Current Singers

Voice Part:  Alto 1

Season joined: 2003-2004 

Birthplace:  Amityville (yes, THAT Amityville!)  NY

What is your story as a singer? Our family always sang was I was growing up, so singing in school choirs was part of our student lives. Choral music has always been special to me. I  accompanied our high school choir for 3 years, so I looked for opportunities to sing with choruses at Georgetown University, overseas as a foreign service officer, and here in DC when I returned from overseas posts. Performing choral classics in the stunning setting of the National Cathedral always moves me to -- grateful -- tears.

Favorite onstage experience: Singing with Dave Brubeck, one of my jazz superstar favorites! 

What are you listening to these days? Since I have a new car with Sirius XM, I am listening to many different musical genres... jazz, classical, lots of Frank Sinatra (it's his 100th anniversary), Broadway musicals, Top Hits from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, and country. Great fun!! 

Voice Part: Alto 2

Season Joined: 1983-1984 (auditioned with Paul callaway for his last concert)

Birthplace: Aurora, IL

What is your story as a singer? I sang in my church choir as a child, in high school, and at St. Olaf College. My husband Colin- who also joined CCS in 1983- and I have been fortunate to sing, in addition to our CCS concerts, with the Berkshire Choral Festival (now the Berkshire Choral Institute "BCI") in Vienna, Salzburg, Edinburg, and Portland, OR, as well as in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires with Norman Scribner and the Choral Arts Society.  Several years ago, we joined Cantori Domino, a small Santa Monica-based Bach choir, for its Central European tour. In 2015, we had the pleasure of singing John Rutter's final Carnegie hall concert and then joined the National Philharmonic Chorale for its New Year's tour of Germany later that year. We also continue to sing in our church choir at Bethesda Presbyterian church.

Favorite Onstage Experience: Probably the week of Carmina Burana performances with the Washington Ballet at the Kennedy Center. Other spectacular moments included singing the Verdi Requiem at the magnificent Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, singing the Marseilles and the 1812 Overture with all the exuberant French people waving huge flags at Wolf Trap on Bastille Day, the moving Lincoln Center performance of Russian works with Dmitri Hvorostovsky (with a huge contigent of Brighton Beach residents weeping as they sang along with the songs from the war years.)...Working with Denis Graves and Dave Brubeck were terrific experiences too. There are so many musical experiences; it's impossilbe to pick A favorite!

What are you listening to these days?  Several weeks ago, we heard Leon Fleischer (one of my heroes) and his wife Katherine Jacobson (also a St. Olaf alum) perform Schubert's Fantasy in F Minor and Ravel's La Valse, two of my favorite piano works both for 4 hands. I can't stop listening to them. 

Voice Part: Alto 2

Season Joined: 1988-89

Birthplace: Augsburg, Germany 

What is your story as a singer? I can't ever remember a time when I wasn't in chorus in elementary school.  I also loved it when we did song and dance programs. I vividly remember sitting in junior high, listening to the high school Madrigal group and saying to my friend that I would be in that group as soon as I was eligible. And I did make it! To this day, I have always been a sucker for a Madrigal group!

A favorite onstage experience? My very favorite CCS experience was singing the Carmina Burana at the Kennedy Center, wearing those weird sacks as monk robes and standing on that scary but cool scaffolding, watching the INCREDIBLE dancing that Septime Weber choreographed. It was awesome!

What are you listening to these days? I have two teenage daughters, so we listen to pop music!

Voice Part: Alto 1

Season Joined: 2017-2018

Birthplace: I was born in Ft. Worth, TX, but grew up in Grand Forks, ND

What is your story as a singer? I Performed "My Heart Will Go On" as a third grader in an elementary school talent show. Then went on to perform in choirs, musicals, and recitals through high school. I finished one year as a vocal performance major at the University of Minnesota, but decided to pursue a career in preventive health instead!

Do you sing with other choirs? I was a member of American University's Chamber Chorus during graduate school.

What are you listening to these days? Always listening to indie rock, jazz, and folk music.

