Loren W. Ponten

Loren Ponten, Founder & Artistic Director of Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble, has been an active conductor in the Pacific Northwest for over 25 years. A champion of contemporary choral music, he and Opus 7 have commissioned over 25 new choral works, premiered countless works from around the world, the United States, and the Pacific Northwest and Seattle, as well as consistently included time-honored traditional repertoire in their programs.

Passionate about chamber choral music, Ponten formed Opus 7 in 1992 with 7 singers in order to perform a wide-range of music from madrigals to motets and jazz. Soon after founding the group, Ponten turned the group's focus to the performance of choral works by Northwest composers, and in 2000 instituted an annual Student Choral Composition Awards Program to encourage young composers to create new choral works and to contribute to the expansion of the choral repertoire.

Frank Pooler

Known in both academic and professional music circles for his mastery of contemporary choral repertoire, Pooler served as a guest conductor, clinician, lecturer and adjudicator throughout the continental United States, Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hawaii, and Alaska. He published over 500 compositions, arrangements and editions, which have been performed in Europe and North America. Articles by Frank Pooler in the area of choral art have been published in major professional journals,(citation needed) and he has served as a member of the Editorial Board of the "Choral Journal."

Cynthia Powell

Cynthia Powell assumed the position of Artistic Director of the Stonewall Chorale in September, 2002. She has conducted choirs throughout the NY metropolitan area and currently serves as Music Director of West End Collegiate, NYC and Organist/ Choirmaster of Temple Sinai in Tenafly. As a pianist and organist, she toured the U.S. and Europe with Meredith Monk's opera ATLAS, and Monk's Celebration Service and Quarry at the Spoleto, USA Festival, the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis and Lincoln Center. She has conducted Stonewall's collaborations with Meredith Monk at Merkin Hall and at the BAM Next Wave Festival in October 2009.

A graduate of Westminster Choir College, she has been a guest conductor at Sarah Lawrence College, the St. George's Choral Society in NYC and the International Choral Festival in Havana, Cuba. She has produced recitals and concerts to benefit Bailey House, the animals injured in the Exxon-Valdez disaster, and Doctors without Borders. Cynthia is also the conductor of Melodia Women's Choir of NYC.

Robert Prizeman

Robert Prizeman became choirmaster of the choir at St. Philip's Church (Norbury, South London) in 1970 at the age of 18. He has composed & arranged numerous works for the all boy choir 'Libera' including 'Voca Me'. He has been a musical advisor to the BBC in the UK working on programmes such as 'Songs of Praise' since 1985.

The young performers of Libera, who sing together at a church in South London, are recruited by Libera originator and writer, Robert Prizeman. They sing a wide range of music, including much from the classical cathedral repertoire, so they use the full range of their voices. Libera is not children's music, even though the average age of the singers may be 12.

Gage Purdy

The California Redwood Chorale welcomed Gage Purdy in January 2019 as our new Conductor. Gage is a trained baritone, choral conductor, instrumentalist, and private music teacher. He brings passion, energy, and skill to the singers, resulting in high quality performances. Gage was born and raised in Sonoma County and resides in Santa Rosa.

Elaine Quilichini

Elaine Quilichini is recognized internationally for her exceptional musicianship and distinguished work. As a Master of Music (Kodaly), she has served as a clinician, lecturer, adjudicator and guest conductor across Canada, the United States, Australia, Japan, Argentina and the Canary Islands.

In 1995, Ms. Quilichini founded the Calgary Girls Choir, and with her vision and passion has built it into one of the most celebrated choirs in the world. Ms. Quilichini conducted the University of Calgary Women's Choir for over ten years and continues to lead an active music studio. A notable indication of Ms. Quilichini's stature in the choral community is her successful choral series published by Alliance Music Publishing, Houston, Texas.

A recipient of the Alberta Choral Federation's 'con spirito' award for her contributions to the choral arts. In 2003 Ms. Quilichini made her debut as maestro at Carnegie Hall with the Calgary Girls Choir directing the choral concert A Tribute to Peace and Freedom.

