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Meet our Professional Staff

Artistic Director, Joyce Keil

Sets the Artistic vision for the organization and is responsible for all artistic and educational activities, conducts the Concert Group, the Full Festival Concert Chorus and Young Men's Ensemble, and oversees the Music Faculty and musical direction of the other groups.

Joyce Keil, Artistic Director and co-founder of Ragazzi, has served as panelist, adjudicator and guest conductor for music teachers and choirs throughout the Western United States.

An experienced teacher, she has served on the faculties of the College of Holy Names, Notre Dame de Namur University and Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco.

She is the founder of the choral program and advanced placement music theory curriculum at Crystal Springs Uplands School.

Ms. Keil has served as Western Division Chair of the Boychoir Committee for the American Choral Directors Association and has sat on the College Board for Advanced Placement Music Exams.

Ragazzi, under Joyce Keil’s leadership, was cited in the November 22, 1998 S.F. Chronicle as one of the four elite youth choruses in the Bay Area.

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Associate Artistic Director/Assistant Conductor, Julia Simon

Trains Festival Group and assists the Artistic Director with Concert Group, the Full Festival Concert Chorus and the Young Men's Ensemble.

Julia Simon has taught children's choirs in public schools and private organizations throughout the San Francisco Peninsula for more than a decade. She holds degrees from Concordia College, Moorhead, MN and Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ and has studied conducting with Paul J. Christiansen and Joseph Flummerfelt.

In addition to her work with Ragazzi, she is a voice teacher and a composer with pieces to be published by Augsburg Fortress this coming year. She sings with Soli Deo Gloria and its select chamber choir Camerata Gloria, and performs with the San Andreas Singers, a vocal jazz group.

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Director of Ragazzi Premiere, Kent L. Jue

Directs the Premiere level chorus which serves those boys who have mastered the basics and wish to prepare for advancement.

For the past 20 years, Kent L. Jue has taught general music, choral music, and string orchestra to students in grades pre K-12 in independent and public schools in California and Massachusetts. He has served as the Music Department Coordinator at the San Francisco Day School and has conducted Children's and Youth Choruses for the Preparatory Division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Kent has also been a member of the California Association of Independent Schools Professional Services Committee and has presented workshops on teaching music to children at regional CAIS conferences. Kent received his Masters degree in Music Education with a Kodály Emphasis from Holy Names University and his Bachelor of Music in Music Education degree from the University of the Pacific.

In addition to conducting Ragazzi Premiere, Kent currently teaches general music and directs the choruses at The Nueva School, a preK-8 independent school for gifted children in Hillsborough, CA. He is certified in the methodologies of Orff-Schulwerk and Kodaly. In his free time, Kent enjoys traveling, watching live performance, and following the world of amateur figure skating.

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Director of Ragazzi Premiere (Second Section), Craig Morey

Craig Morey earned his Bachelors Degree in Music Education from Ohio State University where he majored in both voice and percussion and obtained his credential to teach public school music. While there, he served as president of the Ohio State University Symphonic Choir, studied conducting and sang under the direction of Dr. Maurice Casey, who for many years assisted Robert Shaw conducting the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. While at Ohio State University, Craig won the Richard DeSelm Award and Scholarship for most outstanding choral musician.

Craig has traveled extensively, performing and touring with a variety of musical shows and has taught private voice and percussion lessons. He has studied voice formally with several renowned teachers including Joyce Koch of the Koch Studio in Cleveland while in high school and Bill Whitesides while at Ohio State University. Since moving to California, Craig has studied with David Rohrbaugh, director of the San Jose Opera.

Since receiving his Juris Doctor Degree and setting up his law practice, Craig has sung with the San Jose Opera, recorded with the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, and toured internationally with the San Francisco Bay Area Chamber Choir. With his wife Kathy, Craig co-founded and still co-directs Kids Alive! and Lumina, two youth choirs based at Trinity Presbyterian church in San Carlos. He is regularly asked to guest-conduct other choirs. For Ragazzi, he has also served as Board President and for the last ten years has directed summer camp.

