Dr. Alexandra Grabarchuk is a Ukrainian-born singer and conductor who holds a PhD in musicology from UCLA. She is the Artistic Director of the San Gabriel Valley Choral Company, and currently serves as C3LA’s administrative facilitator. Starting in August 2018, she will join the Department of Music at Earlham College (Richmond, IN) as Visiting Assistant Professor of Choral Direction & Musicology. For more information, see http://alexgrabarchuk.com.
Amy Golden is a composer, sound artist, and vocalist based in East LA. She creates works for choir, orchestra, and chamber ensembles in addition to site-specific performances and installations, largely focusing on the relationship between sound and object. As a vocalist, Amy specializes in 20th century and contemporary works, experimental music, and improvisation. She holds a BA in music from the University of North Texas and an MFA in composition and vocal performance from the California Institute of the Arts. She is a founding member of C3LA.
Carol Binion is a Los Angeles-based choral singer. She is a member of Jouyssance Early Music Ensemble, The Golden Bridge, LASchola at St. Thomas the Apostle, and Clarion Singers, as well as a frequent alto “sub” at churches all over the city. She has sung with the Los Angeles Master Chorale for the past eleven seasons, under the direction of Grant Gershon, Essa Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas and Gustavo Dudamel among others. She has studied voice/movement with Meredith Monk and with Mark Morris. By day, Carol Binion is an Emmy-winning Costume Designer (currently on Amazon Prime’s “Tumble Leaf"). She is also one of Earth’s very few Muppet Wranglers.
David Harris is the co-founder and director of VoiceScienceWorks (voicescienceworks.org). Together with his partner, Laurel Irene, he helps vocalists learn to translate difficult voice science into immediately applicable tools. He also teaches voice at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Hollywood. He has held choral positions at College of the Holy Cross (Boston), Columbia University and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy (New York), and Jubilate and the Boulder Bach Festival (Boulder). He composes primarily for the voice and is published by See-A-Dot Music (seeadot.com). His works draw from the range of techniques and approaches available today, striving in particular to integrate stylistic elements from across genres into a recognizably pleasing, yet new experience. David has the distinct privilege of having been a member of all three choral collectives, C4 (New York), Triad (Boston), and C3LA. www.drdavidharrismusic.org
Diana Woolner seeks out high-quality, thoughtful performance opportunities—as director, composer, conductor, arranger, performer, and more. Her roles have varied, from Choir Director at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Queens, New York; on-set Music Coordinator for Steven Soderbergh’s television series The Knick; 3rd prize winner with NYC-based ensemble GHOSTLIGHT CHORUS at the 14th International Chamber Choir Competition in Marktoberdorf, Germany; premiering original compositions during Vassar College’s ModFest; and performing across the tri-state area, including MOMA, Symphony Space, and David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. Diana’s compositions range from (but are not limited to) vocal ensembles works, electro-acoustic soundscapes, film scores, choreographed dance, and radio plays. Her music often has a magical quality, and her vocal works are known to utilize unconventional texts. Diana is the Alto II Section Leader at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in the Pacific Palisades, and a member of ARETÉ, a professional ensemble of vocal artists based in Thousand Oaks, CA. www.dianawoolnermusic.com
Fahad Siadat is a performer and composer specializing in contemporary and experimental music, particularly improvisation and the use of extended vocal techniques. He is co-artistic director of The Resonance Collective in New York, and conductor of the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble at CalArts, where he is pursuing a doctoral degree. An evangelist for contemporary choral music, Fahad is a founding member of C3LA and a board member of C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective in New York. In 2012, he founded See-A- Dot Music Publishing, Inc., a company devoted to the advocacy of new choral works and emerging composers.
Heather Ogilvy is a singer, songwriter, and vocal arranger in Los Angeles. In addition to commercial session and voiceover work, she is a managing member and vocal arranger for The Silver Lake Chorus, sings and plays viola with LA-based band Brother, Sister, and performs with singer-songwriter Cassandra Violet. She holds a BA in Music and Art from Colby College.
Jill Redding has been active as a soloist and collaborative musician since 1989. She studied piano and harpsichord at the University of Northern Colorado, participated in continuo workshops at Eastman School of Music, and studied jazz piano with Ron Miles at Metropolitan State in Denver, Colorado. Early in her career she debuted as a solo pianist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and later served as a collaborative pianist and vocalist for ensembles in Colorado and across Southern California. Currently she performs with the Pasadena Master Chorale and Jouyssance Early Music Ensemble. When not performing, Jill teaches piano, voice and collaborative musicianship across the
San Gabriel Valley. 
