Members

David Alban David has been singing with Schola Adventus under the direction of Paul Ellison since 2000, shortly after David moved from the Baltimore area to the Bay area. While he spent much of his teenage years slowing down vinyl lp's to learn complicated rock guitar solos, he subsequently discovered Renaissance polyphony and since then it's been a source of joy for him to perform it. When he's not singing Renaissance music, he can be found learning multitracking recording techniques in his home studio, a.k.a. his dining room. He has a love of baking and enjoys creating sugary goodness. He can also be found coding unix solutions to maintain his home devops regime.

Ian Aseltine Ian grew up as a band kid rather than a choir kid, playing the French horn through college, but he's been singing casually his whole life, occasionally singing with a capella groups, such as Northwestern University's grad student group, The Catatonics. He finally started singing regularly with the Sapporo International Ensemble in Japan, getting his first real experience with early music, including the chansons of Janequin and Sermisy, and faling in love with polyphony. Ian currently sings with The Fog City Singers and Peninsula Cantare, thus satisfying a wide array of musical itches.

Thomas Ayres A recording by the New York Pro Musica - "Ayres, Madrigals, and Dances" - started Tom on a lifelong interest in early music performance, both as a singer and as an instrumentalist. He works as a human factors consultant, investigating accidents, but prefers riding a bicycle.

Janet Bailey An avid a cappella singer since high school, Janet Bailey sang with William Mahrt’s Early Music Singers at Stanford, then studied and sang jazz while living in New York. In San Francisco, she has sung with choral groups including Lacuna Arts. A former freelance journalist, Janet leads corporate workshops on presentation skills and on how to write emails that don’t waste people’s time. She likes riding her bike around San Francisco, taking longer routes to avoid hills.

Liz Binning Liz is a fascinating person. You will get to know about her soon.

Carl Boe Carl is a fascinating person. You will get to know about him soon.

Nick Bonamico Nick is a fascinating person. You will get to know about him soon.

Alexis Caloza Alexis began singing early music in college with the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum and the Chamber Singers. Following graduation, he sang in a number of Boston- and New York-based groups, including the Boston Choral Ensemble, Music Sacra, and the Choral Society of Grace Church. He spent the last eight years exploring contemporary choral music with the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco before joining Tactus and returning to his early music roots. He pays the bills by investigating white collar crime.

Ron Cohen Ron Cohen for decades had a day job as a physicist, and crammed in as much music as he could during off hours. Havring retired from his physics gig in 2013, he has filled much of the freed time with performance (vocal as well as trumpet, renaissance cornetto, and recorder) and behind-the-scenes work with musical groups. In addition to Tactus, Ron has sung with Bay Area Classical Harmonies (B.A.C.H.), San Francisco Bay Area Chamber Choir, and the Russian vocal ensemble Slavyanka. He plays instrumental music with a number of bay area ensembles, including, as a founding member, the renaissance wind band Mane Musica.

Susan Draeger A lifelong and avid choral singer, Susan is happy to be singing early music with Tactus. A veterinarian, working as medical director at VCA Albany Animal Hospital, she devotes as much time as possible to pursing her singing hobby. She recently earned a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance, with a focus on vocal chamber music, from San Francisco State University. Susan also sings with and is a soloist for San Francisco Bach Choir, Voci Women’s Vocal Ensemble, and the Berkeley Bach Cantata Group. She is Creative Director and soprano for the vocal jazz quartet, The Dulcet Four. She invites anyone reading this to join her in a board game!

Carol Henri Carol Henri's love of choral singing started with a fantastic High School choir and Madrigal group and continued with the UC Berkeley University Chorus. She has been a regular member of the Oakland Symphony Chorus for many years and also currently sings with the SF Bach Choir. In addition, she has sung with the SF Symphony Chorus, the SF Midsummer Mozart festival chorus and the SF Choral Society. She has worked for many years at IBM as a Technical Sales Specialist.

Kristine Johnson Kristine grew up in Seoul, Korea, in a military community based in Yongsan Garrison, which shuttered its gates in 2018. According to her parents, she’s been singing since she was a baby. Her choir experience began in elementary school, until shyness got the best of her; she didn’t take up choral music again until joining the Seoul American High School Show Choir her junior year. She has also been a member of the Mount Holyoke Chorale, Glee Club, Chamber Singers, and V-8s a cappella group. Her interest in early music began while studying Computer Science and Philosophy at Wesleyan University, where she sang with Collegium Musicum for three years, singing the works of Byrd, Tallis, Purcell, and Victoria, among others. As a non-music major, she was tickled pink to receive the Lipsky Prize her senior year--an award that came with actual money! She also performed in student productions and an opera and oratorio ensemble, and especially cherishes her brief time singing in a small senior thesis group. More recently, she has performed Faure’s Requiem (a favorite), and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the San Francisco Choral Society. Fun fact: she took third place in an amateur opera competition in Hawaii.