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.

Doreen Rao

Doreen Rao's distinguished career as conductor and master teacher links the standards of professional performance with the goals of music education. Celebrated for her spirited and moving concerts, Rao's commitment to choral music is recognized in her innovative programming, teaching initiatives, worldwide conducting appearances, and her award-winning Choral Music Experience publications with Boosey & Hawkes.

Appointed Music Director and Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus in 2008, Rao holds the Cameron Baird Conductor's Chair working in close collaboration with the Grammy Award winning Maestro JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. In this position, Rao leads the newly inaugurated Buffalo Sings! Community Concert Series dedicated to building bridges between artists and their audiences through concert performances and educational programs throughout Western New York.

Doreen Rao holds the University of Toronto's Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting Emeritus. As Director of Choral Programs, she established and led the Faculty of Music's Graduate Program in Conducting, she directed the Toronto Bach Festival in collaboration with its principal guest artist, the eminent Bach scholar and conductor Helmuth Rilling, and she conducted the award-winning University of Toronto MacMillan Singers and Bach Festival Singers. Her choirs collaborated regularly with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, under conductors Peter Oundjian, Gianandrea Noseda, Bernard Labadie and Helmuth Rilling.

Brandon Rauch

Brandon Rauch first began his barbershop career in 2009 at the age of 17. He went on to join Vocal Confluence in 2015 and began directing in 2018. During his tenure as Artistic Director he helped to bring Vocal Confluence Mixed Ensemble into existence and led this ensemble to best mixed chorus honors in their first ever contest in March 2022. Brandon received his degree in Music from Washington & Jefferson College in 2014, where he focused his studies on the voice and choral conducting.

Buryl Red

Buryl Red, described by The Washington Post as "uncommonly creative", the musical work of Buryl Red as composer, conductor, producer, and arranger, may be experienced in such diverse venues as Carnegie Hall, Saturday Night Live, and thousands of schools, churches, and theaters around the world. His output includes more than sixteen hundred published compositions and arrangements, production of over 2500 recordings,< and the musical supervision, composition, and arranging for several hundred shows, documentaries, and musical specials for network and cable television. Several of his choral works including Celebrate Life and the first performing edition of Pergolesi's Magnificat are considered landmarks in their fields. He is the executive record producer for some of the most widely used music textbooks in the United States including the new Silver Burdett Making Music series. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Buryl Red is a graduate of the music schools of Baylor University and Yale University and now lives in New York City. He has been honored with many civic and professional awards and degrees. He is particularly honored with the inclusion of his well-known song, "In Remembrance", in The African-American Heritage Hymnal published in 2001.

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.

Helmuth Rilling

Helmuth Rilling (born 29 May 1933 in Stuttgart) is an internationally known German choral conductor, founder of the Gachinger Kantorei (1954), the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (1965), the Oregon Bach Festival (1970),(1) the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart (1981) and other Bach Academies worldwide, and the "Festival Ensemble Stuttgart" (2001).

Rilling was born into a musical family. He received his early training at the Protestant Seminaries in Wurttemberg. From 1952 to 1955 he studied organ, composition, and choral conducting at the Stuttgart College of Music. He completed his studies with Fernando Germani in Rome and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena.

Juan Pedro Rivera

Composer, teacher and conductor, Juan Pedro Gaffney Rivera has been researching, editing, teaching and performing the choral music of Latin America, Spain and Portugal for the past 35 years. He received early choral training from local maestros Herbert Bergman, Leonard Fitzpatrick, Richard Irven Purvis, Sergei Konstantinov and Waldemar Jacobsen, later earning advanced degrees in music from the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University. His discovery of the classical and folk repertories of Latin America while working in Venezuela in the mid-60's proved key in determining the path of his career. In 1975 he founded the Coro Hispano de San Francisco and Conjunto Nuevo Mundo, and conjointly, the Instituto Pro Musica's Musicological Research Program, through which he has transcribed and/or edited more than 100 works by New World Renaissance and Baroque masters. Maestro Gaffney also serves as Director of Hispanic Liturgy at the Basilica of Mission San Francisco de Asis.

