Singing for Life Choral Festival Concert
Featuring St. Charles and Lourdes High School Choirs, SE MN Honors Concert Choir, the Choral Arts Choirs and Winona State University Vocal Music Faculty
Saturday, March 14, 3:00 pm
Bethel Lutheran Church
Don’t miss the grand finale of the Choral Arts Singing for Life Festival, a powerful celebration of choral collaboration and artistry. This culminating concert features performances by the choirs of St. Charles High School and Lourdes High School, alongside SE MN Honors Choirs Concert Choir, and the Choral Arts Choirs. Under the direction of esteemed clinicians Dr. Colleen Chester, Dr. Alan Dunbar, and Dr. Liz Pearse of Winona State University — who will also join Choral Arts conductor Dr. Ryan Deignan for a special set of chamber selections — the concert promises an inspiring afternoon of music, mentorship, and community.
Festival Clinicians
Dr. Ryan Deignan
Artistic Director, Choral Art Rochester & Honors Choirs of SE MN
Dr. Colleen Chester
Assistant Professor Winona State University
Dr. Alan Dunbar
Professor, Winona State University
Dr. Liz Pearse
Adjunct Faculty, Winona State University
Ryan Deignan is the artistic Director for Choral Arts Ensemble and Honors Choirs of SE MN. Before joining CAE in 2024, he was an Assistant Professor and Interim Director of Choral Activities at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he led the flagship University Singers and the award-winning vocal jazz ensemble Lake Effect. He is also the Artistic Director of the Twin Ports Choral Project and was a fellow at the 2022 Baylor International Choral Conducting Masterclass. In addition to teaching and conducting, Deignan performs as a professional vocalist. He performed with the Madison Choral Project in 2023 and sang with the new Baton Rouge choir Red Shift in their 2020 Southern ACDA performance, where he also served as tenor soloist. Deignan sang with Dallas’ Orpheus Chamber Singers, Dallas Bach Society, and the community choir Denton Bach Society as a tenor soloist for their performance of Rossini's Petit Messe Solennelle. He was a tenor soloist for the University of Iowa Choirs and Orchestra's performance of Schubert's Mass in Ab in 2017. Deignan performed with the Cedar Rapids Chorale and Iowa Orchestra as a tenor soloist and with Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre as a tenor soloist and young artist. In 2011, he was chorus-master of CROT's production of The Merry Widow. At the high school level, Deignan was Director of Choirs for the West Des Moines Valley High School choral program of 350 students, seven traditional choirs, two show choirs, and four jazz choirs. Under his direction, Valley Singers performed at the 2016 NC-ACDA Convention in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Prior to West Des Moines, Deignan was Associate Director of Vocal Music at Cedar Rapids Washington High School, where he led a Slice of Jazz to the 2012 Iowa Vocal Jazz Championship. Deignan studied music education with Jeremy Manternach and Jessica Nápoles, voice with Edwin Andereck and Stephen Swanson, vocal pedagogy with Jeremy Manternach and Stephen F. Austin, and conducting with Craig Arnold, Timothy Stalter, and Allen Hightower. Deignan holds a BA in Vocal Performance from Luther College, an MA in Music Education from the University of Iowa, and a DMA in Choral Studies with a cognate field in Vocal Pedagogy from the University of North Texas. He is a member of ACDA, NAFME, NATS, JEN, and the Voice Foundation.
Dr. Colleen Chester serves as Assistant Professor and Director of Choral Activities at Winona State University, where she received the 2024 and 2025 Outstanding Professor Award. At WSU, Dr. Chester directs all choral ensembles in addition to teaching courses in music education (conducting, secondary choral methods, vocal pedagogy) and Women in Music. Prior to collegiate teaching, she was the Director of Vocal Music at San Luis Obispo High School and Laguna Middle School in San Luis Obispo, California. Her passion for music-making at all levels has led to her work with numerous church, community, and non-profit organizations including Choral Arts Initiative, San Luis Obispo Master Chorale, Canzona Women’s Chorus, Pacific Chorale, Oregon Bach Festival, and her most recent appointment as the Director of the Rochester Symphony Chorale (MN). Chester is actively involved in the community as a clinician, presenter, and conductor, and maintains a professional singing agenda both as a mezzo soprano soloist and ensemble member of mirabai. She holds degrees from California State University, Fullerton (BA Music Education), University of Georgia (MM Conducting), and Michigan State University (DMA Conducting).
Bass-baritone Alan Dunbar is a versatile performer, lauded for his beautiful tone and his nuanced musical and textual interpretation. Spanning music from the 17th to 21st centuries, his repertoire includes art song, opera, concert works, folk, jazz, and popular music. Performances include world premieres of solo vocal works by Libby Larsen, Elliot Carter, Nico Muhly, and Scott Gendel. He has been praised for his work as bass soloist in Bach’s passions and cantatas with Voices of Ascension, Bach Society of Minnesota, Bach Roots Festival, Madison Bach Musicians, and Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra. Alan’s work on the opera stage includes numerous principal roles with Madison Opera (Magic Flute, Candide, Salome, Fellow Travelers, La Bohème, Barber of Seville, Dead Man Walking, She Loves Me); the title role of Britten’s Noye’s Fludde at Santa Fe Opera; Prophet/King in Dark Sisters (Nico Muhly) with Gotham Chamber Opera and Opera Philadelphia; Bluebeard’s Castle with Natchez Opera; and as Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin at the Tanglewood Music Festival with Renée Fleming and Peter Mattei. He has also collaborated with choreographer/director Mark Morris in performances with the Mark Morris Dance Group, as well as in the Stravinsky chamber opera Renard. In addition to large-scale works with orchestra, Alan has performed solo recitals across the US, and he made his European recital debut at the Oslo Grieg Festival in Oslo, Norway. He was a founding member of the Minnesota-based internationally acclaimed chamber vocal ensemble Cantus, with whom he recorded ten albums and appeared as a soloist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, at the Oregon Bach Festival, the World Choral Symposium, and the Polyphonia Festival in Normandy, France. Alan holds a BA in music theory and composition from St. Olaf College, and an MM and DM in vocal performance from Indiana University. He currently serves as Professor of Voice at Winona State University.
Liz Pearse delights in untangling the gnarliest musical knots. Possessing an intimidating set of skills, a penchant for novelty, and “a voice made of arrows forged in a volcanic pit, transforming the didactic and mundanely intellectual into actual fire”, Liz is known by most as a performer of deadly accuracy who produces a beautiful sound – and lots of it. Her unusually flexible and colorful voice lends itself to a variety of repertoire from medieval to modern, but she is most often found performing music by living composers, having premiered countless works of vocal music by composers from around the world. Recently, Liz made her Ordway solo debut singing Osvaldo Golijov’s Oceana under the baton of Dr. Ahmed Anzaldúa with Border CrosSing Choir, an ensemble she is privileged to work with as a soloist and chorister. An avid chamber musician, she is a member of Quince Ensemble (a treble quartet dedicated to fostering the creation of excellent chamber vocal music), and Damselfly Trio (a flute/harp/voice ensemble shattering notions what sonic spaces these instruments can occupy). When she’s not working with her chosen collaborators, Liz performs at the piano as an avid self-accompanist. She has commissioned over a dozen works to play and sing, and her recording of Roger Reynolds’ self-accompanied Sketchbook for The Unbearable Lightness of Being was recently released on Neuma Records’ For a Reason. In addition, she is an enthusiastic clarinetist with the La Crosse Wind Symphony and Concert Band, and recently added piano accordion to a long list of instruments she loves to play....