Kc Daugirdas is an award-winning composer, orchestrator, and conductor based in east L.A. Recent credits include orchestrations for the film “Pokemon: I Choose You”, music for national commercials (Coke, Bud Light, Cricket Wireless), and various concert works (“The Singing Revolution,” a 5-movement choral cantata that traces the Lithuanian struggle for freedom from the USSR, was premiered by the Song Festival chorus of 1,400 singers and symphonic band at the UIC Pavilion, conducted by the composer.) He also directs two Lithuanian choral ensembles in Los Angeles and performs with several choirs and bands as a singer and pianist. He holds degrees in Music Education from the University of Illinois and Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music. www.daugirdasmusic.com
Lauren Buckley Schaer is a singer, conductor, and educator based out of Los Angeles. She hails from New Orleans, LA, where she started her love affair with music by singing in choirs and playing the piano. She headed north for her collegiate studies receiving a BA in music from Princeton University with a certificate in conducting. She continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, receiving a Postgraduate Diploma in Choral Conducting. She moved to Los Angeles in 2006 to pursue her doctorate in Choral Conducting at the USC Thornton School of Music which she completed in 2012. She is currently Music Director at Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church and Associate Conductor of the Pasadena Master Chorale. She has guest conducted the Los Angeles Doctors Symphony Orchestra, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, the Choral Society of Southern California, and the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra. As a soprano, Lauren has performed with the DeAngelis Vocal Ensemble, the Horizon Music Group, the Hollywood Master Chorale, the Choral Society of Southern California, the Zimriyah Chorale and the USC Chamber Singers.
Molly Pease is an eclectic vocalist and composer with an MFA in Jazz Studies from California Institute of the Arts and a BA from The New School. Molly leads experimental rock band ACKLAND and creates works for voices, strings and other combinations. Currently, Molly is part of the Contemporary Choral Collective of Los Angeles, is a section leader and soloist at First Congregational Church of LA, and is a member of the all-women Georgian polyphony ensemble Shvidkala. Molly won two DownBeat Awards with ARC Vocal Jazz Ensemble and performed at ACDA in Chicago with contemporary choir Vox Musica.
Saunder Choi is a Los Angeles-based, Filipino composer and performer. His works have been performed globally by groups such as the LA Master Chorale Chamber Singers, Philippine Madrigal Singers, BYU Singers, LA Choral Lab, the Crossing Choir, Singapore Youth Choir, and more. As an arranger and orchestrator, he has written for Tony Award-winner Lea Salonga, the ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra, Maestro Gerard Salonga, the Tim Janis American Christmas Carol Show at Carnegie Hall, Ballet Philippines, and the Hong Kong production of Pippin. He completed his BM in Composition from Berklee College of Music, and his MM in Composition from USC. For a more comprehensive bio and list of works, please visit www.saunderchoi.com.
TJ Sclafani is a composer, songwriter, arranger, and singer based in Los Angeles. As a singer, he has performed with Tonality, Schola Cantorum on Hudson, and the New York Choral Society, and currently sings in HEX, an LA-based vocal sextet. As a composer, TJ's work has been performed by gnarwhallaby, the New Millennium Brass Ensemble, the Moravian Philharmonic, the FLUX Quartet, the Ensemble at CalArts, and various ad-hoc ensembles. TJ holds a BFA in Theater from NYU and an MFA in music composition from CalArts.