Earl Rivers

CCM's graduate conducting program has been recognized by U.S. News and World Report as among the top five in the U.S.A. CCM's Choral Program was the recipient of the Dale Warland Singers Score Library and Archives and recently hosted the winter 2010 Central Division convention of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the fall 2008 second national conference of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO).

Music Director and Conductor for twenty seasons from 1988-2008 of the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati (VAE), a professional chamber choir, Rivers and the VAE received two ASCAP-Chorus America Awards for "Adventuresome Programming of Contemporary Music."

Rivers has conducted CCM's choral and orchestral forces in acclaimed university and regional premieres of John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls, Philip Glass's Symphony No. 5, Tan Dun's Water Passion after St. Matthew, Krzysztof Penderecki's Credo and Augusta Read Thomas's Ring Out, Wild Bells, To The Wild Sky.

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.

Ian Robertson

IAN ROBERTSON has been Chorus Director and Conductor with the San Francisco Opera since 1987 and Artistic Director of the San Francisco Boys Chorus since 1996. He made his San Francisco Opera conducting debut with the 1988 production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and has since led performances of Falstaff, Lohengrin, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Don Carlo, Turandot, Il Trovatore and La Boheme . In addition to his highly praised work with the Opera Chorus, he has led the Opera Orchestra and Chorus in many concerts. Additional conducting assignments include the San Francisco Opera Center's presentations of The Italian Girl in Algiers, Cosi fan tutte, La Perichole and The Elixir of Love and the Merola Opera Program's Grand Finale Concerts at Davies Symphony Hall. He has led Don Giovanni for Sarasota Opera, Florida and The Magic Flute and Rigoletto for Edmonton Opera and has conducted La Rondine, Iolanta, The Rape of Lucretia, Eugene Onegin and Don Giovanni for the Curtis Opera Theatre in Philadelphia. This summer, Robertson again conducted the MOP Grand Finale Concert and has appeared as guest conductor with the Carmel Bach Festival. He will conduct A Midsummer Night's Dream for Curtis Opera Theatre.

Christopher Robinson

Christopher Robinson has rightly earned the reputation as one of the leading English choral conductors from the second half of the 20th century. While he has been closely identified with sacred music, he has also delved extensively into secular works. His repertory ranges from Baroque to contemporary, but with a decided slant toward 20th century British music. The names Elgar, Britten, Tippett, Maxwell Davies, Berkeley, Howells, Rubbra, Tavener, Walton, and a spate of other 20th century British composers occupy a good portion of his concert programs. That said, Robinson is also a master interpreter of the choral music of Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Durufle, Rachmaninov, Poulenc, Messiaen, and many other non-British composers. Robinson, who often held the dual post of organist and choirmaster, has also drawn lavish praise for his skills on the organ. He has appeared on more than 50 recordings, mostly as conductor, with a few as organist (Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony, for example) and a handful serving in both roles. His recordings are available on numerous labels, including Naxos, Chandos, Brilliant Classics, Hyperion, Nimbus, EMI, Regis, and Guild.

Dr. James Rodde

James Rodde, the Moen Endowed Chair in Music at Iowa State, conducts the Singers, the 150-voice Statesmen men's choir, and teaches choral conducting and literature. His choirs have toured internationally and have been honored with performances at distinguished music events, including the 1993, 1997, 2005, and 2009 ACDA, and 2008 NCCO National Conventions.

An active clinician and conducting mentor, he has led numerous festival ensembles, including a number of All-State and ACDA divisional honor choirs. In 2005 one of his students won the ACDA National Undergraduate Conducting Competition. Dr. Rodde is also the Artistic Director of two community ensembles, the Ames Chamber Artists and Des Moines Choral Society. From 1985 to 2000 he served at the University of North Dakota, where he was honored with the Fine Arts Faculty Award for Teaching.

