Printer-Friendly Version
Artistic Staff
Carol Storck, Artistic Director and Jubilate. Ms. Storck is responsible for the MCC's artistic leadership and supervises all education and performance operations. She also directs MCC's Jubilate and created and oversees MCC’s Harmony Choir program, which reaches more than 200 children attending school in the City of Milwaukee. Ms. Storck succeeded founder Emily Holt Crocker as Artistic Director in July 2009. She originally worked for Milwaukee Children's Choir from 2000-2002, then returned to the organization in the summer of 2008. From that time until her appointment as artistic director, Ms. Storck was a Prelude Director and also coordinated the organization's Prelude program. In 2010, she was honored with the Civic Music Association Award for Excellence in Youth Music Instruction.
Ms. Storck holds a Bachelor of Music degree in choral and general music education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received a Master of Music degree with a Kodály emphasis from Silver Lake College in Manitowoc, WI and is Kodály certified. She serves on the board of the Association of Wisconsin Area Kodály Educators, where she assists with planning workshops for Wisconsin area music teachers and choral festivals for children. She is also an active member of the American Choral Directors Association. She has taught in the Grafton School District (grades 6-8 choral and general music), where she also directed school musicals, and in the West Bend School District (grades K5-5 general music). Ms. Storck also taught voice class for junior and senior sessions of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Summer Music Clinic. She is an experienced early childhood educator and taught early childhood music classes in Cedarburg and Manitowoc through Silver Lake College's Music for Tots program.
Ms. Storck's experience directing youth choirs ranges from grades 1-12. Most recently, Ms. Storck taught at St. Francis Borgia School in Cedarburg, where she directed the Upper School Concert Choir (grades 6-8), worked closely with the art department to present a Fine Arts Festival each year, updated the music curriculum for grades K5-8, prepared students to sing for church and community performances, honors choirs and the solo and ensemble festivals, and was the accompanist for a variety of performances and school masses. She was also co-director of the St. Francis Borgia Parish Youth Choir.
Ms. Storck is a board member and volunteer coordinator for Children's Hope Network, Inc., a licensed, non-profit Child Placement Agency in Grafton, where she assists in planning events for adoption advocacy and social networking, as well as benefit concerts to collect humanitarian aid for orphaned children around the world. Ms. Storck lives with her husband and two children in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Walter Boyer, Vocal Coach (photo pending). Baritone Walter Boyer has enjoyed a variety of solo opportunities in the greater Milwaukee area. Highlights include appearances with the Milwaukee Symphony under the direction of Doc Severinsen, Margaret Hawkins, Lee Erickson and Jack Everly. Walt teaches music at Atwater Elementary in Shorewood and has served on the Milwaukee Children’s Choir board of directors. He has also been an MCC concert narrator and guest conductor. Mr. Boyer was honored as the Civic Music Association of Milwaukee’s Outstanding Elementary Music Teacher in 2006. For the past 26 years Walt had the joy of singing in the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus as a member of its Professional Core.
Jason Clark, Milwaukee Youth Chorale. Since Mr. Clark made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1990 (Carmina Burana, Brooklyn Philharmonic, JoAnn Falletta conducting), he has had an active performance career. Mr. Clark returned to the stage of Carnegie Hall to perform Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem (Helmuth Rilling conducting), and served on the performing and administrative staff of the Berkshire Choral Festival (Santa Fe, NM and Sheffield, MA), where he was the recipient of the Charles Dodsley Walker Award in 1997.
Mr. Clark has taught in Shorewood schools since 1997, and currently serves as the school district's Director of Choral Activities. Prior to that he taught K-12 vocal music in Glidden, Iowa, where he received the Exemplary Music Program Award in 1995. Mr. Clark works closely with the Wisconsin School Music Association, for which he developed the 2003 class "A" madrigal list and served a three-year term as tenor coach for the Middle Level Honors Choir. His Shorewood choirs have been selected to perform at Carnegie Hall (John Rutter conducting), sang the National Anthem at the 2002 Olympic Torch Ceremony in Milwaukee, performed with the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee as part of their 2004 Young Choral Artists Festival, were featured artists on the Milwaukee Choristers 75th Anniversary Concert, sang at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's inaugural honors choir festival, and were featured guests on the Knox College choir tour at the Basilica of St. Josephat. Mr. Clark's choirs have represented Wisconsin at the "American Musical Salute to Liberation" in Paris and Normandy, France and as part of the 50th Anniversary of Hawaii's Statehood in 2009.
