Events

The Whitachords are a unique and ever-evolving ensemble of singers who come together not through regular rehearsals or shared hometowns, but through a deep love of music—especially the works of composer Eric Whitacre. We are individuals from different backgrounds who learn our parts independently, yet when we unite in New York City for a performance with DCINY, we create something truly special.

Some of us are returning veterans of the group, while others are experiencing this incredible journey for the first time. Regardless of experience, every member brings their passion, dedication, and voice to the mix. Though we arrive as individuals, we leave as part of a community, bonded by music and the unforgettable experiences we share.

Each year, the Whitachords grow and change, always welcoming new voices and new friendships. And no matter what, one thing remains constant—we have the time of our lives with DCINY and Eric, singing our hearts out, and making memories that last forever.

Mater Dei High School Choir (CA)

Based in Santa Ana, California, the Mater Dei High School Choral and Vocal Music Program serves a diverse Southern California community. With 11 ensembles and nearly 300 singers involved in athletics, ASB, the arts, campus ministry, and more, Mater Dei is proud to serve the county seat of Orange County and to partner with the richly diverse city of Santa Ana, where the largest portion of our student body resides. Developing faith-filled, responsible student leaders grounded in love and committed to social justice is central to Mater Dei’s mission. The ensemble singing today, the Mater Dei Chamber Singers, represents more than 6,000 service hours dedicated to communities throughout Orange County and beyond.

Mater Dei Choirs consistently excel, earning superior ratings at festivals and competitions nationwide while performing both locally and around the world. Our program is blessed to take annual pilgrimages that explore culture, community, and faith across the USA and internationally. Students have sung at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Mark’s Basilica, and La Sagrada Familia, and have performed concerts in major venues across Italy, Spain, and Ireland, including the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, Chiesa di San Trovaso (Venice), Chiesa Santa Trinità (Florence), Chiesa Sant’Ignazio di Loyola (Rome), the Basilica Papale di San Pietro, and the Sistine Chapel. Mater Dei ensembles have also appeared at major conferences, including CASMEC 2023 and the ACDA Western Region Conference in 2024, and recently presented a featured solo concert at Carnegie Hall (2022) and David Geffen Hall (2024). Graduates of the program continue their artistic journeys on stages ranging from the Metropolitan Opera to Broadway, upholding the legacy of excellence cultivated at Mater Dei.

Jodi Reed

Dr. Jodi Reed is the Director of Choral and Vocal Music at Mater Dei High School, where she leads one of California’s most vibrant and inclusive high school choral programs. A conductor and pianist, she is known for cultivating a high-achievement culture in which students from every background—athletes, artists, and beginners alike—discover belonging and musical excellence. Dr. Reed has also been part of the Millennial® Choirs & Orchestras conducting team since 2020 and continues to collaborate on large-scale performances nationwide.

Earlier in her career, she made history as the first female conductor to win first place multiple times at a premier California choral competition. Her ensembles have appeared on NPR’s From the Top, performed at the ACDA Western Region Conferences (2018, 2024), CASMEC (2018, 2023), and in renowned venues across the world and the USA, including Carnegie Hall, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Lincoln Center, St. Peter’s Basilica, and major cathedrals throughout Spain, Italy, and Ireland.

Dr. Reed holds a DMA in conducting from Claremont Graduate University, an MA in choral conducting from CSU East Bay, and a BM in piano performance and pedagogy from San Jose State University. She and her husband are the parents of six children, and she enjoys scuba diving and spending time at the ocean.

Weymouth High Harmonies

The Weymouth High School Harmonies are a group of 65 young singers from Weymouth, MA. From their journey to Australia to perform at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games to bringing home gold in their own competitions, these talented and hardworking students have found numerous ways to shine over the last 25 years. No stranger to service, the Harmonies and their middle school counterpart the Maria Weston Chapman Singers, spend their time during the holiday season volunteering -- often seen performing at local nursing homes or filling boxes of food for families in need. The Harmonies are thrilled to have this incredible experience with DCINY at Carnegie Hall!

Colleen McDonough

Colleen S. McDonough is an active conductor, vocalist, and music educator based on the South Shore of Massachusetts. A graduate of Bridgewater State University, she had the unique opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Eric Whitacre as a member of BSU’s Chamber Singers.

