Morgan Ames

Morgan Ames is a unique presence in the Los Angeles music scene.

Try this for diversity: she apprenticed with Quincy Jones for three years. She recently sang pre-records for the 2010 Oscar Telecast and for Queen Latifah during the pre-game of the 2010 Super Bowl ("America the Beautiful"). Before that, in the same vein, with Celine Dion ("God Bless America") for the 9/11 telethon, and LeeAnn Rimes for the 2002 Olympics Opening Ceremony. She conducted singers on stage for Paul McCartney at a Green Peace concert at the Hollywood Bowl ("Hey Jude").

Or try this: she has written songs with Johnny Mandel, Bob James, Dori Caymmi, Tom Scott, Dan Hartman, more (see ORIGINAL SONGS). She co-wrote Baretta's Theme ("Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow") with Dave Grusin, now a popular ringtone. Her songs have been recorded by Diane Schuur, Shirley Horn, Roberta Flack, Barbara Mandrell, Bob James, Phyllis Hyman, Eric Gale, Peggy Lee, Djavan, etc., not to mention sampling. She has performed with Chaka Khan, Mariah Carey, John Williams and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Doobie Brothers, Whitney Houston, Johnny Mathis, more.

Jussi Chydenius

Jussi Chydenius is a Finnish composer who combines a traditional choral sound with influences from pop and jazz to create works that are fresh, vibrant, and accessible. His interest in popular musical styles stems from his experience as a drummer in various bands, including the platinum-selling rock group Don Huonot, and he is best known as the bass singer and composer in the a cappella sextet Rajaton. Chydenius has published a number of acclaimed choral works, which are performed by choirs and vocal ensembles throughout Europe and North America.

Randy Crenshaw

Randy Crenshaw has been variously described (only partly tongue-in-cheek) as "the Swiss Army knife of L.A. session singers," due to his wide range of available vocal sounds and styles, as "a utility infielder in the ballgame of music", and as "the Zelig of music" (you have to be a Woody Allen movie buff to get that last one). He has also been described as "jack of all trades, master of none", but that was from a jealous fellow singer, so who cares! Randy has earned degrees from Willamette University's College of Music, Salem, Oregon (a Bachelor of Music in trumpet performance) and from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts (a Diploma in Commercial Arranging). Randy's professional background includes orchestral and big-band trumpet playing, playing a variety of Renaissance and pre-Baroque wind instruments at the Oregon Shakespearean Festival, singing country music, arranging for and singing with such groups over the years as Boston-based oldies/doo-wop a cappella quintet No Strings Attached, the Berklee Vocal Jazz Choir, a cappella vocal jazz quintet Terra Nova (1987 Hennessy Jazz Search grand prize winners), a cappella world beat/R&B sextet Wahoo Do-Re (formerly Vocal Nation), contemporary Christian vocal group Haven (from the radio broadcast "Haven Today"), and acclaimed a cappella vocal jazz quartet Just 4 Kicks (with four CDs released to date on their own Kickboyz Records label).

Anders Edenroth

Started playing piano and singing in choirs at an early age. From age ten to twenty he studied at Adolf Fredrik's School of Music in Stockholm that has a strong focus on choir singing. After that he continued his studies at The Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm for five years where he and his fellow-students formed an a-cappella quintet - The Real Group. The last two years, the studies were performed together with the other Real Group members on a specially designed post graduate course resulting in a diploma of the highest degree.

Anders Edenroth has written many original songs for The Real Group and arrangements of well known standards. He has been awarded grants from The Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs and Swedish Performing Rights Society STIM several times.

Greg Jasperse

A world-renowned composer, arranger, vocalist and pianist, Greg is now the Director of Vocal Jazz at Western Michigan University.

No stranger to the stage or recording studio, his credits include numerous movie soundtracks such as Epic, Oz, the Great and Powerful, The Campaign, Start Trek, and, Star Trek 2 as well as the Red Hot Chili Pepper's Monarchy Roses and The 2nd Law, the recent release from Muse. Greg is a member of Vertical Voices, Sixth Wave and is the music director for the Santa Fe Desert Chorale's Voasis. In November of 2014, he had the pleasure of subbing with the New York Voices and the Bob Mintzer Big Band on their Japan tour. He has also performed with Adele, Jennifer Holiday, Joe Williams, Rosemary Clooney, Dianne Reeves and Bobby McFerrin among others.

