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Dr. Paul Flight
(Artistic Director) |
Dr. Paul Flight is a noted choral conductor and singer. A former member of such distinguished ensembles as The Waverly Consort, Pomerium Musices, and the New York Collegium, he brings a wealth of expertise to the direction of the Schola Cantorum San Francisco.
Flight is in his third season as Artistic Director of the California Bach Society. In addition, he is Artistic Director of two other ensembles: The Haydn Singers and Chora Nova. Flight is also in his eighth season as Principal Conductor of the Madison Early Music Festival (Wisconsin). Flight received his doctorate from Indiana University.
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Cole Thomason-Redus
(Bass) |
A fifth-generation San Franciscan, Cole Thomason-Redus was born into a musical family. He is currently in his seventh year as an Artist-In-Residence at School of the Arts, a San Francisco public alternative high school, where he acts as Assistant Conductor to the Vocal Department and Music Director of Musical Theater Productions. Cole has toured internationally as a choral performer and has studied at the Conservatories of San Francisco and Oberlin. Cole joined the Schola in September of 2000 and has served as Composer-In-Residence since 2004.
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Clifton Massey
(Alto) |
Clifton Massey is pleased to make music with Schola Cantorum, with whom he has frequently performed in the last 3 years. A Dallas native,Clifton has sung to critical acclaim with such groups as Concert Royal of New York, Indianapolis Baroque, American Bach Soloists, Texas Baroque Ensemble, Dallas Bach Society, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, New York Pops, and the London Symphonietta. Clifton has also performed with Theater of Voices/Pro Arte with Paul Hillier, Volti, Orpheus Chamber Singers, and has recently completed his tenure with the male a-capella group Chanticleer. Clifton holds a music education degree from Texas Christian University and is currently completing a M.M. from the Early Music Institute of Indiana University. Private voice teaching, clinician work and concertizing all conspire to make him wish he had more time to tend to his garden and explore the intrigues of northern California!
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Jeffrey Parola
(Tenor) |
Jeffrey Parola was born and raised in the small-town community of Salinas, CA. It was there he discovered the joy of music making, and began studying piano and composition at a young age. Jeffrey pursued his music education at UCLA, where he received a B.A. in composition in 2002. He received his M.M. in composition at the S.F. Conservatory of Music in May 2005. Jeffrey has served as an assistant conductor of the S.F. Conservatory Chorus, music director at Mission San Juan Bautista, and piano/organ accompanist at several religious and secular venues in the Monterey Bay, Los Angeles, and San Francisco Bay areas. Currently at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory High School in San Francisco, Jeffrey is the Assistant Director of Music. An experienced choral singer, he has sung with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Monterey Symphony Chorus, and the UCLA Chorale.
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Kelsey Linnett
(Soprano) |
Kelsey Linnett grew up singing with the San Francisco Girls Chorus, recording two albums, touring internationally, and performing with the San Francisco Symphony. Kelsey continued her musical endeavors at Yale University while earning her B.A. in Linguistics, singing with the Christ Church Choir, Collegium Musicum, Redhot & Blue, and Whim 'n Rhythm. At Yale, she also appeared in a number of operas, including Purcell's Dido & Aeneas, Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts, and Berio's Laboryntus II. Kelsey is happy to have returned to the Bay Area and proud to have sung with Schola Cantorum San Francisco since 2003. She also continues to be involved with the San Francisco Girls Chorus as the Alumnae Association Co-President.
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Raymond Martinez
(Bass) |
Raymond Martinez began his singing career with the San Francisco Boys Chorus and sang the role of Miles in San Francisco Opera’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Turn of the Screw. He is a founding member of Chanticleer and the California Bach Society. His current professional affiliations include the American Bach Soloists, the Philharmonia Baroque Chorale, the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, and the San Francisco Opera Chorus. His wide-ranging solo repertoire spans such diverse roles as Jesus in J.S. Bach’s Johannes-Passion to the title role in P.D.Q. Bach’s Oedipus Tex. He has recorded for the Chanticleer and Harmonia Mundi labels. Besides making music, Raymond is an avid gardener and water-colorist.
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Rob Bell
(Alto) |
Rob Bell has sung in church choirs for most of his life and with the Schola Cantorum for the past eight years. Previously, Rob sang with St.Dominic's Choir for two years, and with the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys for twenty-two years. In college, he sang with the Yale Spizzwinks. Rob was a founding member of the male vocal ensemble Chanticleer. Earlier, he sang with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Extra S.F.Opera Chorus, the Lamplighters, and Pocket Opera. Currently, Rob sings with the Aviary Chorus, the MacAroons, and a Jazz vocal quintet, Full House. A Pennsylvania native and history major at Yale, Rob works for the federal government and lives with two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Rose and Rupert.
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Amy Harris Cebrian
(Soprano) |
Amy Harris Cebrian harkens from San Francisco, California where she grew up singing and traveling with the San Francisco Girls Chorus. She received her BA in vocal performance from Mills College in 2001. Competing in local Bella Resek Singing Competion in 2004 and NATS Northern Chapter in 2005, Amy has taken second and first places respectively. Local appearances have also included work with the Cabrillo Music Festival and with ensembles Ars Cantus and Raizes Quartet. Singing with the Schola Cantorum since 2000 has brought Amy much joy. Amy is also proud to have sung with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus since 2002. Singing aside, Amy spends her time selling software and enjoys cooking, outdoor activities, and beating her fellow Scholites at
ping-pong.
