In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Marin County Choral Directors

This is a list of Marin County choral directors who conduct the many fine choirs performing in the county today.

Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 items.

Daniel Canosa

Hailed as one of the best conductors of his generation, Argentine-born Daniel Canosa has led orchestras in Argentina, the United States, and Europe. He has established a bright reputation for his sensible and inspiring performances of an extensive repertoire of symphonic and choral masterworks from all periods. Currently living in California, he is the music director and conductor of the ECHO Chamber Orchestra, artistic director and conductor of the Apollo Symphony Orchestra, and the music director of the Marin Baroque.

Dr. Laura Wiebe

Dr. Laura Wiebe enjoys a multifacted career as a singer, conductor, pianist, and music professor. Wiebe currently serves as director of Marin Oratorio and vocal instructor at the Collegeof Marin, and has served on the music faculties of Central Methodist University and Coe College.

Wiebe's singing career embraces diverse styles, ranging from performances with symphony orchestra to intimate jazz collaborations. As a mezzo-soprano, Wiebe's solo engagements include performances with the Missouri Symphony; the Marshall Philharmonic Orchestra (Missouri); the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra; Ensemble: Peripherie; and faculty recitals at Central Methodist University, Indian Hills Community College, and Coe College. Wiebe's professional choral work includes membership in the Minnesota Chorale and Magdala in Oxford, England.

Wiebe serves as editor of Recorded Sound Reviews for the ACDA Choral Journal.

Martha Wall

Martha Wall, Founder of Marin Girls Chorus, has taught and directed music in Marin County since 1980. A native Californian, Ms. Wall received her Bachelor of Arts in Music from University of California at Berkeley, where she studied conducting with Michael Senturia. She received her Masters in Music Education from Holy Names College in Oakland, with emphasis on the Kodaly approach to children's music education. Ms. Wall began studying piano at age seven and soon realized she wanted to become a music teacher. She gained her first experience toward that goal at age sixteen, teaching piano in private lessons and discovering how individual children learn.

Michael Brandon Morales

Michael is a countertenor and conductor with a Bachelor's degrees in Drama (UC Irvine) and Music (Sonoma State University), and a Master's in Conducting from Eastern Illinois University.

He has led ensembles and classes throughout the Bay Area, including Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette, Chanticleer's LAB Skills workshops, and Cantare Children's Choirs of Oakland. Most recently, he served as the Worship and Music Assistant at Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church, having previously been the Music Director at Eden United Church of Christ, and Music Teacher at Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Edward schools. As a vocal soloist, Michael can be heard on the Pacific Mozart Ensemble album Dave Brubeck and American Poets. Other notable performances include the alto in Bernstein's Chichester Psalms at Weill Hall, and the Abbey Road medley with Sonoma State University's Rock Collegium. He also sings as part of UC Irvine's alumni men's ensemble, Men in Blaque.

Apart from choral and art music, Michael is a fervent Beatles scholar, an avid Giants fan, and enjoys exploring every tap house in the Bay Area with his wife, Katie.

Daniella Caveney

Daniella Caveney is a lyric soprano, pianist, music educator, and conductor who has enchanted audiences in Europe and America as a dynamic concert soloist as well as having performed operatic roles with such companies as San Francisco Lyric Opera, Tyrolean Opera, Berkeley Opera and Florence Opera. She attended the San Francisco Conservatory of music as a vocal performance major for her undergraduate studies, and in 2004 ,launched her career in Opera and began teaching and directing ensembles

Allan Robert Petker

Allan Robert Petker is a published composer and arranger with over 250 published works with numerous publishing houses. His conducting books, "Choral Questions and Answers" Vols. I, II, III, IV and V, have become staples in school curriculum and for secondary resource material. His crusade to offer a cure for musical illiteracy culminated in the publication of the ADVANCE learning series. As a composer for hire he has written original scores for live performance and has penned a number of original T.V. commercials which have appeared on the CNBC network. Allan holds a Bachelors and Masters degree from California State University at Northridge in music, specializing in viola (BA), voice and choral conducting (MA).