Voice Part: Alto 2

Season Joined: 2014-2015

Birthplace: Salt Lake City, UT

What is your story as a singer? I began singing in an elementary school choir and was always in a choir through my Senior year of college. I was always trying to out-sing and out-choir my two older, very talented siblings and by joining the CCS, I think I finally won! For now... 

Favorite onstage experience? I toured Europe with the Utah Ambassadors of Music in 2005. We arrived in London the day of the terrorist attack on the London Underground. We had to leave right away and spend a few extra days in Paris instead. Somehow, someone pulled some strings and we were given the opportunity to sing Ave Maria in Notre Dame. It was beautiful and amazing and a feeling I will never forget.

What are you listening to these days?: Florence and the Machine, Haim, If/Then soundtrack 

Voice Part: Alto 1

Season joined: 2008-2009

What is your story as a singer? I've loved all kinds of music from as far back as I can remember. My parents started me out with guitar lessons in 4th grade. In my adolescent years, my focus switched from guitar, to trumpet, piano, and clarinet. Piano is my instrument of choice. One of my lifetime goals is to eventually be able to play anything placed in front of me.

I did not become a singer until my last year in college. I was always afraid of the audition process.  Somehow my friends convinced me to sign up. My life was never the same! Choir created such a wonderful, challenging, and friendly atmosphere that I became addicted to singing. After graduation, I looked for a place in the community to sing and found CASF in Frederick. When I needed more of a challenge, I joined the Acapella Showcase choir.  I discovered CCS from a Frostburg alumni get together and fell in love with the challenging, yet beautiful music that was created under our exceptional music staff. All of the choral members have become my second family and I love every minute of it!

Favorite onstage experience: Singing the Messiah with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra with CASF under Elizabeth Schultz, and our Spring 2015 Opera concert!

What are you listening to these days? My music tastes really vary from Opera to death metal. Lately I have been listening to very heavy metal on XM Liquid Metal. Some of my fav. artists are: from various genres (lighter to harder): Renee Fleming, Enya, Greatful Dead, Pink Floyd, Pam Tillis,  the Cure,  Lana del Ray, Tori Amos, Nas, Bone Thungs and Harmony, Tristania, Metallica, Bring me the Horizon.  Fav classical pieces are Rachmaninoff's piano concerto no. 2, Bach's Air for G string.

Voice part: Alto 2

Season Joined: 1983-1984

Birthplace: Hartford, CT

Background as a singer: Began singing in 5th grade, went to Amherst College (The Singing College).

Favorite Onstage Moment: The Brubeck To Hope! concert was amazing, as was the Carmina Burana with the Washington Ballet where we were on scaffolding dressed as monks--I was very pregnant and it was precarious--at least I was on the end with a handhold!

Voice part: Alto I

Season Joined: 2009-2010 

Birthplace: St. Paul, Minnesota

What is your story as a singer? I was that 2 year old who knew all the words to all the songs during the children's Christmas concert at my church. I put all those other kids to shame! Since I could sing, I've been in some type of choir.  During my time at Gustavus Adolphus College, I studied voice and sang in the Gustavus Choir under director Greg Aune.  After moving to DC and finishing grad school, I joined CCS.

Favorite Onstage Experience: Getting to sing the Kaddish, featuring the narration of Holocaust survivor, Samuel Pisar, under the direction of John Axelrod.  I'll never forget Pisar's narration and how I felt during that concert.

What are you listening to these days? Most everything with the exception of super twangy country and heavy metal. Some of my favorites include: Coldplay, Imogen Heap, Santigold, Tracy Chapman, and all types of music from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.

Voice Part: Alto II

Season joined: 2013-2014

Birthplace: Washington, DC

What is your story as a singer?  I have sung all my life.  From "Voces Discordes" & "Humditties" before college, to the Yale Glee Club, Yale's Proof of the Pudding and senior group Whim'n Rhythm, and now the Yale Alumni Chorus.  I've also enjoyed joining choruses and choirs all over the world in my overseas stints.  I've sung with the  National University of Singapore Choir and the Singapore Singers.   In my years back in Washington I sang with an acapella group, "Take Note", the Choral Arts Society of Washington, and with the St. Columba choir & singers under the baton of Judith Dodge. 