Bruce Rogers

Professor Bruce Rogers is the Director of Choral Activities at Mt. San Antonio College, a position he assumed in 1994. In this role, he oversees the department's various vocal and choral programs, which span the entire spectrum of music - from classical to jazz. He personally directs Mt. San Antonio College's award-winning Chamber Singers and the elite vocal jazz ensemble, Singcopation.

Choirs under his direction have won numerous awards and first place honors throughout the United States and Europe. Mr. Rogers' choirs have had the honor of performing at five California State Conventions, seven American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Regional and National Conventions as well as performing at three International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) National Conventions. They have achieved top ranking in national and international competitions throughout the world, including performances in Concert Halls throughout the United States, Canada, Scotland, Wales, England, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

Eugene Rogers

Recognized as a leading conductor, pedagogue, and lecturer, Eugene Rogers has appeared throughout the United States as well as in Africa, Canada, China, Singapore, England, Portugal, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Mexico, Spain, and Italy. Recently, Rogers received the Sphinx Medal of Excellence for his commitment to issues of social justice and leadership and conducted the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club in Salt Lake City, Utah at the National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). In addition to his duties as a conductor, teacher, and singer, Rogers is the first national chair of Diversity Issues for the American Choral Directors Association National Conference, co-artistic director of Portugal's Lisbon Summer Choral Festival and, in 2010 and 2011, was the artistic director of the Disneyland Hong Kong Winter Choral Festival. He has served as a panelist for the National Endowment of the Arts and currently serves on the boards of Chorus America, the National Collegiate Choral Organization, and is the ChoralQuest series editor for the American Composers Forum.

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).

Barry Rose

Barry Michael Rose (born 24 May 1934) is a choir trainer and organist. He is best known for conducting the choir of St Paul's Cathedral at the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales (Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor) and Diana, Princess of Wales (Lady Diana Frances Spencer) at St Paul's Cathedral in London on Wednesday 29 July 1981. Born in Chingford, England, Barry Rose grew up accompanying the choir of his local church. After a spell as organist at St. Andrew's, Kingsbury, at the age of 25 he became the youngest cathedral organist in the country when he was appointed to the position of Master of Music at Guildford Cathedral. He moved to St Paul's Cathedral in 1974 as Sub-organist and was appointed Master of the Choir in 1977. He left St Paul's in 1984 after a difference of opinion with senior members of the clergy, and became Master of the Choirs at the King's School, Canterbury. From 1971 to 1986 he was Religious Music Adviser to the BBC, a job that included booking the choirs for the weekly Choral Evensong broadcasts. He continues to work for the BBC, directing choirs and arranging music for The Daily Service. His last post was that of Organist & Master of the Choristers for St Albans Cathedral Choir, from which he retired on Christmas Day, 1997. In the Queen's Birthday Honours List announced on 13 June 1998 he was awarded an OBE for his services to cathedral music.

Rebecca J. Rottsolk

Rebecca J. Rottsolk served as Artistic Director of the internationally renowned Northwest Girlchoir in Seattle, Washington from 1982 to 2001. Under her leadership, the Choir's outstanding repertoire, creative and varied performances, and professional recordings were so successful that they won accolades from and became a model for other choirs and music educators. She and her choirs have won numerous awards in North America and abroad.

As an accomplished soprano, respected conductor and music educator, Rebecca frequently presents workshops on treble voices and effective teaching and conducting techniques. She serves as guest conductor and clinician for numerous festival choruses throughout America, adjudicates for Heritage Festivals and Worlds of Fun Choral Festivals, and is a series editor for Alliance Music Publications, Inc. She served on the 2001 National Endowment of the Arts review panel for ArtsLearning applications.

Peter Rutenberg

In 2007-08, Peter Rutenberg begins both his 18th season as music director of Los Angeles Chamber Singers & Cappella and his 39th in the choral arts. Rutenberg has produced radio and records for over two decades. He is president of RCM records, a Grammy-winning conductor and producer of Padilla: Sun of Justice, and producer of the Los Angeles Master Chorale's Grammy-nominated Lauridsen Lux Aeterna CD. He is also a composer of concert, radio, and television music, and has served as master teacher and clinician for various choral music festivals in Southern California, as well as for residencies at UCLA and UC Riverside. As Director of Programming & Production for KUSC, and beginning with the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival, Rutenberg covered every major festival and arts organization in Los Angeles for the balance of the decade. Under his artistic direction, Chorus America's radio series The First Art won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for Broadcasting in 1995. Rutenberg joined the faculty of the UCLA Music Department in 2006.