Hailed by The New York Times as a “particularly agile” vocalist, Tyler Azelton is a singer, pianist, composer, teacher, and choir director. She is excited to be singing and playing jazz piano with her new group, The Tyler Azelton Trio. Tyler has performed from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl with various ensembles. In addition to singing with early music ensemble Jouyssance, several regional opera companies, and prog-rock band Crysys Reunion Project, Tyler has sung on many movie soundtracks, albums, and was on The Voice. Her rock album, Awake at the Funeral by Deep 6 Holiday, is available on Apple Music and iTunes. She sang for 9 years with the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Vera Frances Lugo is a vocal artist from San Juan Capistrano, California. Active in many ensembles throughout Los Angeles and Orange County, she currently works as a professional chorister and sometimes session singer. She enjoys utilizing her large vocal range in a variety of musical settings. Vera performs as an alto in the social justice oriented non-profit Tonality, in the elite professional core of Los Angeles-based choir Nova Vocal Ensemble, and in Seraphim Vocal Ensemble, an early music group. She also performs in various settings as a jazz singer alongside her partner, guitarist Ross James Sellers. In her spare time, Vera can be found singing harmonies with The Beatles and arranging songs on a dinky toy piano. www.verafranceslugo.com
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Alice Dryden is a Los Angeles-based composer and mezzo-soprano. She directs the kindergarten-8th grade music program at Everest Value School in downtown Los Angeles. Active in Los Angeles area choral music, she is also a member of Nova Vocal Ensemble and Vox Femina Los Angeles and is proud to be joining C3LA. She is an alumna of the Lawrence Conservatory of Music (B.M. in Voice Performance and Music Education) and CUNY Brooklyn College (M.M. in Composition), where she studied with Professor Tania León. She is also an alumna of the EAMA-Nadia Boulinger Institute program in Paris.
Allen W. Menton teaches Composition and Theory in the Music Department at California State University, San Bernardino. As a choral singer, he has performed with many conductors, including Dana Maiben, William Dehning, Lynn Bielefeld, Joseph Huszti, John Alexander, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Amy Gordon is a composer, arranger, singer-songwriter, and vocalist in Los Angeles, CA. She is the composer-in-residence for Nova Vocal Ensemble and the South Bay Chamber Singers. In addition to composing classical and choral music, she is also an active film composer. She teaches Music Theory and Composition at Musicians Institute, a contemporary music college in Hollywood, CA. She received her M.M. in Composition from California State University, Long Beach and her B.A. in Composition from Loyola Marymount University. For more information, visit www.amygordonmusic.com.
Daniel Koh is a conductor, educator and actor-singer in Los Angeles; he is currently serving as the Director of Choral Activities at Windward School in Mar Vista, and he also frequently works at the Morgan-Wixson Theater in Santa Monica both as a Music Director and as a performer. He received his D.M.A., M.M.A. and M.M. degrees in Choral Conducting from the Yale School of Music, and his Bachelor degrees in Biology and Piano Performance from Westmont College in Santa Barbara. He has conducted a broad range of vocal ensembles in colleges, schools, churches and community-based settings from New Haven, Spokane and Florida to his home country of Singapore.
David Rentz is Associate Professor of Music at Chaffey College and also serves as artistic director of the Orchestra Collective of Orange County. David has received fellowships and grants from the Yale alumniVentures program and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and, in 2015, was named guest professor at Xiamen University (China). B.Mus., Washington University in Saint Louis; M.M, University of Wisconsin-Madison; M.M.A. and D.M.A., Yale University School of Music.
Drew Corey is a composer, vocalist and performance artist who creates clean, minimalist works while not losing a sense of warmth. She creates this “warm minimalism” using voices, drones, her signature extended piano technique, floating melodies and large harmonic textures. Her practice focuses on human connectivity and the visceral nature of certain physical and sonic stimuli. She creates works for choir, chamber ensemble, solo performance, voice and piano, as well as interdisciplinary works for orchestra, theater and dance. She received her BFA in Composition from the California Institute of the Arts in 2016 and is a founding member of C3LA. www.drewcorey.com
Elsa Lund is a vocalist, composer, and teacher living in the Los Angeles area. She has worked in opera, art song, classical contemporary, world music, jazz, and pop styles. She hold a bachelor’s degree from Concordia College, where she toured as a soloist with Rene Clausen's Concordia Choir and sang with the Fargo Moorhead Opera Company. In addition, Elsa is a recent graduate of the MFA program at California Institute of the Arts, where she studied voice with emphases in world music, sound art, and composition. Recent engagements include singing the title role of Offenbach's La Belle Helene in Perigeux, France with the Franco-American Vocal Academy, a performance at REDCAT Calarts Theater with wild Up modern music collective and a performance of Swedish composer Lisa Homqvist's piece Prayer as part of the REDCAT Hotel Theory exhibition. Elsa has performed with several other LA based ensembles including Yvette Cornelia's Treehouse, the Son Jarocho fusion ensemble Primero Sueño and experimental pop project Easy.