Nick Jones Nick Jones moved to the Bay Area in 2017 after retiring as a professor of English at Oberlin College in Ohio. Since then, he has enjoyed teaching courses on literature for OLLI (Osher LifeLong Learning) and translating Renaissance Italian texts (soon to see print is his translation of Jacopo Sannazaro’s Arcadia, from about 1485). Nick has served on the board of Early Music America, the national support and advocacy group for medieval, Renaissance, and baroque music and musicians. He loves the vibrant early music community in the Bay Area, singing with Tactus, Gallimaufry, and the Berkeley Bach Cantata Group, as well as playing recorder, violin, and viola da gamba whenever he gets a chance—especially at the East Bay’s monthly Early Music Open Mic. Nick reviews music (both early and classical) for San Francisco Classical Voice.

Cathleen Josaitis Cathleen was inspired to start singing while in graduate school for microbiology, when she saw a scientist friend perform in a madrigal concert. Having no singing experience but much persistence, she was admitted to the University Chorus on her third audition. She’s been at it ever since, currently singing with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, the choir of St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Menlo Park, and the Berkeley Bach Cantata Group in addition to Tactus. Her past choruses include the San Francisco City Chorus, Lacuna Arts, Mostly Motets, and Southern California's Pacific Chorale. She loves a good "polyphony camp" and has participated in the Tallis Scholars Summer School in Seattle, the Canadian Renaissance Music Summer School in Vancouver, and the San Francisco Early Music Society Medieval/Renaissance Workshop. She studies voice with Katherine McKee.

Jason Leith Jason Leith began his music-making as an oboist, switching to voice as his primary instrument at Williams College in Massachusetts where he studied chemistry, after having gotten fed up with making reeds. He sang in the (mostly) Early Music group, the Elizabethans, at Williams, and then in a variety of church choirs in Cambridge, UK, in Boston, and now sings in sight-singing group Coro d'Amici and the Schola Cantorum at St. Mark's Episcopal church, both in Berkeley. He enjoys composing, microtonality, and simultaneous cross-relations.

Randy Matamoros Randy began his musical journey on keyboards but eventually switched to vocals, singing in everything from symphony choruses to jazz choirs before eventually settling on Medieval and Renaissance music. In addition to Tactus SF, Randy performs on voice and various Medieval instruments with the Gallimaufry chamber chorus and in one-off concert sets as opportunities arise (most recently with California Revels, the harp choir Angelorum, and the viol ensemble Fire & Ice). He also serves on the board of the San Francisco Early Music Society, which sponsors concerts, workshops, and artists throughout the Bay Area.

Luciana Miranda With a remarkable lifelong journey that commenced in early childhood, Luciana has sculpted a harmonious legacy as a seasoned vocalist. Emigrating from Brazil to the US at the age of two, she displayed an innate musical ability while singing to 8 track tapes of John Denver and the Carpenters. Her musical odyssey commenced at the age of 10 with an accidental serenade into the world of performance when recruited to sing in a production of The Nutcracker. In high school in Austin, TX she participated in competitive choir and achieved a spot in the All State choir her junior year. At the University of Colorado Boulder her musical palette expanded, attuning to the intricate notes of Early Music. From 2004 - 2018 the Schola Cantorum at St. Mary Magdalen in Berkeley led her ascendency as a soloist and cantor, lending her voice to performances as well as weddings and funerals in 12 languages including Russian, Armenian and Swahili. Under the esteemed baton of Rita Lilly, she participated in three seasons with the Mills Girls Choir. Amidst arias and sonnets, her appreciation for gourmet delights and wine also flourishes, harmonizing the sensory pleasures of music and culinary artistry. Her lifelong pursuit woven through years of dedication and passion stands testament to her enduring commitment to the enchanting world of song.

Patricia Saura Patricia Saura was born in Paris and grew up in Madrid, where she developed a passion for early music as a young teenager. Her father, a scholar, builder and tuner of historical keyboards, took her to many concerts of Spanish Renaissance music, where he often was organ or harpsichord tuner. After moving to the US, Patricia worked for 30 years as an interpreter at UCSF Medical Center. She earned a Bachelor's degree in music from Cal State Hayward and has sung in a number of choirs over the past 25 years, including Coro Hispano de San Francisco, Sacred and Profane, and Lacuna Arts Ensemble.

Susan St. Martin Susan made her conducting debut in the 4th grade, when she directed the 4th grade recorder group in "Frère Jacques" in canon. Susan has taken one formal music theory class in her life, during her last semester at MIT, where she got her undergraduate degree in Biology. Otherwise, she credits her school music teachers and choral directors over the years with all the music theory she knows. Susan is a Bioarchitect and Interim Lab Manager at Amber Bio, where she works on curing diseases with therapeutic RNA editing. Other interests include knitting, figs, whisk(e)y, and the occasional lamb kebab.