An Iowa native, Mr. Clark holds a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal and instrumental music education from Coe College and a Master of Music degree in conducting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In addition to his work in Shorewood schools, Mr. Clark keeps a busy performance schedule as Founder and Artistic Director of the Shorewood Choral Arts Society, and as a freelance tenor soloist and private voice instructor. Mr. Clark is married and has two children.
Kristin Dillahunt, Prelude Choir and Cantabile. Ms. Dillahunt has been teaching elementary general and choral music in Grafton, WI since 1994. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a vocal emphasis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Master of Music Education with Kodály emphasis, as well as a Kodály certificate, from Silver Lake College in Manitowoc. She has served as the senior choir director at Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarburg, prepared workshops on the topics of Technology in Music Education and Planning the Kodály Way, and co-produced the DVD Favorite Singing Games, featuring real teachers teaching students singing games and including an accompanying teaching guide. Ms. Dillahunt is active on many district wide committees, including committees relating to technology integration and curriculum development. Ms. Dillahunt recently completed her term as president of the Association of Wisconsin Area Kodály Educators (AWAKE), where she organized and implemented several educational workshops for teachers and choral festivals for students throughout the state. Ms. Dillahunt lives in Grafton with her husband and their three daughters.
Elizabeth Egger, Senior Choir Assistant and Vocal Coach (photo pending). Ms. Egger earned a Bachelor of Music summa cum laude in Vocal Performance and Music Education from the University of Minnesota. She has a passion for choral music and music education. In 2005, Elizabeth joined the music faculty at Franklin Public Schools as the middle school and high school choral director. In recent seasons, Elizabeth has also been seen performing with Milwaukee Choral Artists, Skylight Opera, Florentine Opera, and Milwaukee Symphony Chorus. She is also an adjudicator for the Wisconsin School Music Association district solo and ensemble festivals.
Emily Fazio, Harmony Choir, Caroling Crew and Prelude Choir (West). (Photo pending.) Ms. Fazio graduated from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse with degrees in choral and general music education. Musical highlights from her college career include directing and touring with the UW-La Crosse concert choir, playing in the Korean Drum Ensemble, and singing in the American Choral Directors Association All-State Collegiate Choir. Specializing in vocal and early childhood music, Ms. Fazio is also a certified Music Together® teacher. From 2008-2010 Ms. Fazio worked as a music specialist with the School District of New Berlin, where she taught general music, directed co-curricular choirs and drama club, and established a revised K-6 curriculum for the district. A proponent for the use of technology in music education, Ms. Fazio was the first music teacher in the district to use SMART board technology, and served on the district Technology Leadership Team. Ms. Fazio currently teaches private voice and piano (along with other instruments) in New Berlin, where she lives with her husband.
Jenny Gettel, Vocal Coach. Ms. Gettel received a Bachelor of Music degree in Choral Education from Lawrence University, and a Masters in Vocal Performance degree from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. Ms. Gettel has performed as a soprano soloist with the Baroque chamber group Bach Babes, the a cappella group Canticle, Ensemble Musical Offering, Present Music, Milwaukee Choral Artists, Bach Chamber Choir, Lutheran A Cappella Choir, and the Racine Symphony. When Ms. Gettel performed in The Skylight’s production of Monteverdi’s opera Ulysses, her performance was described as “especially lovely lyrical singing” by the Wall Street Journal. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel states “Gettel has a pure, facile voice. She executes technical passages with complete ease and includes an enormous range of colors in her sound.” Ms. Gettel is on the Voice Faculty and teaches private voice lessons at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. She also teaches at her home in Grafton, where she lives with her husband and daughters and their dog Mozart. Ms. Gettel has received awards from NATSAA, the Civic Music Association, the MacDowell Club, Milwaukee Music Teachers Association, and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. She is a board member of the Milwaukee Music Teachers Association. Ms. Gettel enjoyed serving as Choir Director at Christ Episcopal Church for twenty years beginning in the late 1980’s, and is currently director of Contemporary Music at St. Boniface Episcopal Church in Mequon.
