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musical director dr. linda raney
has been music director of the Women’s Ensemble since 1988. Indiana University provided her an excellent musical education, and she received a doctorate, as well as master’s and bachelor’s degrees, from that famous institution. Since graduation she has also studied with many inspiring teachers in master classes, most recently Z. Randall Stroope, Joshua Haberman and René Clausen. In 2010 she received a Santa Fe Mayor’s Recognition Award for Excellence in the Arts.

Linda also prepares the Santa Fe Symphony Chorus for performances with the Santa Fe Symphony; their 2011–2012 season’s repertory includes Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’s Requiem and Vivaldi’s Gloria. In addition, Linda is both organist and music director at First Presbyterian Church. As well as music for services, church programming includes recitals (mostly organ, using the new C. B. Fisk instrument) every Friday at 5:30. Linda has worked for the church for 25 years and is very proud of their commitment to beautiful music.

Linda is married to Raymond, who is rector of the Church of the Holy Cross in Edgewood, New Mexico. Walking, hiking, yoga, reading and movies are her leisure passions.



s i n g e r s

linda rice beck, second soprano, also sings with the Santa Fe Symphony Chorus, First Presbyterian Choir and Canticum Novum. She is a published composer and a member of ASCAP, and was the Ensemble’s commissioned composer in 2008. Her Requiem for chorus and instruments will be sung by both the First Presbyterian chancel choir and Highlands University choir this coming year. Recent commissions include those from the Sangre de Cristo Chorale, the Women’s Ensemble, First Christian Church (Ohio) and the Durango Women’s Choir.

pam bennett, second soprano, returns for her fourth season with the Women's Ensemble. A native New Yorker, she relocated to New Mexico in 2008 and has performed as a soloist in the Abiquiu Chamber Music Series and worked at the Santa Fe Opera. She received her master's in vocal performance and pedagogy at Westminster Choir College. Pam has performed leading roles in Sweeney Todd, The Gondeliers and Die Fledermaus. She currently teaches middle school choir and private voice lessons in Santa Fe.

mickey bond, alto, joined the Women's Ensemble in 2006. She is a member of Canticum Novum in Santa Fe and has sung with the Longy Chamber Singers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, under Lorne Cooke DeVaron. A painter of mixed-media abstracts, Mickey is co-owner of Alta Contemporary Art in historic Tubac, Arizona. In Santa Fe, she shows her work at the Jay Etkin Gallery in the Railyard District.

barbara doern drew, second soprano, is celebrating her 29th season with the Women’s Ensemble and just completed 30 years in Santa Fe! She also helps lead congregational singing at the nondenominational Santa Fe Center for Spiritual Living. Barbara is a freelance editor and writer, a professional tarot-card reader, and office manager for Drew Corp. She and her husband, Walter, are enjoying “empty-nest-hood,” with Lane a senior at UNM in Albuquerque and Morgan a sophomore at Humboldt State University in California.

gwen gilligan, second alto, has lived in Santa Fe for 38 years and has been singing with the Ensemble for most of its existence. She grew up in Milwaukee and studied music at Bennington College in Vermont. Her two children are lifelong supporters of the Ensemble; Patrick is in medical school at UNM in Albuquerque, and Johanna lives in New Orleans and has started a nonprofit called Gro Dat Youth Farm. Gwen is a longtime real estate broker with Santa Fe Properties.

sue katz, first alto, has been with the Women’s Ensemble since 2005. She has also sung with the Santa Fe Symphony Chorus, Santa Fe Pro Coro, and Canticum Novum, and has studied with Margaret Pettengill. Sue has been a family physician with La Familia Medical Center for 21 years and is the medical director at the Villa Therese Clinic.

chris keightley, alto, an early member of the Ensemble, rejoined the group in 2006 after spending the intervening 20 years in California singing with Los Robles Master Chorale in Thousand Oaks and Cuesta Master Chorale in San Luis Obispo. A retired speech pathologist, Chris is now in the Master Gardener program and enjoys gardening, caring for her cats, going to the gym, traveling, shopping and, most of all, singing!

julie kirk, first soprano, is a second-generation Women's Ensemble singer: her mother, Mickey, sang with the group in the 1980s. Julie was a member from 1986 to 1990 and then rejoined the Ensemble in 2004. She also sings with the Zia Singers and Canticum Novum. She enjoys painting, tin work and wood carving. She is a volunteer with the Santa Fe Civitan Club and the Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled, and has recorded six books for the Library for the Blind.

connie marks, first alto, loves singing with the Ensemble so much that she agreed to serve as vice president on the board of directors. A retired teacher, she also sings with Canticum Novum and Zia Singers. Connie has been singing throughout her life: church choirs as well as high school, college and community choruses, including 16 years with the South Coast Chorale in Southern California. Connie and her life partner, Karen, are happy to be living in Eldorado with their rescued pup, Teddy.

mary mittnacht, first soprano, joined the Women’s Ensemble in 2007; she also serves on the board of directors as president. She and her husband, Stewart, moved to Santa Fe from New York City in 2006 and love living here with their pups. Mary also sings with Canticum Novum and the Santa Fe Concert Association Chorus. Her prior choral experience includes the New York Choral Society in New York City and the Back Bay Chorale, Harvard University Choir and Radcliffe Pitches (Boston area).