Favorite onstage experience:   The first concert in 1981 for the newly formed Whim'n Rhythm - a college senior group tradition still going strong after 34 years after a small band of gals formed the group.

What are you listening to these days?  Donizetti's L'esire D'amore, and an eclectic mix of swing, 1980s rock, Lauridsen, Mozart, acapella, Bernstein, and others. 

Voice Part: Alto 1

Season joined: 2002-2003 - just in time to sing the Verdi Requiem at Wolf Trap!

What is your story as a singer?: I've always loved to sing, since I was a little girl.  I hum anything and everything - from commercials to Bach Unaccompanied Cello suites.  If it's in my head it's going full blast - even if it's only in my head!

Voice Part: Alto 2

Season Joined: 2011-2012

Birthplace: Wadesboro, North Carolina

What is your story as a singer? I was encouraged by my parents to express myself through music-making from a very young age both instrumentally and vocally.  My father is a music lover and former professional musician and my household was a musical one. I began vocal training in high school and was lucky enough to be invited to sing sacred repertoire with a highly regarded nearby college choir.

Once in college on my own, I sang with my school’s chorale, enjoyed a brief stint in musical theatre, and even did a bit of wedding singing. For many years after school I didn’t sing at all outside the shower and the occasional duet with my father. 
After a move to DC, I attended events at the Cathedral and fell in love with not only the place, but the music made there.  Somehow, I finally mustered up the nerve to audition for the CCS, and here I am!

Favorite onstage experience: Performing the Bach B Minor Mass under Reilly Lewis’ direction was truly one of the most moving and fulfilling events of my musical life.

What are you listening to these days?: At the moment, Ockeghem’s Intermerata Dei Mater.  I enjoy early music.

Voice Part: Alto 1

Season joined: 2017-2018

Birthplace: Moco (Montgomery County MD)

What is your story as a singer? I've been singing since I was really little but didn't start formal training until I joined a music high school junior year. In college I briefly joined the London Philharmonic choir but wasn't able to continue due to school demands. Instead I joined my school's music theater program and their choir, and I had the wonderful experience of performing at a few venues in London and singing with some cool international guest choirs.

Favorite onstage experience: Singing with the Confucius Institute of Beijing. The text was all in Mandarin!

What are you listening to these days? Currently listening to Zara Larsson and Tori Kelly on repeat. 

Section:  Alto 1

Season joined:  1999-2000

Birthplace: Richland, Washington

What is your story as a singer?  I also sing with the NOVA Community Chorus (Alexandria campus) under Dr. Mark Whitmire and with the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Clerestory Choir.

Favorite onstage experience:  Singing Vierne's Messe Solennelle in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and singing the Britten War Requiem and Bach B Minor Mass at National Cathedral with CCS.  I have also loved singing at Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral, St. Peter's in Rome, St. Mark's in Venice, and the Duomo in Florence.

What are you listening to these days?   Music in a line dancing class and cardio aerobics--the kind of music I have never listened to before.

Voice Part: Tenor 2

Season Joined: 1987-89

Birthplace: Harrisburg, PA

What is your story as a singer? Jr High Chorus with Mrs. Woodruff, Dominion Junior High, Columbus Ohio. Gave up the trumpet to focus on singing. Sang all through Jr and Sr High (chorus, men's glee, mixed ensemble) and college. Joined CCS right after graduation and have been with it ever since. 

Favorite onstage experience? Missa Solemnis with Robert Shaw at the Kennedy Center. Transformative.

What are you listening to these days? Mostly groups like Maroon 5, Goo-Goo Dolls, and Dave Mathews. I love the jazz classics like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Sarah Vaughn and enjoy the rock music of my youth (AC/DC, ZZ Top, Queen). Honestly, I rarely listen to classical music.

