Aimee Beckmann-Collier is Professor of Conducting and Director of Choral Studies at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.  She is a frequent clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor for high school and college choral festivals, contests, and All-States through the country.  Drake ensembles under her leadership have performed in Carnegie Hall and major venues in England, Austria, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Wales, and the Czech Republic, as well as for conferences of the American Choral Directors Association.  In 2013 she appeared as guest conductor and clinician at Minzu University in Beijing.
 
Dr. Beckmann-Collier has served ACDA in a variety of capacities, including as president of the Iowa Choral Directors Association and editor of its quarterly publication, president of ACDA’s North Central Division, chair of North Central ACDA conferences in 2012 and 1992, and editor of NC ACDA’s quarterly publication.  Her articles on a variety of topics have appeared in the Choral Journal and the Music Educators Journal.  She is chair of the Iowa Comprehensive Musicianship Project, a mastery teaching program for music educators.
 
A graduate of Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, which recently presented her with its Distinguished Alumna Award, Dr. Beckmann-Collier received master’s and doctoral degrees in choral conducting from The University of Iowa where she studied with Don Moses.  She is the recipient of Drake University’s Madelyn Levitt Award for Distinguished Community Service, the University’s Stalnaker Lecturer designation, the Iowa Music Educators Association Distinguished Service Award, the National Federation Interscholastic Music Association Outstanding Music Educator Award, and ACDA’s Weston Noble Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bradley Ellingboe is Director of Choral Activities at the University of New Mexico. He has led a wide-ranging career in the world of singing, including accomplishments as a choral conductor, soloist, composer, scholar and teacher.  As a choral conductor he has led festival choruses in 40 states and 14 foreign countries. He made his operatic conducting debut in December, 2011, leading the world-premiere of Stephen Paulus’s opera Shoes for the Santo Niño in a joint production by the Santa Fe Opera and the UNM. As a bass-baritone soloist he has sung under such conductors as Robert Shaw, Helmuth Rilling, and Sir David Willcocks. Ellingboe has over 130 pieces of music in print, including the Requiem for chorus and orchestra, which has been performed more than 300 times in this country and Europe, and his newest work, Star Song, which premiered in December of 2013. Star Song will have its New York debut (Lincoln Center) in May of 2014, and its European debut (London, Oxford, Bath) in July of that year. For his scholarly work in making the songs of Edvard Grieg more accessible to the English-speaking public, he was knighted by the King of Norway in 1994.  As a teacher, the University of New Mexico Alumni Association named him Faculty of the Year in 2008.

Caliente Community Chorus was created in the Fall of 2006 to inspire audiences, provide a creative outlet for adult singers, and travel abroad. Caliente is a non-auditioned, volunteer ensemble.  Members of our fifty-voice ensemble have a wide range of musical backgrounds, from professionals to former school choir and church choir members.
 
Besides our annual Spring and Fall concerts, Caliente performs "Broadway for Brunch" and "Cabaret" song and dance concerts.  These two special events help raise funds for the next overseas adventure.  Caliente has traveled to Italy and Austria, Ireland, Greece, and Spain.  While on tour, Caliente enjoys collaborative performances with local international choirs in order to share musical experiences.
 
Caliente Community Chorus is a 501(c)(3) charitable, non-profit organization. Our goal is to make a positive impact in the community through musical performances. Following that objective, Caliente instituted a Scholarship Fund with a primary focus on providing monetary awards to students either entering or attending post-secondary educational programs.
 
Caliente has collaborated with other community organizations such as local college and high school choirs, other regional community choirs, brass and orchestral ensembles, and the San Juan Symphony. Caliente performs works that range in variety from opera choruses to cathedral classics, from world folk to jazz standards, as well as traditional Broadway and cinema greats.

Carol Feather Martin, a native of North Carolina, graduated from Oberlin Conservatory with a BM in piano performance in 1978 and a MM degree in Organ Performance and Piano Chamber Music and Accompanying Performance from Catholic University in 1985. Carol has completed her twenty fourth year as Director of Music and Arts and Organist at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Arlington, Virginia where she works with a program including eight choirs of singers and handbell ringers.  Recitals have taken Carol to many areas of the U.S. and also Canada and Germany.  She frequently serves as clinician for professional organizations and is a member of The American Guild of Organists, Choristers Guild, Handbell Musicians of America and The Hymn Society of America.  Carol composes, arranges, and transcribes music  for the groups that she directs.  In her free time, Carol enjoys reading, gardening, working crossword and jigsaw puzzles, biking and cross country skiing. Carol resides in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband, two children, and four animals.