Richard Stanton Richard Stanton is a professor of finance and real estate at U.C. Berkeley. He started singing in choirs as a child in London then took a brief 25-year break, during which he moved to the U.S. More recently, he has sung with the SF Bach Choir and its chamber chorus, Concentus; the SF Choral Society; and Mostly Motets, where he first met and sang with several of the other members of Tactus. He has been singing with Tactus since Spring 2019.

Susan Swerdlow Mezzo/alto Susan Swerdlow has enjoyed singing in Tactus since 2017, and she is currently the group's Associate Conductor. Upon retiring after several fulfilling decades teaching choral music at the College Preparatory School in Oakland, she threw herself into singing as never before. In addition to Tactus, she does choral and solo work with the Berkeley Bach Cantata Group and Marin Baroque. Susan, who holds an M.M. in choral conducting from Temple University, directs the Women's Antique Vocal Ensemble (WAVE) and was a Tactus Co-Director during the transitional 2018-2019 season. She trained the choruses for many productions at Berkeley Opera (now West Edge Opera) and Oakland Opera Theater, and is a former director of Sacred and Profane Chamber Chorus.

Kenneth Tom Kenneth Tom has performed as a soloist and ensemble singer in concerts and theatre productions in Berkeley (UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus), Göttingen (St. Jakobi Kantorei), Boston (New England Conservatory Chorus, Opera Theatre, Collegium Musicum), San Diego (San Diego State University Collegium Musicum, San Diego Opera Chorus, La Jolla Symphony, St. James by- the-Sea Episcopal Church) and Orange County (Pacific Chorale, Pacific Symphony). An Emeritus Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at California State University Fullerton, his teaching and research focus on voice acoustics and physiology and clinical voice therapy. He co-founded CSUF’s Transgender Voice and Communication Clinic. In his clinical work as a speech-language pathologist specializing in vocal rehabilitation, he integrates evidence-based voice/breathwork, movement/somatic learning approaches (yoga, Feldenkrais® method), manual therapy (myofascial release, craniosacral therapy, acupressure), and theatre voice and singing techniques. Kenneth is a San Francisco native and his on-going quest is to bake better pies.

Sarah Voice Sarah Voice began her musical journey at age five with the violin and soon discovered her passion for singing with the Michigan State University Children’s Choir. She went on to earn a BMA in Voice Performance at the University of Michigan and has since sung with small chamber choirs, including Kammerchor Jeunesse in Berlin. Now based in the Bay Area, Sarah works in healthcare technology and firmly believes that music is medicine too.

Noah Walsh Noah's love of music began when his parents enrolled him in piano lessons and played some classical music CDs for him as a small child. He started singing when he went to college and sang in two acapella groups, the MIT Concert Choir, and the MIT Chamber Chorus before graduating. After that he moved to San Francisco where he joined the Slavyanka Russian Chorus as well as Tactus. His other musical interests include barbershop and writing acapella arrangements.

Barb Westree Barb Westree has been singing since she was a toddler. She has previously sung with San Francisco Bach Choir, California Bach Society, Masterworks Chorale, and Lacuna Arts. She is a founding member of Tactus. In addition to Tactus, she currently sings with Women's Antique Vocal Ensemble and Berkeley Bach Cantata group. Ms. Westree is retired from environmental consulting where she provided technical support for environmental impairment liability litigation. Upon retiring, she worked as a garden designer. Besides singing early and Baroque music, her pastimes are birding and gardening, wherein she strives to grow orange dahlias. She enjoys introducing Tactus members to birding.

Julian Xandar Julian has been involved in music performance in one way or another her entire life, simultaneously studying vocal and keyboard performance throughout her childhood and enjoying regular recital appearances as a soloist, as an accompanist, and in small ensembles. Her high school's music department hosted a yearly Renaissance Dinner, a semi-staged production with audience participation and, of course, a Renaissance-style feast, in which she sang and played recorder. She was accepted to the California All-State Honor Choir, performing in its inaugural SSAA ensemble. She obtained degrees in Mathematics and Music with a Latin minor at UC Davis, where she studied voice with Paul Hillier and Jeffrey Thomas, and harpsichord with Phebe Craig. She has participated in numerous workshops both domestic and international, and supports her music habit with her work in software quality assurance.

Melike Yersiz Melike began singing and playing piano before she can remember, and has been in a choral singer since 4th grade. She went on to get degrees in Chemical-Biological Engineering and Music Composition in college, where she continued her choral singing and exploration of early and new music. Melike joined Tactus SF in summer of 2017, and is heavily involved behind the scenes with the choir’s administration, website, and publicity. She also sings with International Orange Chorale and dabbles in composition in her spare time. In her professional life, Melike investigates industrial chemical accidents around the nation to educate the public and to prevent similar incidents from recurring.