Cole Thomason Redus

A two-time GRAMMY Award Winning choral artist, Mr. Cole is a 5th-generation San Franciscan with twenty-four years of experience teaching music to young minds. He began singing at the age of seven in the San Francisco Boys Chorus and went on to serve as their Assistant Conductor, in addition to numerous other positions with organizations such as Chanticleer, Ragazzi Boys Chorus, San Francisco Arts Education Project and Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts.

Emily Gates

Emily Gates is known not only as a inspirational community member and role model for young women and girls, but also as one of the most respected and beloved chorus and musical theater teachers in Northern California. Born and educated in Ohio, Ms. Gates married her high school sweetheart and began a music teaching career which continued through the birth of four children, a move to California, and twenty years of teaching music in the Novato Unified School District. She currently teaches Concert Band, Concert Choir, Jazz Choir, Show Choir and Musical Theater Workshop at San Marin High School. Ms. Gates serves as a board member and Jazz Show Choir Repertoire Standards Chair of the American Choral Directors' Association, has hosted choral festivals and given workshops for the California Music Educators' Association, and is a member of the Novato Music Educators' Conference, the California Band Directors Association and the International Association of Jazz Educators.

Austin Willacy

Austin Willacy is a veteran member of The House Jacks with whom he has produced 10 full-length albums and completed multiple world tours. For the past 20 years, Austin has directed 'Til Dawn, Youth in Arts' award-winning teen a cappella group that empowers youth to find their voices in many ways.

Austin is also an award-winning singer/songwriter with 4 CD's and 2 EP's to his name. His music is soulful and raucous, tender and comic. Austin's music has been featured on The Sing-Off, Road Rules, an Australian ad campaign, and three feature film soundtracks, including Thrive, a documentary with over 90 million views. He's appeared in Rolling Stone and has performed with icons such as Bonnie Raitt and up and coming artists like Jem, Vienna Teng, Rachael Yamagata and Amos Lee.

Deborah Benedict

Deborah Benedict has dedicated her life to singing, first as a trained opera singer (Santa Fe Opera Apprentice, New England Conservatory graduate with a Master's in voice, and roles with companies across the US.) In addition, she has had an active teaching schedule, teaching voice, opera workshops and musical theater workshops at UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University and Dominican University. She is the choral contractor for Skywalker Ranch, singing in and assembling choruses for videos and movies. Deborah has also been the musical director at Saint Patrick's Church in Larkspur, CA for the past 10 years, and conductor of the Rodef Sholom Choir for the High Holy Days at the Marin Civic Center for the past 15 years. It is with great enthusiasm that she looks forward to continuing the singing tradition of Marin Barbershop Chorus.

Daria Jazz

Acclaimed vocalist, DARIA, an innovative singer and songwriter with a beautiful voice, unerring pitch and wide vocal range, blends Jazz, Brazilian music, Afro Cuban and world rhythms to create her own powerful and expressive style. Growing up in San Francisco, Daria was part of a uniquely creative family. Her mother spoke five languages, taught creative writing and is a published author. Her father was a first violinist with the San Francisco Symphony. Daria began to sing at age six. In her teens she fell in love with Jazz. She went on to study with Bobby McFerrin, Mark Murphy and Brazilian musician, Celia Malheiros. Daria has 2 critically acclaimed CDs, Just the Beginning, produced by Ian Dogole and Feel The Rhythm, produced by Frank Martin and seven-time Grammy Nominee, Wayne Wallace. The title track, Feel The Rhythm, a beautiful Brazilian style song, received Honorable Mention at the Billboard World Music Competition.

