Centering stories of marginalized communities through programming of underrepresented composers with a roster of underrepresented singers
Sopranos
Emelynn Montoya (she/siya/hers) is currently teaching choir and music appreciation at Sierramont Middle School. She earned a Bachelor’s of Music with a double emphasis in Music Education and Vocal Performance from San Jose State University and is back again as a graduate student in the Music Education Summer Master's Program. She has sung with the San José State University Choraliers, Concert Choir, and West Valley College Masterworks Chorale in tours throughout California, Europe, and at Carnegie Hall. In her free time, Emelynn likes to bake for her partner and their effervescent and outgoing toddler.
Emily Riggin is a full time musician in Los Angeles. She teaches private voice and piano as well as TK-2nd grade music at Playa Vista Elementary School. She is also a worship leader at the Vineyard in west LA. When it comes to performing, choral music fills her heart more than anything else. She is thrilled to be singing with Choral Audacity in person again.
NANETTE WEHE has been singing in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years. On the concert stage she has appeared as soloist with the San Francisco Bach Choir, the Moraga Chamber Orchestra, the San Francisco Concert Chorale, and the California Master Chorale, as well as many others. She has also appeared on stage in opera and musical theatre productions and performed a number of solo and duo recitals. Ms. Wehe, a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, received her B.A. in music from Hiram College and her teaching credential from California State University, Hayward. She has taught music in the public schools at the elementary and middle school levels, and currently teaches voice privately. She is grateful for the opportunity to sing with Choral Audacity as she likes nothing better than singing and making harmony with other like-minded musicians.
Evelyn Rumsby has been singing and acting her whole life, starting out in her family’s company, “American Youth Shakespeare”, when she was eight years old. She graduated from Saint Mary’s College of California with a BA in Jazz Voice, and is now running a private music studio and recording music as Evelyn Rose. Evelyn recently released two original single “Good Week” and “Little Moments,” and is in the process of recording a full album. When she isn’t performing or teaching, Evelyn loves to bake and play games with her family.
Mary Jo Malabuyo has an extensive music background tracing back to her early childhood. She comes from a musical family; her mother was a soprano with the San Francisco Opera Chorus, her aunt is a professional concert pianist, and uncles are well known composers/actors/singers based in the Philippines. Mary Jo began piano lessons at the age of four and added flute and the organ by her freshman year of high school. Her love of music was also expressed on stage through dance as she found a passion for classical ballet. In two years’ time after first taking up ballet Mary Jo was accepted into the San Francisco Ballet at the age of seven. As a young third grader in elementary school, life on the big stage at the San Francisco Opera House then became a key part in her artistic inspiration and to continue more professional training. Her formal education and credentials include a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, courses in Vocal Pedagogy and Vocal Physiology as well as courses in Advanced Musicianship and Music Theory. In the fall of 2021 she will continue her professional music studies at San Francisco State University for her MM focused on vocal performance. Mary Jo has sung with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, toured Europe with the Philippine Saringhimig Singers, and performed for the Bay Area community through song and dance. She was the previous accompanist/assistant music director at Church of the Epiphany in San Francisco and Music Director at St. Perpetua Catholic Church in Lafayette, CA. She currently works as a cantor and musician for St. Timothy’s Church in Danville, and cantor for St. Ignatius Parish in San Francisco. She is studying under San Francisco Opera Chorus Soprano, Aimee Puentes and receives coaching from George Hernandez, arranger and Director of the Saringhimig Singers. Aside from performing and directing Mrs. Malabuyo maintains her own studio of voice and piano students, residing in Concord, CA.
SIMONE MUHAMMAD is a recent graduate from University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in anthropology with an emphasis in historical archaeology, and plans to attend CalState Fullerton for her MA in Archaeology in the fall. She dedicated all four years of secondary school to choral performance and has performed with Choral Audacity since its inception, and is delighted to return to her passion of singing after over a year of quarantine. She hopes to take the overarching themes of cultural memory and persistence embodied within Choral Audacity with her as she studies the influence of war on cultural and historical musicology.
Bailey Sako is a fourth year music education student at the University of Redlands. She is an Alumni of Cantabella Children’s Chorus, and now sings with the University of Redlands Chapel Singers. She teaches with the Redlands Youth Chorus and Cantabella Children’s Chorus, and enjoys participating in many other small ensembles. This is her first concert with Choral Audacity and she couldn’t be more excited!