north american choral company

The north american choral company was founded by its executive director Jayne Schuitema in 1998. Jayne has headed choral programs for children for the past 15 years. During that time she has created and produced many multi-media concerts including one in 1999 commissioned by the Friends of the United Nations to honor the recipients of the UN's Global Peace and Tolerance Awards. She spearheaded a tour to Havana for the purpose of collecting rare treasures of obscure Cuban music, and brought famed Polish composer Hendryk Gorecki to Grand Rapids for a retrospective of his work. During the past five years Jayne has taken children on performance tours of Washington D.C., the Netherlands, Ireland, and to perform at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston.

 

 

Cristian Grases joined the north american choral company as its music director in December 2008. In addition he is the assistant conductor of the Miami Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Eduard Marturet, Conductor of the Young Musician’s Orchestra in Miami, is on the Board of Directors of the IFCM and is a DMA student at University of Miami. In April 2008 he was the 1st prize winner of the 2008 Emerging Composer Composition Competition at Yale University with the work Visiones del Llano Amanecer. In 2001 finished his Master Degree with honors in Choral Conducting with María Guinand and Alberto Grau in the Simón Bolívar University in Venezuela and has studied composition, arranging, choral conducting and orchestra conducting with national and international music masters.

In 1995 he founded "Cíncopah", a 5 male vocal ensemble that is dedicated to the creation of new music based in vocal and jazz tendencies. From 1996 to 2002 he was part of the staff of the project "Pequeños Cantores de la Schola” as the conductor of the Second Level and Cantoría Juvenil. In the same year he received a very prestigious award for the arts in Venezuela: "Orden José Felix Ribas" for artistic merit. He also won the first and second prize in a choral arrangement competition "Estilo Caribeño".

He has served as guest conductor in concerts and workshops nationally and internationally; was the coordinator of the choral activities in the Youth Orchestra Foundation of Caracas under the direction of Jose Antonio Abreu. Grases has participated in numerous festivals, workshops and events as a guest conductor, clinician, adjudicator and conducting pedagogue in North and South America, Europe and Asia. In the summer of 2008 Grases conducted workshops and sessions as a guest conductor in France (Europa Cantat Jr.) and Denmark (World Symposium on Choral Music), taught and adjudicated in Indonesia, and has been commissioned to compose for ensembles in the San Francisco area. He is also the founder and artistic director of Amazonia Vocal Ensemble, which is based in Miami and focuses on Latin American repertoire; and is the conductor for the Women’s Chamber Ensemble of the University of Miami

Deborah Andre – Conductor Vox Nova & Vox Lumina has been adjunct faculty at Grand Valley State University for the past three years where she directed the Festival Women’s Chorus. She is also a member of the faculty at Interlochen Center for the Arts, where she directed the All-State Choir. For the past eight years, she has been teaching both elementary and secondary vocal music in Hudsonville Public schools. Since taking over the vocal program at Hudsonville High School five years ago, Deborah’s choirs have achieved much success and have had the pleasure of singing in distinguished festivals in New York and in Chicago. Deborah is a 2000 graduate of Grand Valley State University where she earned her BME and is currently pursuing a Masters of Music Education from GVSU. She has served on the executive board for Michigan Music Educators Association as a district representative and as the chair for the state music conference in Ann Arbor and in Grand Rapids. She is a member of American Choral Directors Association, Michigan School Vocal Music Association, and Music Educators National Conference.

Sarah Bowman – Conductor Vox Animosa & Vox Vivida Originally from Muskegon, Sarah Bowman is a graduate of Grand Valley State University and now happily in her third year of teaching at Fruitport High School, where she directs three choirs and travels to nearby elementary schools to teach general music. She completed her student teaching overseas in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She also had student teaching placements at Cross Creek Charter Academy and East Kentwood High School. In addition to her full-time teaching position, she performs with the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus, is an active church pianist, and will soon begin her graduate work at the University of Michigan in summer 2009. She counts as her mentors Dr. Charles Norris, Dr. James Borst, Luanne Barnes, and Ellen Pool. She has long help the North America Choral Company in high esteem and is thrilled to take on this opportunity!

Karen Salvador – Conductor In School Choirs

 

board of trustees

Denny Bowman

Judy Freeman, vice president

Kelly Hoffman Hagmeyer, secretary

Kristine Huizen

Jane Timmer

Marcia Warner, president

Michael Zaharakos