Amy Kilpatrick, Cantabile (West) and Vocal Coach (photo pending). Amy Kilpatrick is a native of Milwaukee who has enjoyed singing with the Milwaukee Choral Artists and Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, and has served as accompanist for the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus ACE Quartet. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Vocal / Choral Music Education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she studied piano with James Tocco and sang under the direction of renowned conductor Eldon Balko. She recently began graduate studies in music with Kodály emphasis at Silver Lake College. Ms. Kilpatrick taught music in the Brown Deer School District, where she was an early childhood music specialist, and taught K-12 music in public and private schools in Oklahoma. She has over twenty years experience teaching private voice and piano lessons as well as Suzuki piano. In addition to her music education and performance experience, Ms. Kilpatrick just concluded a challenging career of homeschooling three sons, and enjoyed watching one of them progress through the MCC program from kindergarten through high school.
Annemarie Travia, Prelude Choir and Songbirds (East) and Prelude Coordinator. Miss Travia earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a Master of Music degree with Kodály emphasis, as well as a Kodály certificate, from Silver Lake College. Miss Travia has taught general music and middle school choir in the Edgerton School District. She currently teaches K-5 general music at Salem Grade School in Kenosha County, where she also taught early childhood music classes as part of Silver Lake College’s Music for Tots program. Miss Travia is past president of the Association of Wisconsin Area Kodály Educators. She is an adjudicator for the Wisconsin School Music Association district and state solo and ensemble festivals and choir clinician. Ms. Travia is an active church musician with experience as a cantor, as director of church choirs, and as accompanist on both piano and organ.
Theresa Witt, Cantabile (East) and Cantabile Coordinator. Mrs. Witt has taught elementary school music in the Milwaukee area since 1996. She earned her Bachelor of Music in Music Education degree from Lawrence Conservatory of Music and her Master of Music in Music Education with a Kodály Emphasis from Silver Lake College. She is certified in both Kodály and Orff Schulwerk methodologies. She has served on the boards of state, regional and national Kodály organizations and has worked as presenter and choral clinician.
Mrs. Witt works as an elementary school music specialist for the Menomonee Falls School District at Shady Lane Elementary School, where she teaches kindergarten through fifth grade music and directs the fifth grade chorus. Prior to that, Mrs. Witt worked at Shorewood’s Atwater School, where she implemented the Arts in Community Education (ACE) partnership with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and at the Donges Bay Elementary School in Mequon, where she co-wrote the K-5 music curriculum guide. She has also accompanied and coached singers for various community recreation department musicals.
Mrs. Witt worked for MCC from 2000-2003, during which time she and Carol Storck (see above) took a fledgling Prelude program and turned it into a strong program for children grades 1-3. She returned in the summer of 2009. Mrs. Witt lives in Brown Deer with her husband and daughter.
Trish Zamora, MCC Harmony Program and Cantabile Director (North and Central). Mrs. Zamora is an experienced music educator in the fields of vocal, general, instrumental and early childhood music education. After graduating from UW - Madison with a Bachelor of Music degree, Mrs. Zamora spent 30 years teaching music in Australia. She wrote music curriculum for the State of Queensland, organized state-wide music festivals, and acted as an advisory teacher who mentored other music teachers. When her own children were involved in Kodály based music classes when young, she was so impressed with the skills that children could achieve at such an early age that she retrained as an early childhood music specialist, gaining her Kodály Certification. She has been teaching children from birth to 15 ever since. Mrs. Zamora and her family moved back to her home state of Wisconsin five years ago. She was on the faculty of the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music for several years and now has a home studio where she teaches piano and early childhood music. Mrs. Zamora’s daughter has been singing with the Milwaukee Children’s Choir for the last five years, and is currently singing in our Milwaukee Youth Chorale. Mrs. Zamora has been an active parent volunteer for MCC. Having a son with multiple disabilities, she is experienced with teaching children of different abilities and backgrounds. Many of her studio classes include children who are differently-abled and come from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Amanda Carnahan, Accompanist. Ms. Carnahan graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. She has served as an accompanist at that university, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, school districts throughout southeast and southwest Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Middle Level Honors Choir, Singing in Wisconsin, and Heartland Festival Productions. Ms. Carnahan joined Milwaukee Children’s Choir in 2004, and currently accompanies MCC’s Prelude choirs, Cantabile, and Jubilate. Ms. Carnahan is an active freelance accompanist and private piano teacher in the Milwaukee area. She is married and lives in Shorewood.