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Founded in 1998 by Director Emeritus John Renke, Schola Cantorum San Francisco (SCHOLASF) has caught the attention of audiences and critics in and beyond the Bay Area for its purity of sound, careful tuning, and fine blend of voices. Especially known for its interpretations of Renaissance polyphony, the group is equally at home in a broad range of choral styles, from Gregorian chant to contemporary works.
The resident liturgical choir at the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi until 2005, the ensemble was reorganized in that year as an independent, non-profit arts organization. SCHOLASF now offers its treasured gift of music for liturgies, concerts, and private events, as well as educational and community outreach programs, throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The choir’s first two CDs, Pilgrimage: Music from the National Shrine of Saint Francis and This Christmas Night, have been critically acclaimed internationally, garnering praise for a sound “equal to the best of the mixed-voice choirs in Great Britain.” Now available, Schola Live!, SCHOLASF’s third release and first live recording, features selections drawn from concerts recorded throughout the 2006-2007 season.
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Sam Smith
(Tenor) |
Sam Smith appears regularly with American Bach Soloists and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. He has sung with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Chorale, Pacific Collegium, Grace Cathedral's Choir of Men and Boys, St. Ann's Chapel Choir, California Bach Society, Stanford University’s Early Music Singers, and San Francisco Renaissance Voices, of which he was also founding co-director. He has performed with the Kronos Quartet, the Tallis Scholars, the Albany Consort, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, and in master class for the Orlando Consort. Raised in Southern California, Sam studied viola at the R. D. Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles and with Alan Deveritch at the University of Southern California, where he was a member of the USC Symphony. While attaining his M. Phil. in Classics at King’s College, Cambridge, Sam played in the Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra and in the Millington Lane Quartet. More recently, Sam founded the Capricollis String Quartet in San Francisco. In his spare time, Sam writes for the online events newsletter, Flavorpill.
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Jay R. Moorhead
(Acting Music Director and Bass) |
Jay R. Moorhead is a native of Idaho and received his bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the University of Idaho in 1989, where he studied piano, voice and flute. He was active throughout the music program there, sang roles in La Boheme, Pagliacci and Menotti’s The Telephone, and was accompanist for the university choruses and for an opera workshop production of Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel. Since moving to San Francisco in 1991, he has performed with the San Francisco Concert Chorale, Ensemble Parnassus, Sanford Dole Ensemble, San Francisco Renaissance Voices and as a member, since 1998, of Schola Cantorum San Francisco, on whose recordings he can be heard as soloist, and for whom he is also the Assistant Conductor. Jay joined the San Francisco Symphony Chorus in 1993 and has been a professional member and Assistant Chorus Director since July 2000. This fall, Jay begins his second year teaching Chorus at San Francisco's University High School.
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Michelle Clair
(Soprano) |
Michelle Clair is a native of San Francisco. She made her singing debut at the age of eight with the San Francisco Girls Chorus with which she had the opportunity to tour nationally and internationally and perform and record with the San Francisco and Berkeley Symphonies and the San Francisco Opera. While a student at the University of California at Santa Cruz, she sang with both the UCSC Chamber Singers and the 12-voice UCSC Women's Early Music Ensemble. A regular member of American Bach Soloists, Michelle has performed Handel's Messiah, Handel's Esther, Bach Motets, Bach's B-Minor Mass, and Carissimi's Jephte. For the past 8 years, she has been reunited with 3 other SFGC alums to sing as one of four sopranos with the Schola Cantorum San Francisco. When she is not singing liturgies and 16-century motets, Michelle can be found enjoying the great outdoors in every way, including hiking, swimming, canoeing and wine-tasting...yes, wine-tasting counts as an outdoor activity!
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Kevin Baum
(Tenor) |
Kevin Baum is a native of Iowa and hasved in San Francisco for the past 19 years. Kevin currently sings as tenor section leader at the Episcopal Church of the Advent of Christ the King and is a cantor at St. Ignatius Catholic Church. As well as singing with Schola Cantorum, he is a member of Schola Adventus, an eight-voice mixed ensemble which performs for services and concerts in the Bay Area and which toured England in December of 2005. A recording of works by Palestrina is scheduled to be released by Schola Adventus this Fall. Kevin sings regularly with the ensemble AVE (Artists' Vocal Ensemble,) San Francisco Lyric Chorus, and he has sung with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Chorus. He sings solo recitals in many local venues. Kevin is a sixteen year veteran of the ensemble Chanticleer. Highlights from those years include having sung the role of the Madwoman in performances of Benjamin Britten's Curlew River, the role of Joseph of Aramathea in the world premier of Sir John Tavener's Lamentations and Praises, the role of John Q. Public in the west coast premier of Go For Broke, a madrigal comedy by Peter Schickele, and over twenty recordings including two that received the Grammy award.
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Emily Ryan
(Soprano) |
Emily Ryan, a native San Franciscan, started singing with the San Francisco Girls Chorus at the age of seven. During her tenure with the Girls Chorus, she toured nationally and internationally and performed with such world-famous ensembles as the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera. In recent years, Emily has performed with several local ensembles, including the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, Ars Cantus, and the Raizes Quartet. Currently, she sings with Schola Cantorum San Francisco, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and Pacific Collegium.
Emily is pursuing a degree in classical voice at San Francisco State University, where she sings with both the University Chorus and the Chamber Singers.
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