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.

John Rutter

John Rutter's compositional career has embraced both large and small-scale choral works, orchestral and instrumental pieces, a piano concerto, two children's operas, music for television, and specialist writing for such groups as the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and the King's Singers. His most recent larger choral works, Requiem (1985), Magnificat (1990) and Psalmfest (1993) have been performed many times in Britain, North America, and a growing number of other countries. He co-edited four volumes in the Carols for Choirs series with Sir David Willcocks, and, more recently, has edited the first two volumes in the new Oxford Choral Classics series, Opera Choruses (1995) and European Sacred Music (1996).

Paul Salamunovich

Paul Salamunovich is in his final season as director of music at St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood, California. Under his direction, the choir has risen to preeminence among American church choirs. Salamunovich has been recognized for his contributions to sacred music with a Papal Knighthood in the Order of St. Gregory. His career has been marked by the highest achievements in professional, educational and liturgical music. He conducted the choruses at Loyola Marymount University for 27 years, was music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale for ten years, and guest conductor throughout the United States, Canada, the Bahamas, South America, Europe, Australia, and the Far East. He has conducted choral segments for such movie soundtracks as First Knight, A.I., Air Force One, Snow Falling on Cedar, and Independence Day. Salamunovich has been honored by ACDA for lifetime achievements at the state, division, and national levels.

Steven Sametz

Steven Sametz has earned increasing renown in recent years as both composer and conductor. He is the Ronald J. Ulrich Professor of Music and director of Lehigh University Choral Arts, one of the country's premiere choral programs. He also serves as Artistic Director for the elite a cappella ensemble, The Princeton Singers and is the founding director of The Lehigh University Choral Composer Forum, a summer course of study designed to mentor emerging choral composers.

Recent guest conducting appearances include the Taipei Philharmonic Foundation, the Berkshire Music Festival, the New York Chamber Symphony, and the Netherlands Radio Choir. Dr. Sametz' compositions have been heard throughout the world at the Tanglewood, Ravinia, Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Santa Fe music festivals. His in time of appears on the recent Grammy award-winning CD by Chanticleer, "Colors of Love," and his work may be heard on six other Chanticleer CDs

Sarah Saulsbury

Sarah Saulsbury has an association with the Occidental Community Choir spanning nearly four decades. She first joined the choir at the age of thirteen, with the encouragement of her parents, Steve and Rene Fowler, who were among the founding members of the group. Her many years with the OCC have included multiple stints as soprano, Program Director, Assistant Director, and most recently, Music Director.

Jo-Michael Scheibe

Jo-Michael Scheibe, a Southern California native, has spent years cultivating his passion for choral music and higher education. He currently chairs the Thornton School of Music's Department of choral and sacred music in the University Park neighborhood of LA at USC.

Dr. Scheibe works to prepare choruses at USC and around the world. These include works with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra, Helmuth Rilling, Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony, Franz Welser-Most and the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Formosa Singers in Taiwan. Under his leadership, ensembles have performed at National ACDA Conventions and National Conventions of the Music Educators National Conference.

Scheibe has worked alongside notable conductors such as Jeffrey Kahane, Alain Lombard, Jahja Ling, Max Valdez, James Judd, Edoardo Muller, Thomas Sanderling, and Professor Janos Czifra at Jubilate Mozart. Walton, Albany, Colla Voce Music, and Naxos publish rec

Robert Scholz

Born in Chicago, and educated in the Lutheran School system there, Robert Scholz sang in school choirs and was inspired to become a choral director by the example of Gerhard Schroth. He studied piano beginning at age eight, and later took up organ. As a student at St. Olaf College from 1957-1961 he sang under Olaf Christiansen and Kenneth Jennings, and studied voice and piano.