His conducting credits include all-state jazz choirs in New York, California, Oklahoma, Indiana, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, New Hampshire, Illinois, Iowa as well as the British Columbia Honors Jazz Choir and Musicfest Canada's Ellison Honour Choir.

Greg is a graduate of University of Miami and Western Michigan University.

Johnny Mann

Johnny Mann was best known for the forty-two albums he arranged and conducted for his Johnny Mann Singers resulting in five Grammy Award nominations and two Grammy Awards.

Along with being musical director of the original "Alvin and The Chipmunks" TV series, he sang the voice of "Theodore". He has worked over the years with George Gobel, Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Julie London, Steve Allen, and was Danny Kaye's conductor on a twelve week tour. With limitless energy and enthusiasm, Mann sincerely espouses the positive and good of America through his entertainment. He was invited to perform at The White House twice during President Nixon's administration to entertain Imelda Marcos and first-time Russian visitor to the U.S., Leonid Breschnev, General Secretary of The U.S.S.R.

Phil Mattson

Phil Mattson was a pianist, arranger, conductor and teacher. His curriculum and teaching led to the establishment of The School for Music Vocations at Southwestern Community College in Creston, Iowa. Currently he resides in St. Paul, MN and leads The Phil Mattson Singers, a vocal jazz/choral ensemble.

Phil served as Director of Choral Activities at Foothill College (CA) and Gonzaga University (WA) and has taught at Pacific Lutheran University (WA) and at The Phil Mattson School (WA). His undergraduate studies in Philosophy/Religion and Music were done at Concordia College (Moorhead, MN), summa cum laude, and his graduate work in Choral Literature and Conducting at The University of Iowa as an NDEA Fellow.

Phil has written many arrangements for vocal jazz ensemble and choir. Manhattan Transfer, Chanticleer, The Real Group, The Dale Warland Singers, The Four Freshmen, Clockwork, Beachfront, Solstice, Phoenix and Clarion Chamber Chorale are among the groups who have commissioned his arrangements. In addition, he edited the arrangements of Gene Puerling for publication.

Darmon Meader

Recognized in both the jazz vocal and instrumental world, Darmon is a distinguished vocalist, arranger and saxophonist. He has achieved rapid international recognition as the founder, musical director, chief arranger, composer, producer, saxophonist, and vocalist with New York Voices. As a member of New York Voices, he has released four albums on the GRP Records label. Darmon has performed and/or recorded with a variety of artists including Ray Brown, George Benson, Bobby McFerrin, Don Sebesky, Nancy Wilson, Ann Hampton Callaway, Patti Austin, Jon Hendricks, Jim Hall, Paquito D'Rivera and the Count Basie Orchestra. He has toured internationally, performing at such renowned venues as Carnegie Hall, Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival and the Blue Note Jazz Clubs in New York and Japan.

Ben Parry

Ben Parry is an established conductor, composer, arranger, singer and producer in both classical and light music fields. He has made over sixty CD recordings and his compositions and arrangements are published by Peters Edition and Faber Music, including the popular Faber Carol Book and Music for Special Occasions. He collaborates regularly with the writer Garth Bardsley, and their choral piece, "Flame" was performed by a choir of 300 singers at the Royal Albert Hall in the 2012 BBC Proms. Major commissions include the Cathedral Choral Society of Washington DC, BBC Singers and the Aldeburgh Fesitval.

Andrew Piper

Andrew Piper has a Master of Music degree from The Canberra School of Music (ANU). Following graduation at the Diploma level in 1993, Andrew accepted a lectureship at the Canberra School of Music that continued until 1998 when he took up a full-time position with TION. He has worked in the music industry as a writer/arranger and performer in and for many ensembles - both as a vocalist and as a trumpeter.

As a freelance musician for many professional ensembles and bands, Andrew has been on several overseas tours as a performer prior to his involvement with TION. These included trips to Beijing and the Monterey Jazz Festival. As an accomplished composer and arranger, much of Andrew's outstanding vocal writing is featured on The Idea of North's CD recordings.

Gene Puerling

There certainly is no more influential and revered a cappella arranger than the brilliant Gene Puerling. From his auspicious beginnings as a founding member of the vocal jazz group the Hi-Lo's, with whom he recorded thirteen albums between the years of 1953-1964, Gene revealed the talent and promise that would later be fully realized with his work as director, arranger and performer with the Singers UnLimited.

