Pacific Collegium ConservatoryTraining superb young musicians is a core part of our mission. The Pacific Collegium Conservatory after-school program offers boys and girls the chance to develop their talents and love of music in a learning environment that instills high personal standards and pride in performing at their best. The Conservatory offers voice and orchestral string classes through two training ensembles: Chapel College and Chordis. These are complementary curricula, each designed to reinforce skills taught in the other, while also excellent in their own right. Our integrated approach brings out every student’s natural abilities and encourages well-rounded musicianship. Chapel College Men and Boys Ensemble
The Choristers—a small group of boys age 8 to 13, selected by audition—receive intensive, personalized vocal instruction with an emphasis on individual responsibility, leadership, camaraderie, and the joy of making music. Young men age 14 to 17 may audition for the Choral Scholars division of Chapel College. Choral Scholars receive a small stipend in addition to valuable pre-professional training and opportunities to mentor the younger boys, and they rehearse regularly with professional singers—vitally important as they develop their newly changed voice. Chapel College is led by Christopher Kula, artistic director of the Pacific Collegium and a renowned teacher of boy treble and adolescent male voices. He is joined by notable and talented vocal coach Shauna Fallihee, who provides additional individual and group training.
Chordis Orchestral String Training EnsemblesThe Chordis string program for boys and girls age 8 to 17 offers three levels of group instruction, from absolute beginner to late intermediate. Instructor Erika Miranda’s fun and innovative approach emphasizes singing and peer instruction, providing a rich and rewarding musical experience for students at all levels. Beginning and Pre-Intermediate classes help create a powerful foundation of sound quality, pulse, and musicality through dynamic rhythmic exercises, built on quality repertoire drawing heavily from Eastern European folk melody traditions. Our Intermediate/Advanced class focuses on chamber performance, and frequently collaborates with the vocal program for Evensong and at other times. This year will be strongly geared toward the Baroque, featuring music by Bach, Monteverdi, Schütz and others. Students enrolled in both the vocal and string curricula will benefit from the reinforcement each program provides the other, through the sharing of both literature and pedagogical approach. FacultyChristopher Kula – Artistic Director and Conductor
Erika Miranda – Chordis Instructor
Shauna Fallihee – Vocal Coach
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Chapel College is a virtuosic choir of men and boys in the English cathedral mode, where students work on a regular basis with some of the best adult choral professionals in the Bay Area. This season, Chapel College boys will join the Pacific Collegium in performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor.
A native of the Bay Area, Christopher Kula recently returned to California from Portland, Oregon, where he has been praised for his leadership of such ensembles as Portland Pro Musica, the choir of St. Mark’s Parish, the Portland Symphonic Boychoir, the Portland State University Women’s Chorus and others. He is regarded as a trendsetter in thematic and adventurous concert programming, and enjoys presenting musicians and audiences with unfamiliar and challenging literature. He has sung extensively as a choral professional, with Cantores in Ecclesia, Cappella Romana, Choral Cross-Ties and other ensembles. Kula holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St. Mary’s College, Moraga, and studied music at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Southern California, San Jose State University and Portland State University. He has extensive experience training young singers, including several years at the Pacific Boychoir Academy directing the Intermezzi, Cantori and Changed Voice choirs and teaching music and foreign languages in their Day School program.
Trained in the U.S. (San Francisco Conservatory of Music and St Louis Conservatory of Music), U.K. (Anglo-American Chamber Music for Strings in England), Canada (Johanessen International School for the Arts), and France (European Community Baroque Orchestra), Erika Miranda has been an active performer in the U.K. for 7 years, as well as currently in the S.F. Bay Area. Area. In addition, she is a former faculty member of the eminent Crowden Music School, where she worked closely with Anne Crowden. Miranda has developed a highly respected violin studio with many prize-winning students and string quartets and is the founding director of the International Youth Music Festival. Additionally, she was the interim director for the Sacramento Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program in 2002 and served as head of strings for the Berkeley Youth Orchestra, where she established the chamber music program for strings. Miranda is a principal for the Sacramento Opera and Choral Society and is a member of the Russian Chamber Orchestra in San Francisco. Most recently, she accepted the position of chair of Northern California for the prestigious VOCE Competition, sponsored by the Music Teachers Association of California.
Renowned for her versatility and sterling vocalism, soprano Shauna Fallihee has sung a wide range of concert and opera repertoire with leading Bay Area ensembles, including the San Francisco Choral Society, Masterworks Chorale, West Bay Opera, Goat Hall Productions, Open Opera, AVE and Volti. In 2003, she made her Carnegie Hall solo debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Bernard Haitink in Beethoven’s Chor Fantasie. She was the winner of the 2007 Mu Phi Epison Young Artist Competition. Fallihee is a vocal coach at Campolindo High School and maintains a busy private voice and music theory studio. Her extensive teaching experience includes vocal coaching at Acalanes and Miramonte High Schools and voice clinics for the San Francisco Choral Society, Masterworks Chorale, the Piedmont Children's Choirs, and the Volti Choral Institute for High School Students. She received a bachelor’s degree in voice performance (with distinction in performance) from the the New England Conservatory of Music, went on to pursue graduate work in musicology at the University of New Hampshire, and holds a master’s degree in vocal pedagogy from Holy Names University in Oakland.