Kibsaim EscÁrcega is proudly serving his third year as the Assistant Conductor for Pacific Chorale. Kibsaim is also in his third year as the Chancel Choir Director at Tustin Presbyterian Church. Born and raised in Southern California, he continues to be an active member of the choral community as a teacher, conductor, and singer. Kibsaim holds degrees in Vocal Performance and Choral Conducting from the University of California, Irvine, and California State University, Fullerton. He studied voice with Dr. Darryl Taylor and Dubravka Zubovic, and conducting with Seth Houston, Stephen Tucker, Robert Istad, and Kimo Furumoto. While at UC Irvine, Kibsaim served as lead conductor for the student-run BATS choir, assistant conductor for the Chamber Singers and Concert Choir, and chorus master for numerous UCI opera productions. As a graduate student at CSU Fullerton, Kibsaim served as the Graduate Assistant Conductor for the Titan Voices, Concert Choir, Opera Theatre, and University Singers. Kibsaim has also recently served as Chorus Master for Lyric Opera of Orange County and has prepared choirs for Carl St.Clair and other conductors in and around the SoCal area.
Dr. Jung-A Lee has performed in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa as an organist, pianist, harpsichordist, and conductor. She currently serves as organist at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, California, and sub-dean of The American Guild of Organists Orange County Chapter. Lee is also on the faculty of Biola University and Vanguard University. In 2009 Lee founded Music Mission International to promote classical music focusing on organ. Since 2018 she has played with David Chang (clarinet) and Cynthia Ellis (flute) as Synergy Trio. In addition, she works for Pacific Chorale and Pacific Symphony as keyboardist.
Lee has given solo organ recitals in venues including the Cadet Chapel at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York; St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church in New York; Woolsey Hall at Yale University; The Memorial Church and Rudolph Busch Hall at Harvard University; Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC; Methuen Music Hall in Massachusetts; Grace Cathedral in San Francisco; Renée and Henry Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa; Crystal Cathedral (now Christ Cathedral) in Garden Grove; the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles; and the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. She completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance from Boston University. She served as an organ scholar of The Memorial Church, Harvard University from 2001 to 2003. Lee earned her Master of Music degree in organ performance from Yale University with a full scholarship and worked as a collaborative pianist for the Opera School at Yale, receiving numerous prizes including the Charles Ives Prize. Her teachers include Thomas Murray, Martin Jean, Gerre Hancock, John Tuttle, Karl Hochreither, Michael Bloss, William Wright and Lori Loftus. She has also participated in master classes with Olivier Latry, Marilyn Keiser and Susan Landale. Lee has worked with many fine conductors including Christopher Hogwood, Doreen Rao, Carl St.Clair, John Alexander, Robert Istad, Bramwell Tovey, Murray Somerville, James Melton, Joseph Huszti, Chai-Hoon Park and Locky Chung. Lee can be heard as organist on Rorem: Works for Choir and Organ/Harvard University Choir (Black Box 1102), on the recordings of the Men in Blaque of UC Irvine, and the recordings of the Concert Choir of Vanguard University of Southern California. Music Mission International’s first DVD, Beauty in the Wind, was released in 2010, from which several pieces were broadcast on the radio program Pipedreams, hosted by Michael Barone. Her 2012 recording Precious Lord includes numerous hymn arrangements and features David Washburn (trumpet), Valerie Geller (violin), and Lori Loftus (piano). In 2013 she was also featured at KUSC, 91.5 FM MHz, South Carolina ETV and Kookdong Korean Christian Radio. In 2014 her 90-minute organ solo recital was broadcast at KVPR, 89.3 FM. Her CD, Amazing Grace was recorded at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on the organ built by Rosales/Glatter-Götz. In 2018 her CD recorded at Walt Disney Concert Hall was released by Grammy Award winning Yarlung Records. www.musicmissioninternational.org
David Clemensen is active as a pianist, teacher, church musician and composer. A native Californian, he holds degrees from Chapman University, CSU Fullerton, and the Doctorate of Musical Arts in collaborative piano from USC. 2023-2024 marks his 21st season as pianist for Pacific Chorale. He may be heard on several of Pacific Chorale’s recordings, including American Voices and The Radio Hour: Choral Music of Jake Heggie. He is in demand throughout Southern California as a collaborator and coach. Dr. Clemensen has taught at Biola University and Fullerton College, and maintains a private studio as an accompanist and teacher. Often called upon to lead music for events of the C. S. Lewis Foundation, he directed the Service of Dedication for the Study Center at Lewis’ home, the Kilns, at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, England. A lifelong church musician, he is Director of Music at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Ontario. His compositions have been performed by many choirs throughout the U.S, and he won the American Orff-Schulwerk competition for his William Blake setting The Tyger and the Lamb.