Gene was born in Wisconsin in 1929. Though his family was musically inclined (various members of the family played violin, piano and clarinet) Gene himself had no formal musical training! He was a working professional musician from the age of seventeen, and simply did not have the time to devote to a formal musical education.

Jonathan Rathbone

After training as a chorister at Coventry Cathedral and choral scholar at Christ's College Cambridge, where he read mathematics, Jonathan rounded-off his musical education at the Royal Academy of Music with a second degree, specializing in singing and composition. Jonathan's compositional career includes works for theatre, film, radio, television, concert platform and the church, and a song-writing contract with Noel Gay Music.

Jonathan Rathbone was Musical Director and arranger for the Swingle Singers (1984-96) and has worked with many of the world's leading musicians, from the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Pierre Boulez to Stephan Grappelli and George Martin.

He is now much in demand in Europe, the USA and UK, as a freelance choral director, arranger and workshop leader. A natural communicator, Jonathan leads workshops covering anything from close harmony singing, improvisation, choral conducting, vocal arranging to choral techniques.

Paris Rutherford

Paris Rutherford was Regents Professor Emeritus in Jazz Studies at University of North Texas. During his tenure, he organized and developed the degree programs in Vocal Jazz Studies and in Jazz Arranging. For over thirty years, Rutherford directed the award-winning UNT Jazz Singers both in performance and in the recording studios. He also directed the premiere North Texas Vocal Jazz Summer Workshop from its inception.

Over the years, his jazz arranging students have been heard on recordings by the One, Two and Three O'Clock Lab Bands, the UNT Jazz Singers, and too many personal CD projects to name. Many have continued their writing at a professional level, both in the recording studios and for stage and show productions.

A sought-after clinician in vocal jazz, Rutherford has over one hundred vocal jazz arrangements in publication by Hal Leonard, Sound Music Publishing, UNC Jazz Press, and recently through Artist Share by Maria Schneider. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the newly formed Jazz Education Network.

Kirby Shaw

Kirby Shaw has made a major impact in choral music education and has shared his musical expertise in 45 states, Canada, Australia, the Bahamas, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy and South Africa. He has degrees in Music Education and Choral Composition from San Jose State University and a DMA degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Washington. Dr. Shaw's teaching is infused with a sense of humor and breadth of knowledge that is transmitted in an exciting and highly contagious manner.

Kirby taught in the Mt. Shasta public schools before joining the faculty at College of the Siskiyous in California where he founded and directed the innovative and highly acclaimed COS Vocal Jazz Ensemble. He also directed similar groups at Colorado State University and The University of Missouri-Kansas City and is now directing the Jefferson State Choral Coalition at Southern Oregon University.

Ward Swingle

Ward Swingle was the product of an unusually liberal musical education. In his hometown, Mobile, Alabama, he grew up with the sound of jazz and played in one of the great Big Bands before finishing High School. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Cincinnati Conservatory and studied piano with the celebrated Walter Gieseking in postwar France. In Paris in the sixties he was a founding member of the fabled Double Six of Paris, then took the scat singing idea and applied it to the works of Bach, hence The Swingle Singers, whose early recordings won five Grammies.

When the Paris group disbanded in l973, Ward Swingle moved to London and formed an English group, expanding the repertoire to include classical and avang-garde works along with the scat and jazz vocal arrangements.

Roger Treece

Roger Treece is a composer, arranger, producer, and singer who creates music that combines traditional classical elements with jazz, funk, gospel, and world. A vocal innovator, Roger tours worldwide as a performance artist, composer, conductor and teacher, guiding musicians of all ages and genres in improvisation, creativity, harmony, arranging, rhythm, and solo-vocal technique.

Roger Treece has been nominated for 5 Grammy Awards as an arranger, producer, singer, and engineer, and has won 14 DOWNBEAT awards as a soloist, ensemble member, director and arranger. In 2010, his arrangement of "Baby" (VOCAbuLarieS) was nominated for "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals" : the first time in the history of the Grammy Awards that an a cappella arrangement has been nominated for an instrumental arranging award.

Michele Weir

Michele is currently a faculty member at U.C.L.A. and previously taught at U.S.C., C.S.U. Long Beach and the Phil Mattson School. In demand internationally as a jazz clinician/adjudicator, recent notable presentations include the World Choral Symposium in the Netherlands, the National A.C.D.A Conference and the I.A.J.E Convention. Michele has served as co-chair of vocal jazz for I.A.J.E., as an ARTS panelist for the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and as co-conductor of the World Youth Choir.