He continued his education at the University of Illinois where he earned a Master of Music degree in musicology in 1967 and a Doctor of Musical Arts in choral conducting in 1969. While at Illinois, Scholz conducted the University Chamber Choir and was Minister of Music at First United Presbyterian Church of Urbana.

Gary R. Schwartzhoff

Gary R. Schwartzhoff is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he conducts Concert Choir, Chamber Choir, The Singing Statesmen and teaches conducting. Schwartzhoff received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Central College in Pella, Iowa and a Master of Music Degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa. A recipient of the Helen Kemper Doctoral Fellowship Award, he received a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Conducting at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri, where he studied conducting with Dr. Eph Ehly.

Schwartzhoff has been active throughout his professional career in the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) where he served as President of the North Central Division from 1992-94. In 2010, the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association (WCDA) bestowed the Morris Hayes Award to Schwartzhoff for lifetime achievement in the choral art.

William Scott

William Scott. Chanticleer's fifth Music Director, was the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Atlanta Opera from 1985 to 2005, and the Associate Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra from 1981 to 1988-a post offered him by legendary conductor, chorus director, and arranger Robert Shaw. After Shaw's passing, Scott presided for six years over Christmas with the Atlanta Symphony, carrying on the tradition of Robert Shaw's beloved Christmas concerts.

Dr. Timothy Seelig

Tim Seelig is conductor, singer, teacher and motivational speaker. In addition to Artistic Director of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, he continues a busy guest-conducting schedule throughout the U.S. and across the globe. He is Conductor Emeritus of the Turtle Creek Chorale, which he conducted for 20 years, co-founded The Women's Chorus of Dallas and taught on the faculty at Southern Methodist University.

Dr. Seelig holds four degrees, including the Doctor of Musical Arts and the Diploma from the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. He has authored seven books and DVDs on choral technique including best-sellers The Perfect Blend, and The Perfect Rehearsal as well as The Perfect Choral Workbook, Quick Choral Fixes, The Music Within and the brand new Language of Music.

His recordings have been on Billboard Top Ten and iTunes Top Ten classical charts. The PBS documentary about the TCC received the national Emmy award for best documentary. Dr. Seelig has conducted around the world and regularly at Carnegie Hall for the last 25 years, as well as Lincoln Center and the Southbank Centre in London.

Dr. Tim Sharp

Tim Sharp is Executive Director of the American Choral Directors Association. An active choral conductor as well as writer, Dr. Sharp came to ACDA from Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, where he conducted the Rhodes Singers and MasterSingers Chorale. Before his appointment at Rhodes, he was Director of Choral Activities at Belmont University in Nashville, TN.

Dr. Sharp's research and writing focuses pedagogically in conducting and score analysis as evidenced by his publications Precision Conducting, Achieving Choral Blend and Balance, and Up Front! Becoming the Complete Choral Conductor. Dr. Sharp has served ACDA in many capacities, including conducting state honor choirs, as a Choral Journal Editorial Board member, and as a member of ACDA's Research and Publications Committee.

Martha Shaw

Dr. Martha Shaw. Lester Harbin Chair of Conducting, is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities. She joined the faculty in 1999. Her fifteen years of experience as a public school music specialist contribute significantly to her work at Shorter where she teaches music education methods classes, supervises student teachers, and conducts the Shorter Chorale.

Dr. Shaw is the founding director of the Spivey Hall Children's Choir. Under her direction, the choir has been featured in performances for state, regional, and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and on NPR's "Performance Today" and "From the Top." Dr. Shaw continues to work extensively as a clinician and guest conductor.

Robert Shaw

The late Robert Shaw, called "the Dean of American choral conductors," died in January, 1999. His long and fruitful relationship with Telarc International spanned twenty years and produced 41 recordings, eleven of which have won Grammy Awards.

