Jan Pedersen Schiff, Artistic Director
Jan Pedersen Schiff, founder and Artistic Director of SingersMarin, received a BA degree in Music Education from Augsburg College, Minneapolis, MN, and a MM degree in Choral Conducting, with an emphasis in vocal pedagogy from the University of Colorado. Ms. Pedersen Schiff has been professionally involved with a broad range of choral groups, from K-12, community, church and professional choruses. She has served on college music faculties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Southern California before moving to Marin County. In the North Bay, she has taught voice classes at Napa Valley College and the College of Marin, and is frequently called upon to lead choral and vocal workshops, serving as choral clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor,including a choral festival at the Lincoln Center last spring. As a distinguished choral alumnus, Ms. Pedersen Schiff was invited to return to her alma mater, Augsburg College, and guest conduct the Millennium Choir. Through Chorus America, she was given the privilege of guest conducting the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Formerly, as Founder of the Hollywood Chorale, she received the Susan B. Anthony Award for Cultural Achievement. In Marin, she has received the Marin Women's Commission Certificate of Commendation for her outstanding achievements with the teen and adult women's choruses and recently received the Milley Award for her achievements and contributions to the creative life of Mill Valley.

Andrei Gorchov, Assistant Conductor
Andrei Gorchov recently finished his undergraduate studies in Music Performance at SFSU. Beginning the flute at age 8, he has pursued an intense musical career. He has received many honors including the Marin Symphony Young Artist Award, the Marin Music Chest Completion Award, and the John Philip Sousa Band Award. Now pursuing the studies of conducting, he has been studying with Michael Morgan and Jan Pedersen Schiff, and attended the 2003 instrumental conducting class at the Tangelwood School of Music.

Irene Jacobson, Primary Accompanist
Irene Jacobson has served as the primary accompanist for SingersMarin since 1992. Ms. Jacobson is in demand throughout the Bay Area as pianist/accompanist, arranger, and music director for choirs, orchestras, cantors, vocalists, and instrumentalists. She is currently a member of the Shinozaki-Jacobson duo (with violinist Rick Shinozaki) which is a regular feature at the West Marin Music Festival. Notable past performances have included premieres of sonatas by Durwynne Hsieh and Mark Fish. Her endeavors have also extended to choral conducting and silent film composition, and she enjoys performing works of all styles from classical to Broadway to jazz. Irene received double degrees in Music and Social welfare from UC Berkeley, and when she is not playing, she works as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor.

Hyunjung Choi, Accompanist
Hyunjung Choi, a native of Seoul, Korea, started to play the piano at the age of three and won the Grand Prize in a national piano competition for young artists when she was nine. She studied the piano, organ, and music theory at the Sun Hwa Conservatory of Music at Yonsei University in Seoul. In demand as a professional accompanist, she has played for many choirs including the Seoul Baroque Choir, World Vision Children's Choir, and Yonsei University Tabernacle Choir. Since moving to California, some of her accompanying positions have included the the San Francisco Korean Master Chorale, The New Choir of San Jose, and San Francisco Korean Children's Choir. Hyunjung Choi is currently the organist of Mount Tamalpais United Methodist Church in Mill Valley.

Jeff Paul, Accompanist
Jeffrey Paul is a concert pianist, musical director and piano instructor in Marin. Mr. Paul holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in piano performance from San Francisco Conservatory of Music. A Marin native, Jeff has performed for many years throughout the Bay Area. He enjoys giving solo and chamber recitals and has worked as a musical director for the San Anselmo Town Players. He has been staff accompanist for Westminster Presbyterian Church of Tiburon, the Marin Men’s Chorus, and the Tamalpais High School Chorus and Band. Currently, in addition to working with SingersMarin, he is the staff accompanist for College of Marin, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, and the award winning St. Vincent DePaul High School in Petaluma, which performed in Washington D.C., 2004.

Maryliz Smith, Subsitute Accompanist
Maryliz Smith is an international performance artist, composer and music educator. She holds a BA and a MM in Organ Performance from Colorado State University with further graduate studies at the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. In the Bay Area, Ms. Smith is involved with coaching musicians, premiering new works, and facilitating sessions pertaining to the creative process with groups and individuals searching to be inventive, daring, self-expressing people.

Tamsen Fynn,Youth Conductor
Tamsen Fynn joins Singers Marin with a strong background in many styles of singing, from classical, jazz, and gospel, to rock, folk, and children’s music. She co-founded Orange Sherbet in 2001 and the five-piece band plays tasty music for discerning families around the Bay. Tamsen has also written, recorded, produced, and released a few cds; four with Orange Sherbet, and two as a singer/songwriter.

Lea Grant,Youth Conductor
Lea Grant is a coloratura soprano and a singer/songwriter at heart. She earned her BA in music from UC Santa Cruz in 2004 and has since been performing her original music in addition to her work with International Orange Chorale and Goat Hall Cabaret Opera. She recently enjoyed playing the role of Mary Magdalene in Goat Hall's Fresh Voices VII. In the past she has worked with Repertory Opera of Los Angeles, Casa Italaina and UCSC Opera Theater. She has been teaching children both visual and performance art since 2004.

Anastasi Mavrides,Youth Conductor
Anastasi Mavrides is a musician of wide-ranging styles, realms and media. He performs as a guitarist throughout the San Francisco Bay-Area primarily in two ethnic based world-fusion bands: Makuru (African groove) with Ginean djembe master Bolo Kada and with "New Moon Kirtan" (devotional-mantra jam), lead by re-known percussionist, Geoffrey Gordon. He has toured with numerous bands, including The Beach Boys. Also a multi-faceted composer & producer, Anastasi has scored music for broadcast commercials, as well as documentary films. He is a recording artist for Sausalito, CA-based World-Music label Real Music, and is also the co-founder and producer of the award-winning The Classical Child Series®, a whimsical introduction to classical music for kids. (see  www.classicalchildmusic.com). As a teacher, Stas has a talent for inspiring budding musicians. He communicates a love of learning to play music using both conventional and more intuitive approaches to instruction, and has a way of connecting kids with the magic of music inside them.

Carolyn Spitz, Youth Conductor
Carolyn Spitz did her undergraduate music studies at San Francisco State University and received her Master of Music Education with a Kodály emphasis from Holy Names University in Oakland, CA. She is currently a Director and Sight Singing Instructor with the San Francisco Boys Chorus. Carolyn has sung with numerous choral groups including the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, San Francisco Concert Chorale, San Francisco Bach Society and the California Bach Society and is a National Association of Teachers of Singing award winner. She has conducted choirs at Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco, and has worked with the Cantare Children’s Choirs of Oakland as accompanist. She has also acted as pianist, organist and conductor at West Portal Lutheran Church and School.