Personnel

Paul Allen,
Conductor and Artistic Director

Mr. Allen's musical background encompasses a rich variety of musical outlets. Prior to moving to Sacramento, California he had been musical director for the Ft. Lauderdale Choral Society in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; organist and choirmaster at the First Methodist Church in Miami Florida as well as several other metropolitan churches in Miami. For thirteen years he was director of the South Florida Mormon Chorale. In Sacramento,

Paul works with youth ages 13-19 in Galena Street East as a vocal director for three of their performing groups. He has a degree in Music and Choral Conducting from Cambridge University. Paul has taught private piano, voice and organ lessons and is an accomplished tenor in his own right.

Paul and his devoted wife Perri Ann are the parents of seven wonderful children.

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Kathy Visher,
Assistant Artistic Director

Soprano Kathy Visher has performed leading roles in The Marriage of Figaro, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Die Fledermaus, The Old Maid and the Thief, Gianni Schicchi, Albert Herring, The Sound of Music, Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Brahms' German Requiem, and Britten's War Requiem.

Kathy was a soloist and member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for ten years, and was a regional finalist in both the Metropolitan and San Francisco Opera auditions. She has performed with the Utah Symphony, the Seattle Opera Company, and Sacramento's Music Circus. She also taught music in elementary and secondary schools and at Brigham Young University.

Currently she teaches private lessons and conducts the Granite Bay Children's Choir and a variety of church choirs. She and her husband Eben are the parents of six wonderful children.

Cynthia Cates,
President and Accompanist

Cynthia Cates deftly balances two duties with the Society as President and Rehearsal/Performance Accompanist. Mrs. Cates began piano lessons at the age of seven in her hometown of Aberdeen, Washington. As an accomplished young pianist she was in demand throughout her young adult years and was a featured soloist and competitor. She attended Northwest University in Chicago, Illinois, as a piano performance major and, after moving to California, studied in the Bay Area with Wanda Krasoff. In addition to her accomplishments on the pianoforte, she is also a violinist and has been equally busy playing both instruments.

In recent years Cynthia has directed community musical theater as well as oratorio works. She has performed as a guest soloist and section violinist with Robert McClintock's Sacramento Summer Chamber Orchestra, and as a violinist with the Valley Choral Society's Messiah orchestra before joining the choir at the piano. She has accompanied the Society since the Spring of 2001.

She is also in high demand as an accompanist for many of Sacramento's accomplished vocalists. In real life she is the mother of three very musical children and Marketing Manager for a local Auto Auction. *

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