Shaw became Music Director Emeritus and Conductor Laureate of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1988 after serving as Music Director of the Orchestra for 21 years. During his tenure as Music Director, he built the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra into a major American orchestra, garnering widespread acclaim through national and international tours and award-winning recordings.

A regular guest conductor of major orchestras in this country and abroad, Mr. Shaw was also in demand as a teacher and lecturer at leading U. S. colleges and universities. The Robert Shaw Institute was founded in recent years to foster excellence in music-making, especially in the choral arts. Now affiliated with Ohio State University, the Institute's summer festivals in southwest France and the U.S. attracted admiring attention from the international press and produced a number of recordings from the Robert Shaw Festival Singers.

Nigel Short

Nigel began his musical life as a chorister at Solihull Parish Church going on to study singing and piano at the Royal College of Music. He began his career as a soloist in opera and oratorio and as a member of specialist vocal ensembles such as The Tallis Scholars whilst maintaining a regular involvement in church music, firstly as a member of Westminster Abbey Choir then Westminster Cathedral. He joined the King's Singers when he was 27 and stayed with them for seven years.

After a short break of about one ski season in the Swiss Alps he set about founding his own group, Tenebrae, aiming to bring together what he loved best as a singer - namely the more passionate sounds of large Cathedral choirs and the precision of ensembles like The King's Singers - to create a new kind of choral group. Whilst embracing an eclectic repertoire he wanted to have some 'signature' works that would make Tenebrae different, adding a theatrical element that would involve singers moving around as if on stage. To that end he wrote 'The Dream of Herod', with a central role for baritone Colin Campbell, and commissioned Joby Talbot to write Path of Miracles, premiered in July 2005. Since its debut performance in 2001 Tenebrae has given concerts in Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, UK, USA and Bermuda.

Thomas E. Sibley

Each boy involved with the Raleigh Boychoir devotes numerous hours over weeks and years to help sustain the choral tradition of boychoir singing. In return he is provided with a rich, unique, and unforgettable experience which will remain an integral part of him throughout his life. Through the musical training and choral experiences, he develops an appreciation of a wide range of choral literature. He gains self-confidence and poise. He learns how to meet demands - musical and otherwise. He learns how to be a leader as well as how to be a worker in a closely integrated group. He acquires self-discipline and self-respect. He knows that what he does is of real musical excellence as well as knowing that what he does is contributing to the community through the arts.

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.

Norm Silver

Norm Silver is a founding member of the nationally acclaimed 17th Avenue All-Stars, an award winning a cappella group with six successful CD's, 3 time Western Regional Championships and 1993 National Harmony Sweepstakes Winners. They have opened for the Temptations, BB King, Robert Cray, America, Mel Torme, and The Fifth Dimension, performed at the Winter Park Jazz Festival, Chama Music Festival, Live Oak Festival in Santa Barbara and appeared in the feature film "The Laramie Project."

Robert Simpson

Robert Simpson is Founder and Artistic Director of the Grammy award-winning Houston Chamber Choir. He is also Canon for Music at the historic Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal), Houston, Texas and Lecturer of Church Music at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University.

Vijay Singh

Vijay Singh is an active performer, composer, teacher, conductor, and clinician residing in Ellensburg, Washington where he is Professor of Music at Central Washington University. A graduate of Willamette University (B. M. Ed/Clarinet & Voice) and Portland State University (Masters in Choral Conducting/Vocal Performance), he has been rapidly gaining international attention for his eclectic musical compositions, performances, workshops, and conducting appearances. Vijay's teaching experiences have included work at public secondary schools, community college, and university levels.

Mark Singleton

Known for his compelling musicianship and leadership, Mark Singleton has become one of New England's most sought-after conductors. He serves as director of music at Immanuel Congregational Church in Hartford and as artistic director of voice and choirmaster of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus.

Singleton holds an undergraduate degree in cello performance and church music from William Jewell College and a master of music degree in choral conducting from the University of Connecticut. He has pursued additional conducting studies at the Robert Shaw Festival, the Dennis Keene Choral Festival and the Conductors Institute of South Carolina. His principal conducting teachers include Peter Bagley, Charles Bruffy and Phillip C. Posey.

