Patricia Mason is a semi-retired music teacher and create Bemidji Chorale in 1979. She earned her Master’s degree in Music Education at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota. Pat is active in national and state music associations, including the Minnesota Music Educators Association and the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota, in which she has held the position of Northwest Chair. She is also active in various community music endeavors, and is a very active Minnesota State High School Music League Adjudicator and Clinician. Pat was the 2012 recipient of the Bemidji "Friend of the Arts" award, for her longstanding support of the arts in Bemidji.

Scott Eric Anderson conducts the ISU Chamber & Concert Choirs, the Camerata Singers, and teaches Choral Conducting, Choral Methods, and voice. Dr. Anderson has received Idaho State University’s Master Teacher and Outstanding Public Service awards on three occasions.  He was awarded the Idaho State University Alumni Association’s Faculty Achievement Award in 2011, and Idaho State University’s Distinguished Public Service Award in 2013.
Anderson received the Bachelor of Arts in Music from Whitworth College, the Master of Music from Westminster Choir College, and the Doctor of Musical Arts from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  He has studied conducting with such eminent teachers as Eph Ehly, Joseph Flummerfelt, Allen Crowell, Frauke Hassemann and many others.
Choirs under Dr. Anderson’s direction have traveled throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and South America.  As Director of Choral Activities at Idaho State University, Anderson has led the Idaho State University Chamber Choir or Camerata Singers on performance tours of more than 22 countries over the past two decades.  He led the Camerata Singers on a performance tour of Spain and Portugal in July, 2013.  Dr. Anderson conducted the ISU Chamber Choir (one of six invited University choirs) in performance at the Northwest Division Conference of the American Choral Directors Association in Seattle, Washington in March, 2014.  Anderson conducted the Idaho State Civic-Symphony, the Camerata Singers, and the ISU Concert Choir in performances of the Verdi REQUIEM in April 2014.
Anderson serves as the Artistic Director of the Idaho International Choral Festival where choral groups from around the world join together in Pocatello, Idaho for a week of choral performances, conducting master classes and artistic and cultural exchange. He has conducted more than 100 choral festivals, including All State Festivals, Regional MENC or ACDA Honor Choirs in 16 states and Canada. He has served the American Choral Directors Association in state, divisional, and national offices, and has been featured as guest conductor, lecturer and teacher throughout the United States and abroad.

Randi Von Ellefson is Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music at Oklahoma City University (OCU) and serves as Artistic Director of Canterbury Choral Society.  He began his work in Oklahoma City in 2004 after working at the University of Chicago, (IL), Whitworth University, (WA) and Bethany Lutheran College, (MN.)
He holds degrees from Texas Lutheran University, the University of Minnesota and the D.M.A. from Arizona State University.  He is a founding member of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO) and has served as its President as well as Treasurer.  He has also been President of the American Choral Directors Association’s Northwestern and Central Divisions.  
Dr. Ellefson has conducted a wide variety of university choruses as well as the Spokane Symphony Chorale and the Elgin Choral Union.  He has worked at Lutheran and Presbyterian Churches and currently is the adult choir director at Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City.  
In 2011, he led an ensemble from Canterbury Choral Society on a tour in China.  In the summer of 2014, he and seventy singers from Canterbury will join other choirs for concerts in Paris and at Normandy commemorating the 70th Anniversary of D-Day.  

Billy Orton has brought great energy and creativity to HCCA since 2002. He conducts the 150-voice Symphonic Chorus and the select 30-voice Chamber Chorale, which he founded in 2004. Under Billy’s direction TheChorus has grown in numbers as well as artistic impact. Billy’s convivial approach to music has brought a wide range of collaborators onto HCCA stages, adding exciting flavors to the repertoire. His gift for creating powerful concert experiences has made him known as a musical leader who brings people together. Billy is also minister of music and worship at Huntsville’s First Baptist Church.

Sally Mears read Music at Merton College, Oxford, UK, and studied conducting part-time at the Guildhall, London. She teaches piano and singing in Abingdon, near Oxford, and sings with Fiori Musicali in Northamptonshire. In 2013 she wrote the Abingdon Passion Play and was co-MD. She plays the cello and has accompanied James Bowman the countertenor on two occasions as his continuo cellist for African charities. Her latest triumph was conducting Carmina Burana in Oxford Town Hall in November 2014.
 

Elizabeth Turner became the director of the South High School, Torrance, CA. choirs in 2005. Prior to that she was one of the elementary music teachers in Torrance, traveling between four schools. Liz was born and raised in Mississippi, and attended college in Houston, Texas. At Houston Baptist University she received a BA in Music Education and Organ. After teaching for a year in Houston, she came to California where she directed church choirs and taught piano for more than 30 years. In the 1998-1999 school year, she began teaching in Torrance.

