Our inspiring faculty are specialists in writing, performing, and researching contemporary music for the voice. They regularly present cutting-edge research at conferences, perform internationally, and write music for ensembles around the world.
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You will work directly with expert performers, conductors, and composers of adventurous new music who will bring new and exciting ideas to the table and mentor you in trying them out in your own creative practice.

David Harris, Ensemble Director
David Harris (DMA) specializes in new music, American music, and the intricacies of communication in choral singing and conducting.  Living in Los Angeles, David is the co-founder and director of VoiceScienceWorks. Together with his partner, Laurel Irene, he helps vocalists learn to translate complex voice science into immediately applicable tools. He is the Director of Music at the First Congregational Church in Los Angeles where he leads the Cathedral Choir, Laude (a professional ensemble), and the Commonwealth Community Chorus (a community-based choir for children and teens). David also sings, conducts, and composes with C3LA: The Contemporary Choral Collective of Los Angeles. David earned degrees from the University of Alabama, Oklahoma, and Colorado.

Prior to moving to Los Angeles, he conducted the choirs at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts and was a founding member of Triad, a professional choral collective.  In New York he held several positions, including the conductor of the Young Men’s Ensemble of the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and leader of C4: The Choral Composer Conductor Collective. While living in Boulder, CO, David began Jubilate, a touring a cappella choir and conducted for the Boulder Bach Festival and Denver Bach Society. He is also a composer and arranger published with See-A-Dot Music Publishing, Inc.  David is an active member of PAVA, and ACDA, and will be published in the Choral Journal in March, 2019.

Laurel Irene, Voice Director
Laurel Irene, Los Angeles-based "downright superhuman" (LA Times) vocal artist and voice researcher, specializes in bringing new compositional works to life with vocal repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Mozart to the wacky, wild, and extreme sounds of the 21st century. With incredible vocal range, agile flexibility, and "resigned, compassionate, forbearing, affectionate, sympathetic, absolving" (LA Times) emotional connection that stretches from playful to unhinged in the span of a page, she draws on her expertise in vocal research to heighten unique timbres, textures, and vocal expressions. In 2019 she performed the role of Countess Almaviva in REDCAT's 12 hour endurance art piece, earning Mark Swed's acclaim as "one of the most astonishing performances, vocally and interpretively, I have ever encountered". 

As an avid voice educator and founder of the educational organization, VoiceScienceWorks, she gives voice workshops at conferences and collegiate settings across the United States and Europe including the Pan-American Vocology Association, American Choral Directors Association, Acoustical Society of America, Harvard University, York University, College of the Holy Cross, California Institute for the Arts, University of California Los Angeles, and Cornish College of the Arts.

Fahad Siadat, Composition Director
Fahad Siadat sings with C3LA: The Contemporary Choral Collective of Los Angeles and HEX, of which he also serves as artistic director. He is also co-artistic director of The Resonance Collective in New York, an interdisciplinary music/dance ensemble with collaborator Andre Megerdichian. He has previously been a conductor of the CalArts Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, and assistant conductor of The Industry. Fahad is regularly commissioned to compose and music directs for concert music ensembles, dance companies, theater troupes, and film studios. He has worked as a composer and music director for Theater Dybbuk, Rosanna Gamson Dance, Monmouth University, Seton Hill College, C4, the award winning Armada Films, Jacksonville Dance Theater, the California EAR Unit, and the TOCCATA Orchestra.

In 2012, he founded See-A-Dot Music Publishing, Inc., a company devoted to the advocacy of new choral works and emerging composers. He is currently a faculty member at Chaffey College where he teaches composition and is the assistant conductor of choirs.

Abraham Ross, Organ Specialist
Abe draws inspiration both from the rich organ repertoire and the range of instruments required to perform it, seeking out intersections between artists, philosophies, and societies of the past and those of today. He holds a Master of Music in Historical Performance at Oberlin Conservatory and will enter into the D.Mus. program at McGill University in the coming autumn. Abe has performed on organs around the world. His compositions and improvisations feature contemporary approaches to the sonic possibilities of the organ. He takes particular interest in music of living composers and recently played the U.S. premieres of several works, including harpsichord music of Ere Lievonen and organ works of Christopher Willcock. Based in a firm commitment to the expansion and development of the organ repertoire, Abe prioritizes dialogue between performers and composers that enables effective, idiomatic writing for the instrument.

