(Photo taken by Stephen Saxon 2010)
From left: Rebekah Wu, Michelle Clair, Lindasusan Ulrich, Celeste Winant, David Wake, Jeff Phillips, Julio Ferrari, Clarence Wright, Nick Kotar and Jamie Apgar

MICHELLE CLAIR (mezzo soprano) is a native of San Francisco. She made her singing debut at the age of eight with the San Francisco Girls Chorus with which she had the opportunity to tour nationally and internationally and perform and record with the San Francisco and Berkeley Symphonies and the San Francisco Opera. While a student at the University of California at Santa Cruz, she sang with both the UCSC Chamber Singers and the 12-voice UCSC Women's Early Music Ensemble. A regular member of American Bach Soloists, Michelle has performed Handel's Messiah, Handel's Esther, Bach Motets, Bach's B-Minor Mass, and Carissimi's Jephte. For the past 8 years, she has been reunited with 3 other SFGC alums to sing as one of four sopranos with the Schola Cantorum San Francisco. When she is not singing liturgies and 16-century motets, Michelle can be found enjoying the great outdoors in every way, including hiking, swimming, canoeing and wine-tasting...yes, wine-tasting counts as an outdoor activity!

LIBBIE LANDLES-DOWLING (soprano) is a chamber choir lifer, and she’s excited to join the Chalice Consort for the first time this year.  Most of her singing experience was in Boston, MA and in Oxford, England.  In Boston, she was the professional soprano at Trinity Church at Copley Square and also sang with various chamber choirs including Tempus and Canto Harmonico.  At Oxford, she sang with the Lincoln College Chapel Choir and the Oxford Chamber Choir.  Libbie holds a degree in Music from Wellesley College and spent a year as a visiting student at Oxford University studying the history of early music. 

JULIO FERRARI (baritone) has sung in numerous choral and operatic groups throughout the Bay Area. After receiving his degree in vocal performance from San Diego State University he returned to San Francisco to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a struggling musician. A sixth generation San Franciscan, Julio currently cantors at St. Monica’s church and in his spare time enjoys rock climbing, motorcycle riding and other such flagrantly dangerous cries for attention.

JOSHUA LANAM (tenor), a native of Columbus, Ohio, has worked as a performer, music director, and educator in musical theatre, jazz, and choral and instrumental music throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. In Yorkshire, England, he performed daily services as a Lay Clerk in the Choir of the Leeds Parish Church; as a member of the Leeds Baroque Choir, Saint Peter’s Singers, and Ecclesia Ensemble; as the soloist for Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, Handel’s Messiah and Brockes Passion, Vivaldi’s Venetian Vespers and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria; and as a recitalist at Wakefield Cathedral. Joshua also served as the musical director of Studio 54, which premiered at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He received a Bachelor of Music from the Conservatory of Music at Capital University. While studying at Goldsmith’s College, University of London, Joshua performed as Tamino in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Having recently moved from England to the Bay Area, Josh can regularly be found still unpacking, exploring, and watching BBC comedy programs with his wife, Faith, and poodle, Chaucer.

MARK SUMNER (bass) continues after fifteen years both as the Director of UC Choral Ensembles, Berkeley as well as the Director of Music at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Francisco.  He has sung locally with Volti, the Voices of Musica Sacra and the American Bach Soloists and continues to sing with the Los Angeles Chamber Singers and their Cappella ensemble which recently won the Grammy Award for outstanding small ensemble recording.  At Berkeley, he conducts the UC Alumni Chorus and UC Women's Chorale and assists with Perfect Fifth and BareStage, where he prepares the annual musical production, this year Sweeney Todd.  In years past, Mark has sung with Dallas Civic, Tulsa and the Los Angeles Music Center Opera companies but found his true voice singing with groups such as Exindigo and Zephyr, a group in Los Angeles he co-founded.  He received his music education degree from his home state university, Oklahoma State; his MM in conducting from Southern Methodist in Dallas, and his DMA from USC in LA.  Outside of music, his passions include tennis, competitive bridge and theatre.

LINDASUSAN ULRICH (alto, founding member) is a musician and writer known for her humor, her depth, her engaging live performances, and her absolute love of language. She is currently recording and producing her second album of original music, Consequences of Seeing in the Dark. When asked to describe her music, she calls it the songcraft of Ani DiFranco getting a hug from Celia Cruz and a tip of the hat from Stewart Copeland. Lindasusan is also an accomplished choral singer, and has performed with such notable ensembles as Philharmonia Baroque Chorale, Choralis, American Bach Soloists, Pacific Collegium, Midsummer Mozart Festival, and UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, with whom she toured internationally. She has served as the section leader at St. Francis Lutheran Church for many years, and is proud to be a founding member of Chalice Consort. Music is not the only outlet for Lindasusan’s creativity. A published author, she is currently working on her second collection of haiku and a series of humorous essays. She also blogs (lindasusan.blogspot.com), paints, advocates for bisexual visibility and sustainable transportation, and knits a mean fisherman’s sweater. Lindasusan works as the Communications Manager/Writer for Horizons Foundation, an LGBT community foundation based in San Francisco, where she lives with her wife Emily.

CLARENCE WRIGHT (tenor) was brought to church as a child with groups that only sing acapella. He was leading congregational singing at eight years of age, teaching music to the people of the church in his teens.  He studied formally at the University of Oregon, Arizona State University, and with professional performers and directors of the Eugene Opera and Chautauqua Institution.  A long and winding road brought him to eventually perform in avant garde theater and jazz cabaret.  More years ago than he would care to note, he won the Marc Hopkins Hotel's 1st Cabaret Singers Competition which sent him to Paris for a bit.  Later, he entered the professional choral music scene when he joined Chanticleer in 1992, although he would point out that Chanticleer, like Chalice, is really a vocal ensemble and not a choir.  His favorite styles of music are Gregorian Chant, music of the  Renaissance, standard jazz and Gospel.  Clarence is currently, and for the past 7 years has been a member of the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys.

REBEKAH WU (soprano, founding member) founded Chalice Consort with 7 of her musician friends in the bay area in 2008; Kaneez Munjee (S), Lindasusan Ulrich (A), Owen Smith (T), Carl Boe (T), John Gale (B), Jeff Philips (B) and Paul Kim (D & A/T/B because we only had 7 singers to sing SSAATTBB). You can read about the story behind it all here. Singing the role of Victory in Hildegard von Bingen's Ordo Virtutum with San Francisco Renaissance Voices in 2008/09 was an epoch in her music life. She discovered her love of singing Hildegard chants which reinforced her personal mission to bring pure-toned singing back to mainstream. In addition to performing Hildegard von Bingen as often as possible, she sings with EUOUAE.