REBECCA HASQUET is an active soloist, chorister, and instructor in Southern California. She joined Pacific Chorale as a staff singer in 2018, and currently sits as the soprano section leader of the ensemble. Rebecca also holds the soprano choral lead position of the sanctuary choir at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church of Newport Beach. Her previous choral activities include Meistersingers in Orange, the Santa Clarita Master Chorale directed by Allan Petker, the Chamber Choir at College of the Canyons, and the Summer Festival Choir at Idyllwild Arts Academy. Rebecca’s solo performance roles include Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira) and Le nozze di Figaro (Marcellina), Puccini’s La Rondine (Magda de Civry), Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier (The Marschallin), and Mozart’s Requiem. Rebecca also provides vocal coaching and writes commissioned music arrangements and transcriptions. In December 2018, she became the co-owner of By The Porchlights, a traveling venue for up-and-coming artists presenting acoustic pop-up shows and live recording sessions on porches and other outdoor spaces in Southern California. Rebecca holds a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach, where she studied with Brian Farrell and served as the soprano section leader of the Chamber Choir under the direction of Dr. Jonathan Talberg.
Denean Dyson A free-spirited mezzo-soprano genuinely passionate about all things music, Denean Dyson is a true artist who, whether singing classical repertoire, R&B, soul, pop or jazz, brings a beautifully skilled and emotionally artistic sound to every performance. A Vegas-born chanteuse, Denean earned a B.A. in music from CSU Fullerton’s School of Music (’11) and immediately launched into a career as a professional vocalist, entertaining audiences in solo and ensemble performances in the US and abroad. Denean has had an exciting career, collaborating with legendary artists like renowned mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, jazz and blues legend Barbara Morrison, singer and actress Reba McEntire, and incredible composers like Rhiannon Giddeons and Jake Heggie. Her ensemble work with the Pacific Chorale has won her a Grammy! She also takes to the theatrical stage, having joined the LA Opera chorus in their acclaimed 22-23 production of the Pulitzer Prize winning opera Omar. Still, her diverse vocal flexibility is best exhibited in her solo work, such as her stirring rendition of “Precious Lord Take My Hand” in Pacific Chorale’s concert film The Wayfaring Project (PBS/YouTube,) or Pacific Chorale’s commanding performance of the Bernstein Mass; again displayed in the Segerstrom Center Cabaret Series with a rendition of Hamilton’s “Satisfied” or more recently as a featured jazz & blues soloist in Pacific Symphony’s Gershwin Rhapsody Celebration. She continues to entertain as the lead vocalist of her group Denean’s Soul Foundation at events like the CSU Fullerton Concert Under the Stars and venues such as Disneyland’s hotels and parks, among others throughout Southern California. Denean has performed in ensembles for renown conductors like John Williams, Ludwig Wicki, Carl St. Clair, John Alexander, Robert Istad, Gustavo Dudamel, Kazem Abdullah, Nicholas McGegan, and Keith Lockhart, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, Staples Center, Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Salzburg Cathedral, the Sheldonian Theatre and many more. Find out more about Denean and her endeavor at DDysonMusic.com, facebook.com/DDysonMusic or on Instagram @neanied.
Lori Loftus is the Founding Director of the Southern California Children’s Chorus (SCCC), where she leads an outstanding music faculty serving young singers from ages 5 through 18 in six choral levels. In its 27-year mission of enhancing children’s lives through distinguished choral music education and world-class performance, SCCC and Lori have been honored with 3 Emmy Awards. She has conducted SCCC in performances on nearly all the great stages of the world, including Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House. Lori has also been a featured guest keyboardist with the Pacific Symphony many times since 1976. She has performed a wide array of repertoire on the great organ at Segerstrom Hall, and she appears annually on the harpsichord for the Symphony’s and Pacific Chorale’s December performance of Handel’s Messiah. In 2007, Lori was honored for her lifetime of achievements with the Outstanding Alumni Award for Excellence in Choral Music from her alma mater, California State University at Fullerton. In 2022, she received the ‘Titan of Music’ award as one of only eight who have been so honored by CSUF’s internationally acclaimed School of Music.