Allen Pearcy Galeana, Program Admin
Allen Pearcy Galeana is a Mexican-American tenor and a recent graduate of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, where he studied with nationally celebrated pedagogue, Lynn Helding. As an avid promotor and champion for the arts, Allen has been heavily involved in arts administration, serving in leadership positions in multiple arts organizations.  He was the Vice President for both USC’s chapter of the Student National Association of Teachers of Singing, and The Chamber Opera of USC; through said involvement, he spent his time in undergrad dedicated to providing young singers with performance opportunities as well as organizing unique and creative programming to equip the modern voice teacher through workshops and seminars.  Allen was also an active member of LA Opera’s College Advisory Committee, where he helped plan and host LA Opera’s inaugural College mixer night.  
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He currently resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and serves as the operations manager for VoiceScienceWorks, an educational organization committed to helping vocalists translate challenging, cutting-edge science into immediately applicable language. 

TJ Sclafani, Admin Consultant
Over the past decade, TJ Sclafani has worked in multiple capacities as an actor, composer, singer, pianist, sound designer, teacher, and producer. As a performer, TJ has performed in productions at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club, the Kraine Theatre, the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, the New Ohio Theatre, Brooklyn Theater Club, and the California Institute of the Arts. He has performed with groups such as C3LA, Tonality, Schola Cantorum on Hudson, and the New York Choral Society, and currently performs with HEX, an LA-based vocal sextet that focuses on new music. TJ is also a member of This Machine, an experimental music outlet that focuses on improvisation, drones, and silence. As a composer, TJ’s music has been performed by gnarwhallaby, C3LA, Flux Quartet, the Moravian Philharmonic, the New Millennium Brass Ensemble, pianist Allison Brewster Franzetti, the Ensemble at CalArts, and various ad-hoc ensembles. 

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Partners & Sponsors

VoiceScienceWorks is a revolutionary educational organization committed to taking contemporary research on the voice and translating it into directly applicable information so that all voice users can immediately apply it in practice. Through our free and accessible website, learning resources, and workshops, information becomes accessible and friendly to all voice users who wish to deepen their understanding and empower their learning process. Co-founders and authors, Laurel Irene and David Harris have presented at universities and institutions across the United States and Europe including Harvard, Curry, USC, CalArts, Duke, OSU, CU Boulder, BIMM Dublin, and many more, bringing playful, interactive, and transformative sessions to vocalists across professions and genres. Brilliant minds have been working through the complex bio-mechanics, physics, acoustics and neurology of phonation for decades, helping us to better understand what actually happens when we speak and sing. VoiceScienceWorks provides access to that complex information through straight-forward explanations and methods. Each person’s unique voice holds deep elements of their identity.  VoiceScienceWorks strives to help everyone unlock the hidden potential of their voice in whichever ways they choose to use it, thereby strengthening their artistry, identity, and individuality. Through cutting edge programs like the online “Voice Science Crash Course” and the 2-week intensive “Listen Up” individualized voice packages, VoiceScienceWorks reaches people around the world, providing profound opportunities for individual growth and exploration.

voicescienceworks

See-A-Dot Music Publishing exists to help conductors and ensembles discover new and exciting choral music. Our tightly curated catalog of works feature previously unknown gems by up-and-coming, innovative composers that will keep both singers and audience members wanting to dive deeper into the music. Our modern website is easy to navigate, includes great preview options to hear and see every piece in the catalog, and provides learning resources for singers and conductors alike as they venture into the unknown.

See-a-dot publishing

First Congregational Church of Los Angeles is a progressive, positive, and open church with a strong arts and music culture. We welcome and celebrate those of different faith traditions, cultural backgrounds, and sexual orientations.  The Sunday morning worship service at First Church is a richly textured experience. Our service is traditional in structure, but we bring together the arts – music, literature, poetry, painting – as well as science and religious texts – to create a joyful experience of community. Each Sunday we engage the heart and mind, believing that faith and reason are essential to the spiritual journey.  First Church is a vital, diverse and multi-generational community of faith. People of all ages – children, families of all configurations, young professionals, seniors, and everyone in between, come together in an authentic experience of Christian community. As an urban church in the heart of the city, we celebrate compassion, diversity and inclusivity, respecting people wherever they may be on the journey.

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