Jeffrey Skidmore

The English choral conductor, Jeffrey Skidmore, Jeffrey read music at Magdalen College, Oxford, before returning to his native Birmingham when he was 18 to found and develop Ex Cathedra into the internationally-acclaimed choral group it has become today. He subsequently studied music with David Wulstan at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was a Choral Scholar under Bernard Rose. As Artistic Director and Conductor of Ex Cathedra he has pioneered historically informed performances of Renaissance and Baroque music in Birmingham and the West Midlands, and directed the first performances of many new editions, including two French Baroque operas, Zaide by Royer and Isis by Lully. He has prepared his own editions of Monteverdi's Spiritual Madrigals and was recently awarded Honorary Fellowships from the University of Birmingham and the University of Central England.

David Skinner

David Skinner is known primarily for his combined role as a researcher and performer of early music, and is Fellow, Tutor, and Osborn Director of Music at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and an affiliated lecturer in the faculty of music. He teaches historical and practical topics from the medieval and Renaissance periods. From 1997 to 2001 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the British Academy at Christ Church, Oxford (where he was a Choral Scholar from 1989 to 1994), and was the Lecturer in Music at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 2001 to 2006.

At Cambridge he conducts the Choir of Sidney Sussex College, with whom he has toured and made professional recordings. He has published widely on music and musicians of early Tudor England, and his most recent projects include the collected works of Nicholas Ludford and The Arundel Choirbook (Duke of Norfolk: Roxburghe Club, 2003). He is currently editing the Latin church music of John Sheppard for publication in 2009, and co-authoring a book on Foundations of the English Choral Tradition.

Barney Smith

Barnaby Smith is Artistic Director of the internationally renowned vocal ensemble, VOCES8 and as such is in demand as a conductor, choir trainer, countertneor and arranger. Barnaby completed his studies in Specialist Early Music Performance at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis where he was a pupil of Andreas Scholl and Rene Jacobs. Barnaby is also an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme.

On disc Barnaby has released commercially on Decca Classics, Universal, Sony, Naxos, Signum Classics and VCM Records. He has four no.1 selling albums on the Decca Classics and VCM Records labesl, was delighted to receive the award for Album of the Year 2015 from Classic FM, was voted Choral Disc Choice Award by BBC Music Magazine in June 2014 and has won 7 Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards.

Dr. Brenda Smith

Dr Brenda Smith teaches studio voice, diction and vocal pedagogy. She has been widely recognized for her contributions to the concept of lifelong singing through proper voice care. Dr. Smith is a lyric soprano with special interests in the recital and concert repertoire. In addition, Dr Smith was translator, collaborator and assistant to Dr Wilhelm Ehmann and Dr Frauke Haasemann, the pedagogues whose work in Germany and the United States developed the concept of voice building for choirs. She is the translator of the book Voice Building for Choirs by Wilhelm Ehmann and Frauke Haasemann (Chapel Hill, NC: Hinshaw Music, Inc.; 1980).

Dr Smith works regularly as consultant, clinician, and conductor with amateur and professional choirs throughout the world. She has been associated with the choirs of St. Ignatius Loyola, the Central City Chorus, and the Dessoff Choirs in New York City, the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, the Cathedral Choral Society of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., as well as the choirs of the Epiphany Cathedral in Venice, Fla.

Gregg Smith

I am told by various relatives that I was actually composing at the age of five. The story they tell is that when called to dinner I would always procrastinate, asking for just a few minutes more to write out some additional notes. But my real memories of myself as a composer start around the age of 17. Having heard Milhaud's Suadedos de Brazil, I wanted to write a couple of South American piano pieces of my own. The result was a suite called From the Rio. It was a very good effort for a 17 year old.

Soon after, I moved to California where I enrolled at UCLA and also joined an amateur adult choir conducted by a fine high school director named Jim Burt. He was very encouraging of me as a composer, trying out a few things of mine with his adult choir and then performing two Keats settings with his High School group. It was my first real public performance.

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.