Jaco Wong, a Hong Kong native, Los Angeles-based composer and conductor, currently serves as the music director of Junipero Serra High School and Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church. He holds a Master's degree in Choral Music and Composition from University of Southern California, where he was the recipient of the Morten Lauridsen Endowed Composition Scholarship. Wong's compositions have been performed by Lang Lang and the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, and among others. He has prepared the Esperanza Azteca Youth Chorus to perform with Placido Domingo and conducted the Taipei Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Orchestra. Wong remains an active singer of LORE Male Vocal Ensemble and Contemporary Choral Collective of Los Angeles, and has sung under conductors including Jeffrey Kahane and Helmuth Rilling.
Joseph Thel is an oboist, composer, and conductor based out of Los Angeles. As a CalArts grad and performer of his own experimental work, he focuses on the simple and unexpected. As a conductor he has worked with various large and small chamber ensembles across Los Angeles, the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble at CalArts included. Among other groups, he has recently performed with wild Up!, People Inside Electronics, C3LA, and the American Youth Symphony.
Kevin Dalbey has a varied list of credits that includes opera, oratorio, and soundtracks. Mr. Dalbey is a long time member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Los Angeles Opera chorus. He has sung countless choral masterpieces, as chorister and soloist. He has been featured soloist in Brahms' German Requiem, Vaughan Williams' Hodie, Handel's Messiah and various Bach cantatas and oratorios. Mr. Dalbey's broad range of experience includes various studio session singer soundtracks. He was a long time member of the Qualche Voce madrigal quintet. He has been soloist-section leader for various churches in Southern California. His Bachelor of Music degree was earned at CSU Long Beach.
Lucy McKnight is a singer and composer currently working on her Bachelors in composition at USC Thornton School of Music. She has studied with Andrew Norman, Ted Hearne, Sean Friar and Anderson Alden. Her works have been performed in LA at Sunset Chamberfest, at Walt Disney Concert Hall by LA Master Chorale Chamber Singers, in San Francisco by members of Wild Rumpus, and in Italy and Germany at summer music festivals. She won LA Master Chorale’s Young Composer Contest in 2017 with her first choral piece, “Wir Juden.” To listen to some of her music, check out https://soundcloud.com/ucycnight.
California native Matthew Brown completed his doctoral studies in music composition at the USC Thornton School of Music. His works have been performed throughout the United States and internationally by groups such as The Crossing, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, VocalEssence, Antioch Chamber Ensemble, Young New Yorker’s Chorus, Cincinnati Boychoir, Balsai (Lithuania), Kantorei, Chor Obandes (Japan), Coro de Cámara Ainur (Spain), L.A. Choral Lab, GMCLA, C4, USC Chamber Choir, Los Robles Master Chorale, De Angelis Vocal Ensemble, and the USC Thornton Symphony. He remains active in Los Angeles as a composer, arranger, performer, professor, session singer, and tenor with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. His choral works, described by the New York Times as “quietly mesmerizing,” are featured on the Antioch Chamber Ensemble’s 2013 album (though love be a day) and published by Schott, G. Schirmer, and Hal Leonard. www.mattbrowncomposer.com
Morgan Woolsey is a musicologist, performer, and songwriter. Since coming to Los Angeles from New York in 2009, Morgan has performed with Vox Femina Los Angeles and the UCLA Early Music Ensemble, as well as her band Death in Venice Beach. She has also worked on a smattering of projects for film and television as a singer and composer. Morgan is currently a doctoral candidate in Musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she also teaches, and her dissertation research explores the role of music in changing cinematic representations of sexuality in the 1970s, with a focus on music in the horror film.
Tessie Prakas is Assistant Professor of English at Scripps College, where she teaches courses on Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry, and music and literature. She holds a Ph.D. in English from Yale University and a B.A. in English from the University of Cambridge, and her scholarship draws together her work as a literary critic and as a singer: she is currently completing a book manuscript on poetry and priesthood in the seventeenth century, and has recently begun a new project on song as a literary genre in the Renaissance. As a vocalist, she has sung with ensembles including the Horizon Chamber Choir, Claremont Concert Choir, Pomona College Choir, Yale Schola Cantorum, the Dmitri Ensemble, and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, with whom she has recorded albums for Naxos and Harmonia Mundi. She is thrilled to be venturing into new musical territory this season with C3LA.
William Reeder is a singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Southern California. He has performed with such groups as Cal Voce, Canticum Novum LA, Golden Bridge, and the Jouyssance Early Music Ensemble. He holds a bachelors degree in Choral Music Education from California State University Fullerton. He currently serves as choral director at San Juan Community Presbyterian Church and drummer for the art rock band, Maneaters.
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