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Director of Training Group, Diane Doron

Directs the Training Group which serves as an entry–level chorus where boys learn the basics of vocal production, ensemble singing and musicianship.

Diane Doron has served as Director of the Ragazzi Training Group since 1994. She received a Master’s degree in Music Education/Kodaly Emphasis from Holy Names College, a Bachelor’s degree in Voice, and a teaching credential from San Francisco State University.

She is a certified Orff Schulwerk teacher, a certified graduate of the VoiceCare Network, and a Certified Child Developmental Screener with the Gesell Institute of Human Development.

Ms. Doron has been actively involved in music education for the past 21 years in both public and private schools. She is enjoying her 15th year at The Hamlin School for Girls in San Francisco where she received the Irene Abbe award for teaching excellence in 1999.

She is Past President of the Northern California Kodaly Society and currently serves on its board.  Ms. Doron has been a presenter for the California Music Education Association and the American Choral Directors Association.

Her studies have included work with Doreen Rao, Henry Leck and Rodney Eichenberger as part of the International Music Workshop in Graz, Austria.

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Theory Director, Carol Panofsky

Directs the theory program for the entire Chorus which serves to teach the boys to read music and to understand the theoretical foundation of the music they are singing.

Carol Panofsky, Theory Director and Music Librarian, can be heard in performances of the Albany Consort, the Santa Cruz Chamber Players, and, on occasion, with the Santa Cruz County Symphony, Carmel Bach Festival, Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, Magnificat, and Ragazzi.

She is an active free-lance musician, which has provided her with opportunities to perform on both coasts as well as in Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, China, and Korea.

She received a Master of Music in the Performance of Early Music from the New England Conservatory of Music. She performs and teaches early music, modern oboe, and piano, and has been on the faculties at the Music School of the University of Idaho and at U.C. Santa Cruz. She has many private music students, both children and adults.

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Director Primary Group, Kathy Morey

Kathryn Morey earned a Bachelors Degree in Music and Education from Bethany College and a second Bachelors Degree from California State University Hayward in Music Performance. Not long thereafter she was awarded a Masters Degree in Vocal Performance from San Jose State University. While in school, she performed extensively with different choirs, studied conducting with Dr. Noel Wilson and studied voice with Velma Kienel, Merlin Mitchell, Tom Acord and David Rohrbaugh, musical director of San Jose Opera.

While working on her Masters Degree, she performed regularly with San Jose Opera, winning roles in: Amahl and the Night Visitors, Beggar’s Opera, Cosi Fan Tutte, Magic Flute, Many Moons, Marriage of Figaro and Suor Angelica. She has also been featured as soprano soloist in a variety of recitals and concerts some of which include Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St. John Passion, Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Charpentier’s Te Deum, Saint Saens’ Christmas Oratorio, Orff’s Carmina Burana. Kathryn has appeared on the Berkeley Trinity Concert Series in recital with classical guitarist Mori Achen, in recital with her husband, Craig, and as soprano soloist with the Pacific String Quartet.

Kathryn frequently works as an accompanist and vocal coach and continues to maintain a busy private voice and piano studio. She co-directs two other youth choirs, Kids Alive! and Lumina, with her husband Craig. For Ragazzi, she has assisted in many ways over the years, most recently as an accompanist and vocal coach for Ragazzi summer camp.

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Music Librarian, Laura Graham

Maintains the music library

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Executive Director, Trish Oakley

The Executive Director works in partnership with the Artistic Director to ensure program excellence, deliver concert series, and achieve greater national prominence by implementing the organization's artistic and educational vision.

In her last position as director of marketing for the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Trish Oakley was the member of senior management responsible for marketing, advertising, public relations, and media relations for the non-profit, 501(c)3 Smithsonian-Affiliated space history museum. Prior to joining the Cosmosphere, Trish managed communications for the Kansas State University Foundation, a 501(c)3 endowment fund with over $453 million dollars.

Although communications and public relations became her career path, Trish was very involved with choral music in both junior high and high school. She was a member of groups that required auditioning each semester to remain as a member and which participated in state-level competitions.

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