Voice Part: Tenor 2

Season Joined: 2012-13

Birthplace: Washington, DC

Favorite onstage experience: While with CCS, I was given the opportunity to sing at Constitution Hall under the direction of the Cathedral's own Artist in Residence, Stanley Thurston. The opportunity came on the 75th anniversary of Marian Anderson's performance upon the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Having the chance to sing on stage with the coalesced talents of the Washington DC choral community, as well as several talented solo artists including the mighty Jessye Norman, was truly an inspirational experience. It demonstrated the power of music, not only to entertain and inspire, but to bring people together.

What is your story as a singer? My family have always been singers.  Ranging from caroling door to door during the Christmas season, to putting on our own abridged family musicals. While I always participated, my willingness to be in the spot-light was somewhat limited until I moved with my family to Peru. There we attended an English speaking mass that many of the practicing members of the Embassy community went on Sunday mornings. One of the attendees was a girl more or less my age, who developed a fancy and attached herself to me. After several Sundays, I decided enough was enough and hoped she wouldn't follow me and join the choir. I was correct in my assumption and thus my transition from singing in the masses to singing to the masses began.

What are you listening to these days?: Since my college days, I have always found myself drawn towards a cappella music including that of Straight No Chaser, The King's Singers, and our local Alexandria Harmonizers. 

Voice Part:  Tenor 1

Season Joined:  2009-10

Birthplace:  New Brunswick, NJ  

What is your story as a singer?  I got hooked on singing choral music and dropped orchestra for good my sophomore year in college when the chance came along for our chorus to sing with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Previous choruses: Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago, Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, Choral Arts of Washington, and New York Choral Society.

Favorite onstage experience:  Two of the most memorable performances for me have been the Bach B Minor CCS did a in 2012. And, many years earlier, the Rachmaninoff Vespers in the Cathedral under the baton of Rostropovich, the first time he was ever able to perform it with Solzhenitsyn and a relative of Rachmaninoff present. Also was the only choral performance my parents ever heard me in.

What are you listening to these days? I have a roster of classical stations I rotate among—WETA, WGBH, WKSU, and WIAA—and work with headphones on much of most days.

Voice Part: Tenor 1

Season Joined: 2017-18

Birthplace: Scott Air Force Base, IL

What is your story as a singer? I started singing in high school doing chorus and musical theater. Once at Boston College I joined the University Chorale and the Liturgy Arts Group and also had the opportunity to perform Pirates of Penzance. After graduating, I did my best to join choirs wherever I found myself, leading to singing with St. Mark's Church in Florence, Italy, Holy Trinity Pro-Cathedral in Brussels, and the Fairfax Choral Society. 

Favorite onstage experience: Winning the Vietnamese Student Association's karaoke night contest with Styx's Mr. Roboto.

What are you listening to these days? The Hamilton Mixtape

Voice Part: Tenor 1

Season Joined: 1978-79

Birthplace: Staten Island, NY

What is your story as a singer? Singing and chocolate - how to choose?

A favorite onstage moment: Any time I get to sing the Berlioz or Verdi Requiems

What are you listening to these days? WBJC and WETA

Voice Part: Tenor 2

Season Joined: 2000-01

Birthplace: Cincinnati, OH

What is your story as a singer? My father was in the piano business and knew many concert artists, so I was brought up in music, being taken (dragged!) to the opera and symphony frequently.  None of this “took” until I joined a symphony chorus in college, to my father’s great pleasure (finally!)  With my children no longer at home, there has been time to participate in a truly great symphonic chorus in a wonderful performance venue.

A favorite onstage moment: When music overwhelms and you know you are part of something greater than the parts, both physically and spiritually.

What are you listening to these days? Soft rock and classical!

Voice Part: Tenor 1

Season Joined: 2013-14

Birthplace: Midwest, USA

What is your story as a singer? Boringly predictable: churches, schools, community and select/auditioned choruses from pre-school on.