Dr. Steven Roberts

Steven Roberts has written more than 350 songs (two on Grammy nominated albums)More than 100 of his publications have been recorded by gospel, jazz and secular artists. Steven is the recipient of more than 150 awards- including 6-keys to-cities, 23-Northern California gospel academy awards, 2 U.S. congressional recognition awards and many other national merits and honors. >BR>>
In 1995 Steven was selected by the state of Oklahoma, as the Inspirational music consultant to aid and assist survivors and victims of the Alfred P. Murrah Bldg bombing in Oklahoma City. His assignment was to encourage, inspire, support and share uplifting gospel music- themed Singing for Joy . Steven Roberts has written more than 350 songs (two on Grammy nominated albums)More than 100 of his publications have been recorded by gospel, jazz and secular artists. Today Steven Chapter Representative of Northern California Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA) Chapter, Director of the James Cleveland Gospel Chorus Int l, Administrative Assistant of GMWA Mass Choir and serves as a GMWA Board of Directors member.

Denise Wharmby

Denise began as a chorister herself at the age of seven. At the age of twelve, she toured England and Wales for international choral competitions and her choir was offered the rare opportunity to sing a concert in Westminster Abbey, London. This early training provided a solid musical foundation, built upon and taken to top tier levels through her teen years into adulthood, which ultimately resulted in a significant career as a professional performer of musical theatre, classical vocal repertoire (she loves to sing opera) and as a teacher.

Denise was a consultant and song writer for 'Music Makers', a BBC television program for schools in the UK. She has taught grade levels K-12 in Marin schools and was music director of high school musicals at San Domenico for twelve consecutive years. She has penned words and music for a growing collection of original songs for children. Denise's effervescent style and smile create a happy, music loving, welcoming learning environment where girls can flourish musically, have fun and sing beautifully together.

Rita Gershengorn

According to my parents, I started singing at nine months and could harmonize by age two. (Really?) Now whether or not that's accurate, I can't remember a time in my life when I was NOT singing. My mom, my dad (a real ham and perfect Jolson mimic) his three brothers, my sister and even my grandparents, all sang - at home, in the car, at every family get-together. The first of many songs I've written was composed when I was nine. Unlike many children, I begged my parents to let me take piano lessons. In sixth grade, I wrote and starred in an abbreviated version of "H.M.S Pinafore"; in my junior high school's production of "The Mikado", I was one of the "Three Little Maids"; during high school, I was in Girls' Chorus and in college, I was "Song Leader" of my sorority.

Kevin Fox

Kevin Fox is a GRAMMY-winning choral director who started singing in choirs at the age of eight. He holds degrees in Music with Honors and Economics from Wesleyan University, Connecticut, where he received the Lipsky Prize for outstanding scholarship in choral studies. He has studied music at Oxford University, England, and Westminster Choir College.

Mr. Fox has prepared choirs for most of the world's leading orchestral conductors, including Michael Tilson Thomas, Gustavo Dudamel, and Kurt Masur. He has collaborated with numerous choirs and artists including San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Kronos Quartet, Tolzer Knabenchor, Dmitri Hvorostovky, Harvard Men's Glee Club, and cellist Zoe Keating. Mr. Fox has been on over 40 choir tours to almost all 50 states, and to six continents. He has prepared choirs for a variety of clients that include the United Nations, Yahoo! Corporation, comedian Zach Galifianakis, and America's Got Talent.

Marv Zauderer

My experience of singing with people is an experience of a profound kind of connection, a collective effervescence. In the most magical of moments, veils of history fall away - persona, trauma, self-protection - and my soul meets other souls in a beautiful, mutual giving and receiving, carrying the words and feelings of the songs we are singing through that pure channel of meeting. No matter what the content of the songs is - hope, grief, fear, awe, shame, love, joy - I feel us singing our way into aliveness and I know I have come home.

To me, singing is a crucial part of the social infrastructure of our communities - as important as roads and bridges, for so many of us, for our feelings of connectedness, belonging, and well-being. With all the separations and separateness in our experience - between people, between groups, between us and so much of the more-than-human world - singing together can give us the experience of crossing any divide into an experience of resonant union, poignant interdependence, and what the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh called "interbeing.

Marin County Choral Directors

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