A dramatic soprano, Holly Hall has had a distinguished career as an opera singer, concert performer, conductor, and music educator. She has performed with various opera companies including the Vienna State Opera, New York City Opera, Seattle Opera, and Opera Tampa. She has appeared in concert/recital at Carnegie Hall, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Trinity Church, Bruno Walter Auditorium, NYCO’s VOX Series, the New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble, and the Rochester Philharmonic. Her roles include Tosca, Gutrune and the Third Norn (Götterdämmerung), Freia (Das Rheingold), Helmwige and Gerhilde (Die Walkure), Giulietta (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Chrysothemis (Electra), Female Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia), and Minnie (La Fanciulla de West). Ms. Hall holds a Master of Music degree in Voice from the Manhattan School of Music, in addition to degrees from Cleveland State University and Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. She has been a recipient of awards from the Wagner Society of New York and the Musicians Club of New York. She is also the recipient of outstanding teaching awards from the Stuyvesant High School Alumni & Friends Endowment Fund, University of Chicago, and Dartmouth College. Previously, Ms. Hall has directed the NYU Chorale and is currently in her 23rd year as the Choral Director of The Stuyvesant High School Choruses. Liliya Shamazov is a conductor, pianist, and a music educator. She holds degrees in piano performance (Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College), music history (MA), and school administration (M.S.). She is the recipient of multiple awards, including Conservatory of Music (Brooklyn College) Scholarship, Harvey Lichtenstein Prize in Performing Arts, Laurence Dilsner Memorial Award for choir directors and music educators, Choral Award (Brooklyn College), and John Challener Award in Piano. She performs regularly at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral (NYC). Mrs. Shamazov has worked with choruses for over 15 years, singing, accompanying, and conducting. Last year, she was the assistant conductor and pianist of the NYU Chorale and has been the assistant conductor of choruses at Stuyvesant High School (NYC) since 2005.

Bryan Gipps started conducting at a very early age and twice won places on the prestigious conducting course at the Royal Academy of Music, London, which enabled him to study under Maurice Miles.  Bryan had already come under the influence of Sir Malcolm Sargent and conducted a different work each week whilst in his final year as an Exhibitioner at The King’s School Canterbury.   Bryan has been the conductor of Sutton Valence Choral Society for eleven years, and, apart from increasing the membership from under 40 to over 100, he has taken his Choral Society to Rochester Cathedral to present a sell-out performance of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony, and, in 2014, a sell-out performance of Verdi’s Requiem in Canterbury Cathedral.  Bryan is also conductor of The Old Barn Orchestra, an orchestra which has grown in confidence with him at the helm, and it now performs with flair and great musicality.
Before taking up the freelance lifestyle he enjoys now, Bryan worked in Public Schools (USA=Private Schools) for many years, mainly as Director of Music.  Now, along with his commitment to OBOS and SVCS, Bryan is Director of Music at St Dunstan’s Church, Cranbrook, founder and leader of the Beresford Ensemble, Head of Strings at The King’s School, Rochester, Artistic Director of the Egerton Music Festival, and a Lay Clerk at Rochester Cathedral, with which choir he has toured Germany, Holland and America, and sung with the choir for the BBC; he is also Artistic Director of the Egerton Music Festival.
As a professional violinist, he has performed in London venues such as the Royal Festival Hall and the Royal Albert Hall and led for the major orchestral, musical and oratorio repertoire. Awarded the Sir John Goss Exhibition by the Royal College of Organists he studied the organ under Dr Douglas Hopkins at the Royal Academy of Music.  Bryan was a chorister under Dr Lumsden (later Sir David) at New College, Oxford. 
As well as supporting local hostelries and following architectural and bibliographic interests, Bryan’s spare time is dedicated to music and his impressive music room at home is often the setting for concerts and recitals. 

 

Vocal Spotlight, under the direction of Donnalynn Laver, is a dynamic choral ensemble. Their passionate performances are comprised of diverse genres...a cappella to Big Band, classical to Broadway classics and today's most contemporary hits. Committed to serving their community, Vocal Spotlight has been successful in raising thousands of dollars for charity through their annual Christmas concert series. Their unique sound is derived from the diverse musical backgrounds of its members, the individual talents possessed by each, and the zest which exceptional music brings to each singers life. Members bring decades of professional experience and lifelong dedication as they entertain audiences young and old.

A native of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, Chase is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and the University of Connecticut.  He has conducted ensembles of all ages and experience levels, from elementary schools to professionals, including multiple youth orchestras, magnet arts schools, and various ensembles at Harvard University. Equally at home in both orchestral and choral music, his ensembles have performed extensively throughout both the United States and Europe. 

Kathleen Jensen has taught choir at West H.S. in Torrance, CA for 29 years. The advanced choir (Aristocracy) has performed at Carnegie Hall (NYC), Lincoln Center (NYC), Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (LA), and TV’s “Good Day L.A.” Kathleen teaches three choirs, Music Theory AP, and Piano/Guitar. She also directs a community choir, L.A. Vocal Core. Kathleen holds a B.A.-Music Education (Trinity College, D.C.) and a M.A.-Humanities (CSU-Dominguez Hills). Her awards include: Outstanding Young Educator (City of Torrance), Teacher of the Year (West H.S.), Arnold Plank Teacher of the Year (Rotary Club) and Excellence in the Arts Award (City of Torrance).