About - OUR BOARD

Christene was born and grew up in Edmonton until high school when she moved to the south edge of Calgary where she enjoyed riding her horses. She began studying voice at age 9 and later obtained her Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto (ARCT) in Performance.

Christene enjoys the wide variety of music that she gets to sing, the community of people and the sense of spirit that ARC gathers. She is grateful to have singing as her escape and healing place. Her favourite song comes from her fond memories of hearing “The Flower Duet” from the opera Lakme when she was 15 in Covent Garden, London, with her Gran.

Sara grew up in New Brunswick. She moved to Calgary from Toronto in 2016 and is currently a lawyer with the City of Calgary.

She is excited about the community that ARC has formed and to be a part of it. Sara believes that singing is a beautiful way to express yourself and connect with other people, both those you sing with and those you sing for! Although It's too hard for her to pick just one favourite song, it might be "Edelweiss" from the movie The Sound of Music.

Roxanne grew up in Winnipeg and has lived in Toronto and Edmonton before finally settling her family in Calgary in 1990. She has enjoyed a professional career as a management accountant in both corporate and non-profit sectors.

Roxanne describes how ARC gives her a warm hug on Wednesday nights and lets her leave everything at the door and just enjoy singing! Music quite simply makes her happy, especially her faves, "Don't Stop Believin" by Journey and Ed Sheeran's "Perfect".

Cathy is a born and raised Calgarian. She has retired from her career as a high school social studies teacher and administrator and loves to sing because “it keeps her sane”. She takes pride to be part of a positive life giving organization that is accessible to all such as ARC. Any Joni Mitchell song is Cathy's favourite!

 

Art was born in Woodstock, New Brunswick and grew up in Barrie, Kingston and Guelph, Ontario, Muscat, Oman, Houston, Texas and Calgary. Art describes himself as a geophysicist who likes to sing! He is grateful for the chance to sing in harmony with so many good people and believes that singing lets him express true emotions without having to say a word.

Art's favourite music is the soundtrack to Conan the Barbarian.

Carleen is a born and raised Calgarian. She attended the University of Lethbridge where she achieved her Bachelor of Fine Arts in New Media and is now a graphic designer for a Real Estate brokerage.

Carleen has been singing her entire life and finds sharing her voice, both solo or with a choir, extremely exhilarating and something she can never stop doing. Her favourite things about ARC: the people and the amazing productions that consistently get better every year! Carleen's favourite song is: "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence and the Machine,

Mary Jane grew up in London, Ontario before moving to Calgary in the early 80's to start her teaching career and to ski and climb mountains. Her professional experience is as an educator in Deaf Education and ESL, and in Career Services. She is married with 3 grown children.

Mary Jane's musical background includes singing in her church and school choirs and some guitar and piano too. She loves ARC because it's loads of fun to sing, laugh, talk, perform and harmonize, and learn new songs with the guidance of ARC's talented directors. She is grateful to work with the ARC community to produce choral music that entertains, delights and uplifts fellow songbirds and audiences. Mary Jane's favourite song is "Away From the Roll of the Sea" by Allister MacGillivray.

David was born in Calgary, where he spent most of his youth before travelling with his career. He has taught ESL in Japan, been an industrial photographer and was involved in teaching and administration in International Education at Mount Royal University, where he was the Registrar until his retirement in 2014.

David calls ARC one of the few places where amateur musicians can find a large supportive community to grow and develop, and have a ‘ton-o-fun' at it! A T-shirt he saw best summed it up for him: “Music is what emotions sound like.” His favourite song (for now!) is "He's a Bad Boy" by Carole King.

Venita was born and raised on the shores of the warm Indian Ocean in Durban, South Africa. She is a famliy physician by profession and has minimal formal music background. She tried adult piano lessons briefly until work got in the way, but has always loved singing!

Venita is excited about ARC's program, performances and the people! She enjoys ARC's warm non-judgmental community for adults to explore their artistic side and develop special friendships in the process.

Music is an intrinsic part of Venita's being. She believes that everyone has their unique soundtrack to their lives and is amazed that a single note, song or piece of music can invoke a specific place, time and emotion. “It's a kinda Magic!” Venita admits that she loves every song from Carole King's “Tapestry”.

Brian is originally from Edmonton, where he grew up and attended University. He moved to Calgary in 1991 and achieved his Assoc. of Music in Piano Performance from the Western Board of Music, followed by a BComm and CFRE in Business (Marketing) from the University of Alberta. Brian developed his career in arts administration with the Calgary Boys Choir and the Youth Singers of Calgary before moving into fund development. He launched ARC in 2003 after founding Second Chants, a division of Youth Singers of Calgary. He is currently the Director of Alumni & Development at SAIT and was recently awarded the Con Spirito Award by the Alberta Choral Federation in 2017.

The most exciting thing for Brian is the opportunity to create a high quality performance arts experience for adults within a recreational choir community. The outstanding people of ARC inspire him every day. Music is Brian's passion: “It fuels my soul. Music in a choral context is really about creating community – using the human voice to bring people together, to share a common purpose, to make the world a better place.”

Brian has many favourite pieces of music. Of the songs performed by ARC, he highlights “Fire and Rain”, “Alice” and “Somebody to Love”.