TEACHING ARTISTS
Lifting Voices, Uplifting Lives
The expertise, passion, and experience of our professional teaching artists are key to our youth choirs’ success. Cantare’s diverse and multilingual teaching staff mirrors our Oakland community, facilitating instruction and communication with families in multiple languages. Our artists specialize in a wide variety of musical genres. We work collaboratively so students benefit from the collective knowledge of all our instructors.
Music Teachers
Julie Haydon (she/her)
Director of Children’s and Youth Choirs
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Julie Haydon began her service with Cantare in 2003, developing Cantare’s after-school choirs and classroom music education programs. Under Julie’s leadership, Cantare received the Chorus American Education and Community Engagement Award in 2005 and 2014. In 2008, she founded Nova, Cantare’s auditioned choir for 6-12 graders. Julie served as Director of Music Ministry at Trinity Lutheran Church in Alameda for nine years, directing choral music from diverse traditions. During her tenure, she directed adult singers, the handbell choir and founded a community children’s choir.
Conway Tan-Gregory (he/him)
Director of Music Education
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Conway Tan-Gregory started with Cantare in 2014, teaching classroom music and directing after-school choirs. He now oversees the organization’s Classroom Music Education Program.
Conway earned a Master’s in Music Education with an emphasis on Kodály methodology from Holy Names University in Oakland. He has training in Orff-Schulwerk and curriculum that emphasizes the use of Modern Band styles, including rock, pop, reggae, hip-hop, rhythm & blues, and electronic dance music. Since 2007, Conway has been a professional keyboardist and music director in churches.
Lydia Mills (she/her)
Lydia has specialized in teaching and performing music from the Andes region for over 25 years. She received her Master's in Music Education with an emphasis in Kodály in 2002. Besides teaching with children, Lydia has led teacher training programs in the Kodály approach throughout Latin America and the United States. Lydia has been an adjunct Music Education Professor at Holy Names University in Oakland and currently teaches through the Universidad Panamericana in México City and directs the Musica Educa Kodály Institute in Santiago. She has published multiple music books for teachers and recordings of children’s music in Spanish. Her website is www.lydiamillsmusica.com.
Lydia is Cantare’s only full-time Teaching Artist.
Laura Camacho (she/her)
Laura is excited to be the new music teacher at Greenleaf Elementary School. In college she studied vocal performance, taking on operatic roles but favoring her last semester singing for the jazz band. Her work as a storyteller, caregiver, private music teacher, push-in classroom music teacher and OUSD substitute have prepared her to take on the full gamut of TK to 8th grade at Greenleaf. She is currently enrolled at San Francisco State University earning a K–12 Single Subject Credential (Music). Working as a professional vocalist and band director, she is excited to continue learning how to deliver a universally fun and memorable music lesson for all students.
Rhonda Crane (she/her)
Rhonda Crane began singing professionally in 1989, started touring in 1991, and has shared the stage with artists such as Robert Cray, Joan Armatrading, and Zap Mama. She served as a church pianist at age 16 at the historic Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, and as Choral Director and the Minister of Music of Greater True Light Baptist Church in Modesto, California.
While studying music (classical piano and viola) and education at San Jose State University, she sang in the opera AIDA with Grace Bumbry and organized the Rhonda Hudson Singers. Currently, Rhonda sings with the R&B/soul band CHELLE! and Friends and the a capella group Chelle's Juke Joint.
She is Director of the Children's Ministry for Love Center Church and the Edwin and Walter Hawkins Music & Arts National Conference. Rhonda teaches piano and voice to children in San Francisco, Belmont, Oakland, and Berkeley Unified School Districts. She also teaches world choral music in the Walnut Creek Community Arts Education program. And Rhonda is on the instructor roster for Leap, Oakland Youth Chorus, and San Francisco Arts Education, because she loves teaching children to sing. For Cantare, she teaches classes at Cleveland Elementary School and Piedmont Avenue Elementary School.
Adam Flowers (he/him)
Adam has performed principal tenor roles in opera houses throughout North America, Hawaii, and Japan. In July 2006 he completed a five-year artist-in-residency for Opera San Jose, performing over 32 roles. Adam is a certified Music Together™ teacher, teaching music to infants and toddlers in Marin County and San Francisco. He is the Project Coordinator for Pacific Actors & Singers Workshop, and a teaching artist for the San Francisco Opera Guild’s Book To Bravo and Opera A La Carte educational programs with students in the 5th-12th grades. He is a voice student of Deborah Benedict.
