Born and raised in Wichita Falls, Texas, Stephanie Smith is an active pianist, conductor, clinician, vocal coach, worship leader and chamber musician in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her qualifications include a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, studying with Alvin Chow and Larry Graham, and a Master of Music degree in chamber music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Paul Hersh. Her professional experience of more than a decade includes performing in master classes for Menahem Pressler and Emmanuel Ax, working with renowned composers such as Alden Jenks, David Garner and David Conte, and providing accompaniment for such luminaries as Sharon McNight, B.D. Wong and Tony Award winner Alan Cumming.
After accompanying the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco Chorus for two years, Stephanie was appointed Artistic Director and Conductor in 2002. She directs LGCSF in multiple performances annually and regularly collaborates with other organizations including the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. In July, 2004, the Chorus presented works by living Bay Area gay and lesbian composers and recently celebrated its 25th Anniversary. An exciting highlight of her career with LGCSF came in July, 2004, when she led the Chorus at the quadrennial Festival of GALA Choruses in Montreal before an audience of 3,500.
In addition to her work with LGCSF, Stephanie serves as Music Director of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco and is looking forward to teaching K - 5th grade music at Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy.
A Sacramento native, Michael is happy to be back in Northern California after many years on the East Coast and studying and living in Japan and China. He is especially pleased to be working with the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco. Beginning with piano lessons at the age of three, music is Michael's lifelong passion. He discovered conducting in college, working on Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, for which he wrote a new English language adaptation. His diverse musical activities today include conducting, accompanying, vocal coaching, composing, transcribing, translating lyrics, arranging, and teaching. Recent projects include Assistant Composer for film composer Eric Holland and Assistant Music Director for Michael Shahani at City College in A Postcard from Morocco and Pippin.
Michael holds both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Linguistics and East Asian Studies from Harvard University. He currently studies cello with Richard Fenner. He is preparing to do further graduate work in music in order to devote his life to performance. In addition, Michael, an expert in language pedagogy, has some proficiency in a dozen languages.
A native of Abilene, Texas, Kristen is a Master’s student in Vocal Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory and a recent graduate of Hofstra University in New York. After credits such as the title role in Carmen, Dialogues of the Carmelites (Mother Marie), and Falstaff (Mistress Quickly), Kristen is now excited to be exploring soprano repertoire from Mozart and Weber to Rachmaninoff and Menotti. A recent winner of the East Bay Opera League Competition, Kristen can be heard on various opera and recital stages around the Bay Area. In addition to her position as Chorus Manager with the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, Kristen sings with Volti, San Francisco’s new-music chamber choir, and is a Choral Scholar in the Choeur Paroissial at Notre Dame des Victoires, as well as Administrator for the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute.
