Joy Ondra Hirokawa is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Bel Canto Children's Chorus. She earned a Bachelors degree with honors in Music Education from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA and a Masters degree in Choral Conducting, also from Temple University. She has completed postgraduate work in children's choral conducting and is currently a DMA student in Music Education at Boston University at the dissertation stage in her studies. She was honored to be selected as a Conducting Fellow at the first Chorus America Orchestral Conducting Workshop for Children's Choir Directors held in Chicago in June, 2004, and was a Conducting Associate at the 2006 Chorus America Choral-Orchestral Conducting Masterclass. Mrs. Hirokawa is a frequent guest conductor and clinician, presenting regularly at MENC and PMEA conferences and conducting numerous honors choirs, including the ACDA-PA All State Middle School Honors Choir in 2007 and the ACDA-PA All State Women's Honor Choir in 2008. Mrs. Hirokawa is also a published arranger. Her arrangement of My Favorite Things is available from Hal Leonard. Mrs. Hirokawa is currently Visiting Professor of Music Education at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA, following twenty years of

teaching in the public schools.

  

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

Kirsten Olson has undergraduate degrees in music from University of Wisconsin-Madison and Valparaiso University, Indiana. She received two Masters degrees from Westminster Choir College in Princeton: one, in Choral Conducting with Joseph Flummerfelt, and one in Sacred Music with Helen Kemp and Donald McDonald. At Temple University, Ms. Olson did post-graduate studies in Early Childhood Music and Child Psychology with Edwin Gordon. She is currently the Director of Preparatory and Intermediate Choirs of Bel Canto Children’s Chorus, (known currently as “Preppermediate”) and Minister of Music for Children and Youth at St. John’s Church in Lansdale, and Director of Music at Lansdale Montessori School. She is also an organist/choir director substitute for many churches in the Philadelphia area. Ms. Olson teaches piano, organ and voice in her home studio, and gives a variety of musical lectures and workshops on the East Coast. She also serves as the Music Director at Montgomery Theater Too in Souderton. Kirsten and her husband Roy have two college-age daughters, Greta and Inga.