Favorite onstage experience:  Performing Richard Einhorn’s “Voices of Light” in the Cathedral as part of the “Visionary Women” concert. The chorus and orchestra were in the great choir behind the projection screen for Carl Theodor Dreyer’s silent film, “The Passion of Joan of Arc”. We were surrounded and immersed in the sound of the concert—cut off from the audience and any sense of the twenty first century. I experienced it as a haunting, deeply moving, other-worldly experience.

Voice Part: Tenor 1

Season Joined: 2009-10

Birthplace: New York City

Story as a singer: I grew up singing a little in my church choir, and sang in a college chorus for a couple of years. In addition to singing with the CCS I sing with Carmina, a chamber choir specializing in Renaissance music. I also sang for ten years with the Washington Kantorei, which was dedicated primarily to singing German music from a wide range of periods.

Favorite onstage experience: One of the reasons for my joining the CCS was to sing Bach under Reilly's direction. In my first year we did the St. Matthew Passion, and that performance was quite poignant and will remain in my memory for a long time.

What are you listening to these days? I listen to local classical music stations a lot (WETA and WBJC) and have learned so much by doing so. I also have a large collection of vinyl and CD recordings. I love lots of genres, especially music for the piano, chamber music and songs of many types, in particular the French and German repertoires.

Voice Part: Tenor 2

Season Joined: 2017-18

What is your story as a singer?  My mother (piano teacher and choir director) signed me up for my first church choir in 3^rd grade.  I have been singing in choirs ever since, from church choirs to school choirs, to regional symphony choruses in Springfield (IL), Chicago, Boston, Miami, New Haven (CT), and now DC.  I also love to sing jazz and rock and have sung with several groups and bands over the years (mostly in friends’ living rooms).   

Favorite onstage experience: Singing the Verdi Requiem with Chicago’s Apollo Chorus in Orchestra Hall with my grandmother (a church organist and choir director) in the audience.

What are you listening to these days? My most visited Pandora stations:  Bill Evans, Renaissance Music, Missy Elliot, Paundah Bhangra, and Bluegrass.  

Voice Part: Bass 2

Season Joined: 2017-2018

Birthplace: New York City

What is your story as a singer?  I started singing in elementary school, and just haven’t stopped! I sang in my high school chorus and barbershop group, where we performed singing valentines for people on Valentine's Day. I just graduated from Swarthmore College where I sang in the college’s chorus and in Mixed Company, a student-run co-ed a capella group.

Favorite onstage experience:  I once sang in Carnegie Hall as part of a chorus for the world premiere of a symphonic work by James Eakin, titled “Flowers Over the Graves of War”. It was my favorite moment of high school!

What are you listening to these days? A little bit of everything, but mostly whatever Spotify puts on my “Discover Weekly” 

Voice Part: Bass 2

Season Joined: 2017-18

Birthplace: Baton Rouge, LA

What is your story as a singer? Started in kindergarten and have been singing ever since!

Favorite onstage experience: Lots of favorites! One cool experience was during a performance at the cathedral in Kotor, Montenegro, which was built in the 12th century. We were singing Whitacre's Water Night. A huge deluge began at the beginning of the piece, and when we got to "and if you close your eyes," it suddenly stopped. Everything about it was so profound that several of us were moved to tears.

What are you listening to these days? The Greatest Showman soundtrack!

Voice Part: Bass 2

Birthplace: Connecticut 

What is your story as a singer? I sang in choirs throughout high school and college, have performed in madrigal groups, and have spent a lot of time performing in musical theater over the years.  I was a member of CCS before, from 2001-2002, and again in 2010. I work in international development and travel a lot, so I try to work singing in between busy travel years.

Do you sing with other choirs? No, but I perform in a competitive karaoke league.  My team has made it regularly to the city-wide finals!

Favorite onstage experience:  Singing Enya's Orinoco Flow in those city-wide finals in front of 300 people with my whole team dressed as sea creatures while we built a boat on stage.

What are you listening to these days?  Always listening to Belle and Sebastian, Morrissey, Motown, Brazilian music, and Broadway divas.