Kate McCarthy (she/her)
Kate has worked as a music teacher to preschool through high school-aged children and adults for 17 years. For the past 10 years, she has been a choral director for choirs of all ages, including the Vineyard Singers (Brentwood, CA), and St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, where she conducted and developed the adult choir, contemporary music band, teen choir, and seasonal children’s choir. Kate recently received her Master's of Music Education from Holy Names University. She firmly believes that quality music is for all people, and that it is best taught through joyful music making.
Leila Motaei (she/her)
Leila teaches piano & vocal performance, improvisation and composition to children and adults of all ages in a variety of styles from classical to pop to blues. She concentrates on creating a repertoire with her students that's reflective of their personal taste, as well as different approaches to studying technique and theory that are fitted to each individual's learning style. Leila holds a Bachelor's Degree in Music Theory/Composition with an emphasis in Piano Performance from the University of California, Davis. She has been teaching, writing, recording and performing professionally for more than 15 years. She has also completed her Orff Schulwerk Pedagogy Certification.
Simon Russell (he/him)
Simon Russell is a singer/pianist/composer/lyricist who has been performing for the last 37 years with some of the world’s best musicians, including Sheila E, The James Brown Band, Rose Stone, Chris Cain, Kenny Neal, Tommy Castro, Curtis Lawson, Lady Bianca and Sy Smith. Simon performed in honor of Quincy Jones for Black History Month in 2013 and for Time Magazine New York Icon of the Year Party in 2022. He recorded on Pete Escovedo's "Rythym Of the Night" CD in 2022 followed by a music video 2023. Simon has toured nationally and internationally including, Japan, Chile, Costa Rica, Argentina, Mexico, Alaska, The Caribbean, Canada and Switzerland.
Alex Taite (he/him)
A resident and native of Oakland, Alex graduated from Pepperdine University in 2007 with a Bachelor’s in music theory and composition. He emphasized in vocal performance and jazz piano. He spent 4 years teaching theory and conducting choirs at the Oakland School for the Arts. In 2014 He placed third in the inaugural James Toland Vocal Arts competition and in 2016 took Audience Favorite. He was a finalist in the East Bay Opera League scholarship competition in 2015. He is currently writing two song books of spirituals, one for solo voice with piano and one for a capella chorus. Previously, Alex has enjoyed teaching with the SF Opera Guild (SF Opera's education and outreach department); conducting the graduate level ensemble at the San Francisco Boys Chorus; coaching at Cantare; directing, and singing in recording projects around the Bay Area; and performing on many local Bay Area opera stages. He currently finds great joy in singing with the San Francisco Opera and Symphony choruses; teaching private piano, music theory, and voice lessons; and directing Chorus Eclectic.
Evan Alparone (he/him)
Evan is a Bay Area native and has been a teacher, music director, and accompanist for over 15 years. After graduating with a BA from UCLA’s Musical Theater program, he began studying choral conducting at San Francisco State University and from 2007-2010 directed the choral program at Moreau Catholic HS in Hayward.
As a music director, conductor, and accompanist Evan has worked on over 90 musicals including several Off-Broadway productions and has served as a music director in the United Methodist Church for almost 20 years. Before returning to the Bay Area, Evan served as the co-director of the NYC Community Chorus, resident music director for the Amas Musical Theater Academy, and was a staff accompanist for NYU's New Studio on Broadway.
Matt Bourne (he/him)
Matt is a pianist who performs with many groups all around the San Francisco Bay Area. He works in choral music, opera, and musical theatre, among other styles. He is the music director at Castro Valley United Methodist Church, and the pianist for several choral groups. He is also a conductor for theatrical productions at many local companies, as well as a piano teacher and a composer. He is a Bay Area native and a graduate of the music program at UCLA.
Ray Capiral (he/him)
Ray is a pianist, composer and arranger, teacher, and avid knitter. He took up the piano in a self-directed course of study at age 15 and began teaching piano after graduating high school. He received his BA in Music Composition from UCLA, and has accompanied, performed and served as Music Director in Los Angeles and the SF Bay Area. In addition to his accompaniment with Cantare and the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, he is currently the Collaborative Liturgical Accompanist (piano & organ) and Music Librarian at the Saint Ignatius Church at USF.
