Artistic Director
A season of transition |
After six years as Artistic Director, we bid a fond farewell to Laney! We have grown tremendously as an ensemble under her direction, and we especially want to share our gratitude for Laney bringing us through the early years of the pandemic. Laney will be dearly missed and her impact on us as an organization will last long into the future. Thank you Laney for six incredible years together.
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The 2022-2023 season will be an exciting opportunity to work with two interim Artistic Directors. Please join us in welcoming Joel Chapman in the fall and Elizabeth Kimble in the spring!
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Joel Chapman (he/him) is a San Francisco-based songwriter, bass-baritone, and conductor. With backgrounds in choral music, accessibility advocacy, musical theater, and comedy, Joel brings fresh spins and improbable ideas to the forefront of his art and leadership. Though he loves old, pre-existing works that have stood the test of time, Joel’s true passion is in new works development: he sings with the acclaimed new-music ensemble Volti, and he is co-creator of Gravity, a New(tonian) Musical, seen in workshops and performances throughout the Bay Area and Los Angeles and a finalist for the 2017 O’Neill National Music Theater Conference in New York. Joel writes music, even though he once wrote a song called “I Don’t Write Music.” Recent commissions as a composer include a live-streamed audiovisual creation for remote singers called Interdependence (Volti), an electric and earthy score for a 20-minute dance in the 2020 premiere of Charles Mee’s Utopia (RAWDance, Cutting Ball), and six art songs for The Young Activists’ Songbook. A music director, singer, and actor, recent credits include At War with Ourselves (chorus, Kronos Quartet), A Grand Night for Singing (actor, 42nd Street Moon), Fefu and Her Friends (music consultant, American Conservatory Theater), A Christmas Carol (music director, American Conservatory Theater), and Tinderella (music director/orchestrator, Faultline and Custom Made Theatre). Joel is on faculty at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, the Piedmont East Bay Childrens Choir, and University High School, and he is the music director for the Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo. Joel is an avid Go player, enjoys cats and dogs equally, and loves public transit. Learn more about Joel at joelchapmanmusic.com
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Elizabeth Kimble (she/her) is a conductor, composer, soprano, and teacher. Her music explores the sacred and psychological facets of the human experience, and often combines poetry and theater with more traditionally instrumental forms. She is the music director of the early music chamber choir Tactus SF. She was the assistant conductor of the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco from 2012-2020. Elizabeth has sung with a wide variety of choral ensembles, including the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Volti, 21V, Cappella SF, Gaude, the International Orange Chorale, and the California Bach Society. Her music has recently been performed by the Swedish Radio Choir, St Paul’s Episcopal Church of Burlingame CA, Cappella SF, the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco, and SF sound. Some of her liturgical music is published by Selah, and has been featured in services throughout the United States and England. Elizabeth holds a MM in Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and BM’s in Composition and Vocal Performance from Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music. She is currently pursuing a MA in Counseling Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Learn more about Elizabeth at elizabethkimblemusic.com
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