Ms. McDonough serves as the choral director for the award-winning Maria Weston Chapman Singers and the Weymouth High School Harmonies in Weymouth, MA. She is also the music director for the MWC Musical Club, which supports more than 200 students annually. Her leadership extends into local honors ensembles, having served as assistant manager and manager of the SEMMEA Jr. District Honor Choirs (2025 and 2026), assistant manager of the SEMMEA Sr. District Honor Choir (2027), and conductor of the SEMSBA Sr. District Honor Choir (2024). Students from her private voice studio have gone on to study music and musical theatre at institutions such as Emerson College, Boston Conservatory, Syracuse University, Marymount Manhattan University, Penn State, Berklee College of Music, and Harvard College.

As a performer, Ms. McDonough sings soprano with the Boston-based Briarwood Ensemble and has appeared as a soloist in works including Boccherini’s Gloria, Haydn’s Paukenmesse, Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia, and Whitacre’s Alleluia. As an educator, she is committed to expanding opportunities for musical excellence for all students. As we always say --Ad Astra!

The San Diego Jewish Men's Choir (SDJMC), called, “one of the finest vocal ensembles San Diego has to offer,” by the S.D. Troubadour Magazine, has been in existence for 28 years and is made up of a group of 25 singers, from various walks of life, backgrounds, and ages (21-91yrs). They are a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. The members share a common goal, the preservation, performance, and promotion of Jewish choral music. They fulfill this mission through concerts, recordings, community outreach events, and appearances at festivals. 

Under the musical direction of Ruth Weber, the men’s choir presents over 25 concerts a year throughout the Southern California area and beyond. They have been featured on the documentary Forever Strong, the Latin Grammy winning children’s artist Mr. G’s album, The Mitzvah Bus, and on 3X Grammy winner Ricky Kej’s album, Shanti Samsara for Environmental Consciousness. The group has appeared on KPBS, Jewish Life Television, on the Chabad Telethon, and have traveled to Nebraska to perform as featured artists with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, as well as making other out of state tours

 SDJMC has released three albums; “Heritage,” winner of a Global Music Award in 2014, their 2X Billboard charting album, “KOCHI,” a musical celebration of the history of the Jews in India, blending timeless Jewish melodies with traditional Indian instrumentation, and their most recent critically acclaimed album “LEGACY,” which won a silver medal in the Global Music Awards. The choir’s music is currently on regular rotation on 119 radio stations in the U.S. and Canada and the albums are available on most online music sales and streaming sites.

 The choir recently completed a documentary-short film entitled, Ale Brider (All My Brothers) which has garnered a Best Documentary Award from the Jane Austen International Film Festival and Paris International Short Film Festival, A Bronze Award in the Hollywood Independent Film Awards and Festival, 3 awards in the Accolade International Film competition, and an award for Best Music Composition in the Hong Kong International Film Awards. The film is now being aired on Jewish Life TV periodically throughout the next 3 years.

The group’s East Coast tour in February 2026 will include their Carnegie Hall debut concert in Weill Hall with DCINY and a concert in the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park.

Ruth Hertz Weber is an accomplished composer/songwriter/ director, whose music and arrangements have graced numerous albums, film scores, print music publications, and performances by symphonies. Upon receiving her Master of Music degree from Cal. State University, Northridge, Weber worked as an accompanist for the L.A. Philharmonic Institute, Opera Aguascalientes, CSUN, and as a recording artist for the Marantz Co.’s, Music Minus One records. Weber was Artistic Director for Jean Will Presents, The Disciple Singers, and The S.D. Jewish Men’s Choir (SDJMC). Under Ruth’s direction SDJMC released 3 albums. The second, KOCHI, charted at #3 on the Billboard Charts, receiving an AMA award for Best World Beat Album. The Disciple Singers, appeared on the, Action Moves People United album with actor Dan Aykroyd and recording artist Julian Lennon, and were featured in the film, One Little Finger. Weber is part of the duo Ruth and Emilia. Their children’s albums have won a Parent’s Choice Award, and their album, I Had a Dream: Songs of an Immigrant, is part of the permanent exhibit at the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, Israel. Ruth has been a long-time music instructor at Palomar College and S.D. Miramar College. 

Dr. Michael D. Munson is an adjunct Professor of Music at Palomar College, where he teaches Music Theory and Skills, Applied Piano, and Class Piano. He accompanies the Chamber Singers and has played for ballet classes since 1994. Munson earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music from the Eastman School of Music in 1992.