tina ossorgin, second alto, enters her fifth year with the Ensemble. Living in Santa Fe since coming to study at St. John’s College in 1976, she has developed a deep love of the Southwest, often by explorations on horseback. While she and her husband raised their three children she sang with various groups in and around Santa Fe, but she tends to favor the a cappella music of the Russian Orthodox Church; she sings with and conducts the choir at the local church here.

susan phillips, first alto, has sung with the Women's Ensemble since 1988. She has also sung with Las Cantantes and the UNM Symphony Chorus with Bradley Ellingboe, as well as the Santa Fe Symphony Chorus, and she is currently singing with Canticum Novum. After her husband's death in 2007 Susan retired as a clinical exercise physiologist and now spends time as president of the Ransom Reynolds Memorial Foundation when she is not walking her dog, Luna.

linda wieseman, first soprano, rejoins the Ensemble this season and also sings with Canticum Novum. She has sung with the Sangre de Cristo Chorale, Santa Fe Symphony Chorus, Santa Fe Community Orchestra and Berkshire Choral Festivals. As a Spanish major, she sang with the University of Virginia Women’s Chorus and a Spanish madrigal group. Linda is a registered respiratory therapist and respiratory care practitioner and part-time certified nurse assistant. She volunteers at the Santa Fe Animal Shelter and enjoys trail running and hiking.

marty noss wilder, first alto, has sung with the Women’s Ensemble since 1983. She has a BA in music from Stanford University, where she sang with the University Chorus and the Memorial Church Choir. Locally, she has also sung with the former Chorus of Santa Fe. Marty and her husband, Richard, own Wilder Landscaping, Inc., and have one son, Andrew, a freshman at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Marty is a licensed massage therapist and a registered polarity therapy practitioner

 

 


 

pianist

bill epstein

Bill began studying piano at age eight in Linden, New Jersey. Further studies were at the Chicago Musical College and Harvard University. In 2002, Bill moved with his wife, Sheila, to Santa Fe. His work here has included church jobs, playing for eurythmy dance at the Santa Fe Waldorf School, and accompanying the Santa Fe Symphony Chorus, Canticum Novum, the Men’s Camerata and the Santa Fe Community College Chorus. Bill became the Women’s Ensemble’s accompanist in 2006.


 

administrator

dr. evelyn l. fox

Evelyn Fox, administrator, is a born-and-reared Texan and an educated Tennessean who has now found a home in New Mexico. She has spent the majority of her professional career in education. She holds bachelor’s degrees in education and computer science, a master’s in computer science, and a doctorate in public administration.
         
Evelyn has taught computer science at the college level in both two-year and four-year institutions. She has also served in an educational administrative capacity as department chair for computer science, special assistant to the vice president of instruction, and director of computer services. Currently she serves as an adjunct professor of computer science for Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas, and teaches online to service personnel around the world. In addition, she has been named to Who’s Who for Women in Technology and is a professional web designer, maintaining web presences for several businesses in the United States.
        
Evelyn has always had a great love for choral music, having sung in community choruses all of her adult life. She and her husband, Albert, love to travel and are extremely proud of their two adult daughters, both of whom live in Florida.


flute

charly drobeck

Charly Drobeck's music-loving family sent her off to earn a BA in music from Indiana University, and from there she wandered to Creede, Colorado, and on to Santa Fe, working in professional theater and playing jazz and classical flute. In Santa Fe, she has played with Santa Fe Pro Musica, members of Santa Fe Symphony, Moveable Music, Oncydium Chamber Baroque and the San Miguel Trio, as well as in numerous recitals and street theater. She is delighted to return to play again with the Women’s Ensemble.


tenor saxophone

david anderson

David Anderson is a retired instrumental teacher and multi-woodwind player whose musical career spans 47 years and includes experience in all musical genres with ensemble and solo work and recording. He has performed with Cher, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Hope, Bob Newhart, Glen Campbell, the Spinners, Mel Tormé, Antonio Mendoza, Kim Carnes, Linda Ronstadt and Freda Payne, as well as the Ice Capades, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, the National Flute Association, the Santa Fe Community Orchestra, the Santa Fe Women’s Ensemble, the Southwest Jazz Orchestra, Soulstice, Bryan Lewis’s Three Faces of Jazz, the National Dance Institute and Santa Fe Pro Musica. Dave is currently performing with several local groups and is producing and cohosting specialty shows with Arlen Asher on KSFR radio’s “Jazz Experience.”


marimba and drums

angela gabriel goulden

Angela Gabriel Goulden is a truly multitalented musician—a percussionist, organist, pianist, vocalist and arranger. She has performed with the Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Santa Fe New Music and Hidden Whale, and serves as a pianist/organist at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. She is also on the faculty of the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.


 

 

 

The Board of Directors
President
Mary Mittnacht
Vice President of Development
Connie Marks
Secretary
Martie Busé
Treasurer
Susan Moore
Member
Julie Kirk
Member
Linda Beck
Member Keytha Jones
Member Bernie Van der Hoeven
        
  Administrator
  Dr. Evelyn L. Fox