SAN GABRIEL VALLEY CHORAL COMPANY
Monrvoia, CA
The San Gabriel Valley Choral Company is pleased to welcome Zanaida Robles as Artistic Director. Ms. Robles served for five years as director of classical choirs at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA). Under her direction, the LACHSA classical choirs performed for numerous festivals, concerts, and special events at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and in venues throughout Southern California. She remains on faculty at LACHSA as instructor of vocal fundamentals while pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral music at the University of Southern California (USC). As a DMA Teaching Assistant at USC, she directs the USC Thornton University Chorus.
In addition to her work at USC and LACHSA, Ms. Robles directs Discovery Camerata, a choral organization founded in 2005 to facilitate a semi-professional setting for emerging vocalists and composers. The group has become an elite sextet of vocal music professionals performing choral standards, folk songs, arrangements, and new music. She served for three years as director of the MusicUNTOLD Chorale where a focus of her work was to help illuminate significant works and composers that had been underutilized, unfairly criticized, and/or disregarded. She has prepared choirs for performances with such artists as Josh Groban, Kristin Chenoweth, Audra McDonald and Wayne Brady.
Ms. Robles holds a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from California State University, Northridge (CSUN) where she was the graduate assistant conductor of the Northridge Singers and the Matador Master Chorale. She also served as chorus master for the CSUN opera department and interim director of the CSUN Women’s Chorus. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from California State University, Long Beach, where she was the first recipient of the four-year Dean’s Scholarship for Distinction in the Arts.
Ms. Robles has performed as a concert soprano soloist and ensemble member throughout the United States, and in parts of Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. She sings professionally with Pacific Chorale and the John Alexander Singers, and has sung under the batons of such conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pierre Boulez, John Mauceri, Leonard Slatkin, and Gustavo Dudamel. Ms. Robles has been the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions including the Young Musicians Foundation Gladys Turk Scholarship, a USC Choral Department scholarship, a USC Black Alumni Association scholarship, two L.A. Artist of the Future awards, the NFAA Young Arts Level One Award in classical voice, two Charles Dolo Coker Jazz Awards, the KCET Emerging Young Artist Grand Prize, and the NAACP ACT-SO National Gold Medal for Music Composition.
The San Gabriel Choral Company (SGVCC) will begin its 2012-2013 concert season under Ms. Robles’s baton on Saturday, December 8th, with a concert entitled, “Holiday Glories,” featuring music of Handel and Rutter with favorite carols and motets from all over the world. The season continues in March with “Mystic Voices,” where the choir collides with mysticism in music of Vaughan Williams, Lauridsen, and more, and in May with “Tell It!” a celebration of America’s folk song heritage in choral music.
Rehearsals for the December performance begin in September, with auditions starting in August and continuing through the end of September. Singers interested in joining the SGVCC should contact Chris Breese at or (626) 253-7248.
Founded in 1995 by Dr. Thomas M. Miyake of California State University, Los Angeles, the SGVCC is a non-profit choir based in Monrovia, CA. The group’s repertoire has included music from the Renaissance period to recent works of the 21st century. Along with more traditional selections, music performed has featured avant-garde, jazz, gospel, Broadway musical revues, and staged productions. More information about the chorale and the concert season can be found at www.choralcompany.org.
Ms. Robles resides happily with her husband and two young daughters in Monrovia, where she herself grew up. She feels honored to have the opportunity to contribute to the cultural and artistic landscape of her community through her work with the SGVCC.
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