Maria Koester, Accompanist. Ms. Koester received her Bachelor and Master's degrees in piano performance from Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. She has taught piano at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and performed with the Blair Chamber Players. She is the organist at Kingo Lutheran Church in Shorewood, Wisconsin, and has been an accompanist with Milwaukee Children's Choir since 2005. Ms. Koester accompanies the Milwaukee Youth Chorale. She also maintains a private piano studio and works as a health aide at Lake Bluff Elementary School in Shorewood. She is married and lives in Shorewood with her family, including a daughter who has been an MCC member since 2000.
The Administrative Team:
Deborah Patel, Executive Director. Ms. Patel became Milwaukee Children's Choir's first Executive Director in the fall of 2004. Under her administrative stewardship, MCC's contributed revenue, overall budget size, and financial reserve more than doubled, its administrative operations improved, MCC garnered better name recognition, and MCC was accepted as a member of Milwaukee's United Performing Arts Fund, the largest united arts fund in the United States.
Ms. Patel graduated summa cum laude from Concordia College (Moorhead, MN) and holds a Juris Doctorate degree from George Washington Law School (D.C.), where she was invited into membership in the Order of the Coif and served as editor-in-chief of The Journal of Law & Economics. In addition to practicing law for 15 years, Ms. Patel has served on numerous non-profit boards, including the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, where she also spent a year as Interim Executive Director. Ms. Patel has been board president of Meta House Inc. and Professional Dimensions, was the first chair of Milwaukee Women Inc., and is a member of Leadership America's class of 2000. She currently serves on the MSO's Chairmen's Council and the board of the Autism Society of Southeastern Wisconsin. In 2009 she joined the board of directors of Chorus America, the non-profit service organization for choruses which serves more than 1600 members throughout the United States and Canada.
Ms. Patel has been a member of the professional core of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, was twice selected to participate in Carnegie Hall's Professional Choral Workshops (Sir Neville Mariner and André Previn conducting), and has been a soloist with the Handel & Haydn Society (Christopher Hogwood conducting), the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, and Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra. She is married and has one child in college.
Paula Bell, General Manager. Ms. Bell joined Milwaukee Children's Choir in 2004 in order to work with staff dedicated to child-centered music education. She began as an assistant to the General Manager and was soon promoted to Operations Director and then General Manager. Ms. Bell is in charge of day to day chorus operations, production planning and national and international tours. Ms. Bell graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Administration. Before joining Milwaukee Children's Choir, Ms. Bell was Office Manager and Director of Parent Relations at Milwaukee Montessori School, and was a teaching assistant at Elmwood Elementary School in New Berlin. Ms. Bell is also a musician, trained on both piano and violin, and has been a violinist with the Waukesha Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Bell lives with her husband and has two daughters, both of whom joined Milwaukee Children’s Choir in 1999, and one of whom begins college in the fall of 2010.
Lorinda Liongson, Office and Volunteer Manager. Ms. Liongson was born in the Philippines and moved to Door County, WI as a child in 1978. She graduated from Carroll College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and earned a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of California-Santa Barbara. She practiced as a child and family therapist in Decatur, IL for three years, until she and her husband moved back to Wisconsin in 1994.She found a "temporary" job with The Mark Travel Corporation and stayed for nine years, during which time she was promoted from reservationist to contracting coordinator to destination product contracting/buyer manager. Her career at The Mark Travel Corporation allowed her to travel to many different destinations in Europe, China, and the Caribbean. Ms. Liongson joined Milwaukee Children's Choir in 2007 and manages office operations and the organization's many volunteers. Ms. Liongson is married and has two daughters, both of whom sing in MCC.
Charles (Charlie) O'Brien, City Program Director, is a Music Education major at UW-Milwaukee. He is an avid Euphonium player and studies under Tuba virtuoso Martin Erickson. Prior to moving to Milwaukee, Mr. O'Brien played euphonium for the College of Lake County Wind Ensemble. He is an active vocalist and enjoys singing any chance he gets. Mr. O'Brien has served in leadership positions with several service organizations. During the summer months, Mr. O'Brien is the Camp Director for a prestigious Boy Scout Camp located in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Other than music, Mr. O'Brien enjoys baseball, camping, teaching, and backpacking. A native of Chicago, Illinois, he is excited to be living in Milwaukee and working with MCC.
