertainment category (2001), the Image Maker Award (2002), the Enduring Spirit Award (2003), the Community Service Award from the Council of Christian Communions (2004), and the Governor's Award for the Arts, in the category Community Development & Participation (2008).

Karmina Silec

Karmina Silec has brought freshness and speciality for opening new spaces of expression, persuasiveness, intensity of experience and communication into world of music. As conductor she has projects with various ansambles: Carmina Slovenica choir, Symphony orchestra of National Radio of Slovenia, National Opera and ballet in Maribor Slovenia, Slovenian National Project Choir, ansamble !Kebataola!, Orchestra Chorus Instrumentalis and many ansambles worldwide.

In "Choregie - vocal theatre", with innovative interventions, she opened wider space to trend of complex many-type artistic events. Her staged productions incorporate music, drama, movement and other stage elements.Such latest stage produductions were: From time immemorial, Drum cafe, CS Light, Scivias, Stripsody, Vampirabile, Adiemus, Slovenian sounds - award winning productions performed on many international festivals and broadcasted by EBU and Eurovison.

With extended vocal technique and interdisciplinary performance, Karmina Silec create performances that thrive at the intersection of music and movement, sound and light, image and object, in an effort to discover and weave together new modes of perception.

Meagan Johnson Smith

Meagan Johnson Smith is a choral conductor and soprano soloist with a passion for teaching. Known for her innovative programming and captivating performances, Ms. Smith has appeared as a concert and oratorio soloist, most recently with the Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana (BACH). Since her move to Urbana in 2005, Ms. Smith has enjoyed working with private voice students of all ages. She received her Master of Music in Voice Performance and Bachelor of Music in Performance and Music Education from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. Ms. Smith is music director and conductor of Amasong, the award-winning lesbian/feminist women's chorus based in Champaign-Urbana. She is in her second year of teacher-training at Alexander Technique Urbana.

Lori Tennenhouse

Lori Tenenhouse formed the Grand Rapids Women's Chorus in 1996 and has been the artistic director since it's inception. A member of the American Choral Directors's Association, the Sister Singer Network and a 2006 YWCA Tribute Awards honoree for performing arts, Lori is an advocate for women's choral music.

Lori studied jazz improvisation at the University of Michigan and performed in various rock and jazz bands in Ann Arbor and later in the Boston area. Lori was a string bassist with the New England Women's Symphony under the direction of Kay Gardner, and had the incredible experience of performing under the direction of Antonia Brico in 1979. During the early 1990's in Grand Rapids, she collaborated with local musicians and friends to form The Carla Tee Band and later the jazz band, Women at Play, which played exclusively original and improvisational music . Renewing her high school love of choral singing, Lori sang with the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus and with the Shir Shalom Choir at Temple Emmanuel.

Dawn Willis

Dawn Willis, Artistic Director and Founder of Bella Voce Women's Chorus, also serves as the Assistant Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Music from Arizona State University and Masters degrees in Sacred Music and Choral Conducting from Southern Methodist University.

In 1999, Dr. Willis conducted the New England Symphonic Ensemble and the McMurry University Choirs in a performance of Mozart's Solemn Vespers at Carnegie Hall. She has also served as a guest conductor for the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra and prepared choruses for regional orchestras in Iowa and Texas. Dr. Willis has served as the Director of Choral Activities at McMurry University and Iowa Wesleyan College, and has conducted the University of Vermont Catamount Singers and Arizona State University Women's Chorus.

Shelly Winemiller

Shelly Winemiller is the conductor of the Bella Voce Young Women's Choir. She holds a Bachelor of Music Therapy degree from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. Since her graduation, she has worked in several therapy settings with both young and old, including the Growing with Music program in Rochester, and has directed various church children's choirs.

Shelly sang for six seasons with the Choral Arts Ensemble of Rochester as well as two years with the Minnesota Chorale. Her previous positions of conducting were held at Honors Choirs of Southeast Minnesota, where she conducted the Children's Chorus for two years and the Lyric Singers (women in grades 9-12) for five years. Under her direction the Lyric Singers doubled in size, performed at the Regional ACDA in Omaha in 2006 as well as for the MN ACDA Finale Concert in 2007 at Orchestra Hall, traveled to Great Britain in 2003 and to Oregon in 2006 for the Pacific International Children's Choir festival (PICCfest), where the choir was selected to perform at the Oregon Bach Festival concert series.