Lori volunteers as music and worship leader each Wednesday morning for Community Bible Study at Mariners’ Church in Irvine, CA. She also substitutes occasionally on the organ and in leading the choir at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, where she and her husband John have been members since 1989. In addition to music, she enjoys tournament golf, raising monarch butterflies, and traveling. John and Lori are blessed with six energetic grandchildren, who along with music and their two beautiful Siamese cats, keep a smile on her face and joy in her heart.
Tina Glander Peterson has over twenty-five years of professional choral directing and teaching experience as a public-school music educator. Currently, she is Director of Choirs at Irvine High School where she conducts five choirs and teaches advanced placement music theory. Under her direction, Irvine High School choirs have consistently earned superior ratings in state and regional choral festivals. Tina is the Co-Director with the Southern California Children’s Chorus Concert Chorus level. For three years, she was the Director of Choirs at Oak Middle School in Los Alamitos, CA., and before that taught middle school choral music for ten years in the public schools of Wisconsin.
While in Wisconsin, she was conductor of the Milwaukee Children’s Choir upper-level treble ensemble, the Cantorei Choir. She is an active adjudicator and guest clinician for choral music festivals and performance events around the state and is a member of The Southern California
(SCVA) and the California Choral Directors Association (CCDA), currently serves as the Southern Section Representative. In 2019, Tina was awarded “Teacher of the Year” at Irvine High School, and she was the recipient of the “Irene Schoepfle Lifetime Achievement Award” for distinguished contributions to music education. Mrs. Peterson earned her Bachelor of Music Education degree from University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and her Master of Music in Music Education and Choral Conducting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
The Southern California Children’s Chorus (SCCC), Orange County’s only chorus dedicated exclusively to meeting the educational and performance needs of children, seeks to do more than introduce youth to music and singing. It strives to enrich the lives of its members through programs stressing musical aptitude, teamwork, discipline, self-confidence and personal growth.
Currently SCCC encompasses six levels of sequential vocal and choral instruction. The children come from a wide geographic area of Southern California, sometimes traveling over an hour to attend weekly rehearsals.
The SCCC has an outstanding faculty of nine choral directors who are highly skilled in their chosen field of children’s choral music. They provide the young singers with a caring, nurturing environment in which a full range of music can be learned. The choristers are immersed in compositions in multiple languages from many cultures, with themes ranging from the classics to folk and contemporary music.
Choristers perform locally throughout the year at private and public concerts as well as participating in choral invitationals. SCCC also presents Spring and Holiday Concerts. The SCCC has provided singers for Touchstone films, MGM films, music videos, commercials, symphony concerts, operas, television specials, exclusive Disney performances, the Academy Awards and many musical productions. The SCCC has received many awards including their third Emmy for their work in the television program E:60 with Steven Tyler honoring the Boston Marathon victims. They have also been privileged to present concerts at world renowned venues, including Carnegie Hall, Westminster Abbey, the White House, the Washington National Cathedral, the Lincoln Center in New York, the Basilica San Marco in Venice, Italy, and Australia’s Sydney Opera House.
Eshika Abbaraju
Devon Alaniz
Elianna Alaniz
Katie Baker
Carmina Blanco
Elle Calvert
Emily Chang
Mykela Del Rosario
Lauren Doan
Maria Espinosa Ventura
Bena Feng
Gracie Finley
Kien-Lucas Glassey-Tranguyen
Irisa Huang
Chrissa Kilpatrick
Avni Krishnamoorthy
Hope Lee
Lauren Lee
Samantha Lee
Owen Lemen
Brianna Liauw
Olivia Maltezos
Emma McDowell
Sofia Mendez
Eva Mohr
Hanna Neyer
Brandon Ngo
Kristen Norris
Yui Orikasa
Emma Pinza
Harper Posnick
Zelda Preston
Mia Reyes
Hellen Romero
Isaiah Saati
Joy Saati
Kalia Simes
Camelia Sobaih
Jacob Thompson
Kaia Wang
Kai Wright
Mia Wright