Featured Guests
Kathleen and Peter van de Graaff
Soprano Kathleen and bass-baritone Peter van de Graaff have given performances together and separately in 30 states and many countries around the world. Kathleen and Peter specialize in Baroque comic chamber operas and have gained notoriety in this area. They have recorded three of these operas on Naxos Intl. Kathleen was a senior lecturer of voice in the Chicago area for over 25 years and founded several music programs: Opera for Kids and the Vocal Arts Academy. Peter van de Graaff has been, for over 30 years, the host for a nationally-syndicated classical radio program based out of Chicago. He is presently the music director at KWAX in Eugene.
Additional Presenters
Kristi Crusan | Julie Higgins
Jeanine Orme | Jennie Peterson | Kevin Murset
Marci Taylor | Dr. David Thomas | Kathleen Westhora
Kristi Crusan
(Fundamentals of Singing)
Kristi Crusan studied Vocal Performance and Music Dance Theatre at BYU and traveled with University Singers and Young Ambassadors. She studied with Meyer Friedman at the International School of Voice and presented vocal techniques at the International Symposium of Audiology. She taught private voice lessons at BYU before opening her own vocal studio. Her talents have taken her to Opryland USA in Nashville, Russia and South Korea. She has performed with such artists as Michael McLean, Janice Kapp Perry, Donny Osmond and Michael Ballam. She currently resides in Ridgefield, WA with her husband Ben and the youngest three of her five children.
Julie Higgins
(The Art of Accompaniment)
Julie Higgins has a BA from BYU. She started piano lessons at age 8 and organ lessons at 18 and studied piano with Richard Anderson at BYU. In recent years she has furthered her music education at Clark College and Portland State University where she studied choral conducting with Ethan Sperry. She has had extensive experience as a ward and stake pianist, organist and accompanist as well as having accompanied many soloists and choirs including the Life of Christ regional choir in Vancouver, WA and the Portland Choir and Orchestra. She served a mission to Quebec and has taught French for Clark College for many years. She has a private piano studio and is currently a ward and stake organist, ward choir director, ward music chairman, and temple ordinance worker.
Kevin Murset
(Organ classes)
Kevin has spent 15+ years in IT with some side quests in home theater design & audio calibration, software development, and currently works for Columbia Sportswear in the eCommerce division. He has found success and enjoyment existing in the relatively uninhabited area between technical and artistic disciplines.
He has been playing and studying the organ since he could reach the pedals, and has listened to organ music almost every day since buying his first CD in the mid 90s. While at Dixie State University in St. George, UT, he studied piano and organ performance. Kevin believes that while the mechanics and history of the organ may be fascinating to study, the power and majesty of the organ cannot be matched, and the organ, as W.A. Mozart once said, is the “king of instruments.”
Kevin, his wife Lori, and their five children live in the Cedar Hills area in Beaverton, OR, having moved from the St. George, Utah area in August, 2020.
Jeanine Orme
(Folk Songs and Stories from our Church Heritage)
Jeanine Orme has training in classical piano and violin but specializes in old-time, Texas-style, bluegrass, and swing fiddling. She is a past Utah State Fiddle Champion and Oregon State Adult Fiddle Champion and regularly competes at regional and national fiddle contests. She has recently completed her fourth fiddle book publication with Mel Bay Publications. Jeanine currently works with special needs students at Mountainside High School and maintains a violin teaching studio.
Jennie Peterson
(Basic Choral Conducting)
Jennie Peterson earned her bachelor’s degree in Music Education with an emphasis in choral music from BYU in 2007. She is currently the assistant choir director for the Portland Choir and Orchestra and has been involved in the leadership of the organization for over 11 years. She has held almost all of the music callings in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at some point, and she is passionate about supporting her ward choir. She is a proud mother of five children.
Marci Taylor
(How to Build a Successful Ward choir)
I taught music in the Beaverton School District for 30 years: mostly as the Westview High School choir teacher. I served in church music callings beginning at the age of 16 as the Jr. Sunday School Chorister and currently as the Ward Director. I have held other callings but the majority of my service has been Ward Choir Director. Music is a wonderful way to teach and learn doctrine and feel the Spirit.
David M. Thomas
(Choral Conducting Master Class)
Dr. David Thomas studied conducting and performance at BYU as well as at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire in St. Petersburg, Russia. He is the Artistic Director of Portland Choir & Orchestra. He and his wife Emily enjoy performing together and operating Studio Thomas: Music Performance Instruction.
Kathleen Westhora
(Ward Music Coordinator Workshop)
Music has always been a part of my life. Singing with my sisters is an early memory. I sang in my mother’s Youth Choir for 6 years, school and college choirs, Ward and Stake choirs too. My husband and I decided early in our marriage that we would support and sing in our Ward choir wherever we lived. We did that for close to 50 years. I currently sing with the Portland Choir and Orchestra. My Ward callings are Choir Director and Ward Music Chairman.