Artistic Staff
The Choral Society employs an artistic staff including an Artistic Director/Conductor, Assistant to the Conductor, Accompanist and Section Leaders. Soloists and musicians are hired, as needed, for performances.
DAVID POTTER, ACCOMPANIST
David Potter has conducted, musically directed, and played in over 230 musical productions. His many credits include music director for “Man of La Mancha” at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura and musical director for Jesus Christ Superstar, starring Ted Nealy and Carl Anderson at the Concord Pavilion. He directed the West Coast premiere of The Baker’s Wife with Wanda Richert, and in Los Angeles, They’re Playing Our Song with Joyce DeWitt and Richard Kline, and Bells Are Ringing with Nancy Dussault. For the Rubicon Theatre Company, David has been Musical Director for Old Wicked Songs, High Button Shoes with Jason Grae and Susan Egan, and Tintypes. For Santa Barbara City College he has musically directed productions of Bat Boy, the Musical, Violet, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Spitfire Grill. He composed the music for Joan of Arc performed locally in Santa Barbara and also in New York’s Westside Theatre. For the Ensemble Theatre Company, he musically directed Gun Metal Blues. David attended California Institute of the Arts and Music Academy of the West, where he accompanied for Martial Singher. He has accompanied many singers in concerts including Marni Nixon, Marvin Hayes and Erich Parce. An accomplished organist as well, he was the organ soloist with the Santa Barbara Symphony in their performance of the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony. He was the Co-founder and President of the Contemporary Music Theatre of Santa Barbara; David is presently the Director of Music and Liturgy for San Roque Catholic Church. David has won several Drama-Logue Awards, five Independent Theatre Awards and the local Hero Award from the Independent. In 2022, David celebrated his 50th anniversary as Music Director for The Theatre Group at Santa Barbara City College.
STEVEN BROWNING THOMSON, ASSISTANT TO THE CONDUCTOR
Steven Thomson has been singing with The Choral Society as a baritone section leader since Fall 2019. He is a choral artist with training as a conductor, vocalist, organist, and ethnomusicologist. He holds a MA in Humanities from the University of Chicago where he specialized in ethnomusicology, conducting research on the Lebanese Maronite liturgy. Steven is currently a graduate student in Choral Conducting at UCSB, where he studies with Dr. Nicole Lamartine and co-directs the newly formed Tenor/Bass ensemble, The Singing Gauchos. He has also pursued additional advanced coursework and research in ethnomusicology at UCSB. Additionally, Steven currently serves as the Interim Music Director and Organist at All Saints-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Montecito. Before moving to Santa Barbara for graduate school in 2018, Steven served over two years in the US Peace Corps as a teacher in the Republic of Armenia. While living in Armenia, he also had opportunities to study Armenian sacred music and to sing and tour with the Hover State Chamber Choir of Armenia. When he’s not making music, Steven can be found hiking, surfing (badly), studying languages, practicing yoga, and gathering with friends.
Section Leaders
Naomi Merer – Alto Section Leader
Susannah Ruth – Alto Section Leader
James Kirkland – Tenor Section Leader
Will Breman – Tenor Section Leader
Steven Thomson – Baritone Section Leader
Soprano and Bass Section Leaders – to be filled
American baritone, Ralph Cato has travelled the world extensively, telling stories in song with his warm, clarion baritone voice.
Tenor, Benjamin Brecher has performed over fifty operatic roles with many of the world’s most prestigious opera companies, specializing in the high lying lyric tenor repertoire. He has performed 16 roles with New York City Opera alone. Career highlights include performances with Opera Orchestra of New York, L’Opera de Nice, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, L’Opera de Montreal, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, among many others. His orchestral solo repertoire includes Mozart, Handel, Orff, Bach, Haydn, as well as many performances of Britten. In 2000 he began performing the great Irish Tenor songs in a concert produced for him entitled A Celtic Celebration, Twenty years later, the show has become a North American hit with performances with 45 Symphonies in North America. Ben continues his discography having added his twelfth recording in 2016 Forgotten Liszt, with pianist Robert Koenig, and will record a new release in 2022 entitled “Three Centuries of Thomas Moore” including the music of Britten, Berlioz, and Sarah Gibson on MSR Classics. He is a Professor of Voice at University of California Santa Barbara, where he has served as the Head of Voice.
Born and raised in Southern California, April Amante is a versatile soprano with expertise and facility in repertoire spanning from early music to contemporary musical theater.
Tracy Van Fleet is pleased to return to the Santa Barbara Choral Society. As a soloist, she has performed with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Lüneburg Symphony in Germany, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río in Mexico, Pasadena Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Los Angeles Bach Festival, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Philharmonic, USC Symphony and Chorus, and others. She has had many appearances with the Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Opera Pacific, San Diego Opera and Opera Colorado.