Dr. Munson is the organist of the First United Methodist Church of Escondido and current Dean of the Palomar Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He has concertized in Southern California, the eastern United States, and Europe. He has also given four concerts at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park in San Diego as part of the weekly Sunday Concert Series there.

Dr. Munson has played for the San Diego Jewish Men’s Choir for many years.

Dr. Munson also has a selection of his compositions and arrangements available on musicnotes.com.

Since receiving her master’s degree and graduate certificate in music from USC, Emilia Lopez-Yañez has performed as an oboist/vocalist worldwide, including in Davies Symphony Hall, (SF), The Hollywood Bowl, (LA), Segerstrom Hall, (Costa Mesa), Beacon Theatre (NY), Teatro Aguascalientes (Mexico), Smetana Hall and Estates Theater (Czech Republic) and more. She most recently had the honor of playing principal oboe in Jacob Collier’s debut Audience Orchestra. As a recording artist, Emilia has played and sung on film and video game soundtracks and on Billboard charting recordings alongside legendary performers like Alan White (YES) and Dan Aykroyd. Lopez-Yañez maintains a full performing schedule as a freelance musician in the San Francisco Bay Area while also running her bilingual music and movement program for young children, Malinky Music, and a private teaching studio.

D. Zisl Slepovitch is a native of Minsk, Belarus, and a New Yorker since 2008. He is a musicologist (Ph.D., Belarusian State Academy of Music); a multi-instrumentalist klezmer, classical, and improvisational musician (woodwinds, keyboards); a composer, ethnographer, arranger-orchestrator, conductor, a music and Yiddish educator. Slepovitch is a founding member of the critically acclaimed klezmer group Litvakus as well as Zisl Slepovitch Ensemble. He has appeared in, wrote and arranged music for numerous productions by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (New York), State Jewish Theatre (Bucharest), and other theatre companies; worked with Ljova, Frank London, Sasha Lurje, Zalmen Mlotek, Hankus Netsky, and JD Parran, among others. Slepovitch serves as Musician-in-Residence at Yale University’s Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, where he has produced a series of critically acclaimed records. He regularly appears as a guest lecturer and artist at universities and festivals in the US, Europe, and Israel. Among Slepovitch’s theatre, film, and TV credits are the Defiance movie, Eternal Echoes album (Sony Classical), Rejoice with Itzhak Perlman and Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot (PBS), and Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (off-Broadway). @zislepovitch zislepovitch.com

Bob Weller graduated Cal. State Northridge in 1979 with a Bachelors in Percussion. While there he studied composition with Frank Campo, Aurelio De La Vega and Ladd McIntosh. Bob has played percussion with the Phoenix Symphony and the LA Philharmonic. While living in NY he played with many well-known jazz artists and studied piano with Phil Markowitz and drums with Peter Erskine. He has performed percussion/drums in numerous musicals, including the West Coast pre-Broadway revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum directed by Des McAnuff, starring Nathan Lane, which went on to win the 1996 Tony Award for best musical revival. Other productions include The Music Man, Mame, Annie Get Your Gun, Man of La Mancha at the Lawrence Welk Dinner Theater. Bob earned the RPT [Registered Piano Technician] designation from the Piano Technicians Guild in 2001. He recently published his first book, “Stravinsky and Cubism,” available on Amazon.com. He currently teaches drum set and jazz piano at Palomar College in San Marcos, California. 

Doron Peisic is an accomplished singer, accordionist, harpist, pianist, guitarist, educator, and composer whose work bridges classical and contemporary expression. Known for his warmth and connectedness, Doron brings a distinctive voice to the instruments he plays, shaped by years of study across instruments and cultures. His musical training began at age 12 and includes studies both in the Tel Aviv Conservatory and in the US. Doron’s performances span chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and collaborative projects that explore the intersection of sound, identity, and place. He has performed in a variety of venues, from the historical Del Coronado hotel in San Diego to city arts halls, weddings, holidays, and celebrations. He is also a licensed harp therapist who has researched and practiced music therapy using an adaptive and customized methodology for Israeli soldiers, the Veterans Administration, and private patients.  Doron’s approach is rooted in authenticity, energy, and a deep respect for the transformative potential of his music.This Carnegie Hall debut marks an exciting personal and artistic milestone. Doron is grateful to be celebrating not only music’s expressive power, but also the communities, mentors, and audiences who continue to shape his journey.