Personnel
STAFF
Dr. Kathleen McGuire, conductor
CWO has performed under the baton of Dr. Kathleen McGuire since 2005. McGuire has conducted choirs and orchestras worldwide since the 1980s. She was the founder and conductor of Australia’s first all-women orchestra in 1990 and served as the first woman artistic director of the 200-voice San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, 2000-2010. She is the recipient of The American Prize in Conducting: Excellence In Music Education Citation 2010 and she is a 2010 KQED Local Hero.
McGuire was the founder and conductor of Australia’s first all-women orchestra in 1990, and served as the first woman artistic director of the 200-voice San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (SFGMC), August 2000 – December 2010. McGuire recently founded and serves as artistic director of Singers of the Street (S.O.S.), a choir for people who are homeless or disadvantage and those who support them. She has conducted major orchestral, choral, and operatic projects in Australia, England, and the United States since the 1980s.
McGuire earned a Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2000, a Master of Music degree from the University of Surrey, UK, in 1996, and studied composition, music education, and conducting at the University of Melbourne, Monash University, and the Victorian College of the Arts. Dr. McGuire has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Rotary International Ambassadorial Fellowship, Pi Kappa Lamba – the National Music Honors Society – and she was selected as a Community Grand Marshal for the San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade and Celebration in 2006. April 22, 2010, was declared by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom as Kathleen McGuire Day, recognizing a decade of service to the San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. McGuire’s complete biography is listed in Who’s Who in America,Who’s Who of American Women, and Who’s Who in the World.
Other credits include The Women’s Philharmonic, Goat Hall Productions, the Empyrean Ensemble, Sacramento Ballet and Opera by the Bay (Sausalito). She has conducted at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Sydney Opera House, Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, Millennium Park Jay Pitzker Pavilion, and Salle Wilfrid Pelletier in Montreal. In 2006 she directed the Festival Choir at the Opening Ceremony of the Gay Games in Chicago for an audience of 30,000 with pre-recorded music performed by CWO. She is a published composer, arranger and musicologist, and is sought after as a guest conductor and clinician. Kathleen McGuire’s complete bio can be found at: www.kathleen-mcguire.com
Jessica Bejarano, assistant conductor
Jessica Bejarano was appointed assistant conductor of Community Women’s Orchestra in September 2011. Maestra Bejarano also serves as Music Director of West County Winds; Assistant Conductor of the Peninsula Symphony; Assistant Conductor of the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony; and Artist-In-Residence with LEAP where she develops and implements Kinder through 5th grade music education curriculum.
Maestra Bejarano earned her Associates of Fine Arts in Music Education from Casper College; a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Wyoming; and her Master of Arts in Conducting from the University of California Davis. In September 2010, Maestra Bejarano was selected to attend a Master course with Maestro Jorma Panula and the Rousse (Bulgarian) National Philharmonic where she performed works by Edward Elgar and Hector Berlioz in Rousse, Bulgaria.
During the summer of 2007, Maestra Bejarano was selected to attend the International Academy of Advanced Conducting in Saint Petersburg, Russia where she received “Honorable Mention” for her performance with the Classical Symphony Orchestra of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Maestra Bejarano was invited back by the Academy (IAAC) in 2008 to continue her studies and perform in Urbino, Italy. During the same summer, she also attended the International Institute for Conductors in Bacau, Romania where she conducted The Philharmonic Orchestra “Mihail Jora” of Bacau in two separate performances.
Maestra Bejarano has served as Artistic Director of VOICES Lesbian Choral Ensemble; Artistic Director of the Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus; Music Director of the Davis Summer Symphony; Assistant Conductor of the University of California Davis Symphony Orchestra; Assistant Conductor of the University Chorus and Chamber Singers at the University of California Davis; Music Director of GLAM Youth Choir; Guest Conductor with the Beloit Community Orchestra, in Beloit Wisconsin; and Guest Conductor with the University of Wyoming Symphony Orchestra in Laramie, Wyoming.
Sandra I. Noriega, Strings Attached artistic director & conductor
Sandra I. Noriega began serving as co-conductor of Strings Attached in 2011. Sandra received a full scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, becoming the first woman to graduate with a degree in Percussion Performance from both the Conservatory in 1983 and CSU East Bay, where she earned her master’s degree in 1985. Sandra held a tenured position as Principal Timpanist with the Women’s Philharmonic from 1981 to 2004, and has been honored on numerous “Who’s Who” lists. She has recorded four CDs with The Women’s Philharmonic(CWO’s former professional ‘parent’ organization) on the Koch International label. Sandra served as a professor of music at the college level for 11 years, and at the high-school and elementary levels since 1975. She has produced and directed public performances including a Community “Sing-It-Yourself Messiah” in Oakland, Ca. Sandra also conducts the Bay Area Asian Children’s Percussion Ensemble, an outreach program of the Wisdom Culture and Education Organization. In 2005, she became the founder and director of The Bay Area Women’s Percussion Troupe, a professional group dedicated to highlighting and promoting the presence of women in the field of Percussion Performance.
In 2008, Ms. Noriega completed an intensive Post-Master’s Program earning a Professional Performer’s Certificate in Instrumental Conducting at California State University, Sacramento. In addition, she has recently become founder and Music Director of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music’s Symphony Orchestra, in addition to the Youth Symphony, and Percussion Ensemble. In August of 2009, Sandra was unanimously elected by the Board of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music to serve as its Co-Director. From 2008 – 2010, Sandra worked for Education Through Music Bay Area, as a Field Supervisor overseeing Music Educators throughout the Bay Area. Sandra was appointed as the assistant conductor of CWO for the 26th season, 2010-2011. Sandra also teaches privately in her percussion studio in Castro Valley.
June Bonacich, Strings Attached assistant director & assistant conductor
June Bonacich first came to CWO in 2009 as a composer and percussionist. She began directing the new ensemble Strings Attached in 2010.
A San Francisco Bay Area composer, educator, pianist and percussionist, Ms. Bonacich began her musical life at the age of five when she began playing piano. In 1989 she returned to music in earnest when she began composing musicals for her son’s school. Since then, she received her BA in Music from Sonoma State, her AA degree at Mendocino College in Ukiah, and in 1999 graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with a Master’s degree in Composition, where she (twice) received the Kris Getz Composition Award.
Ms. Bonacich currently teaches Musicianship, Composition, and Early Childhood Music classes in the San Francisco Conservatory’s Preparatory and Adult Extension division. She has also served on the faculty of the Walden School, the San Francisco Boys Chorus, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Her hilarious musical, Group Therapy, was premiered by the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco in 2006 in San Francisco and Chicago. Recently, CWO premiered Ms. Bonacich’s Fanfare For Tradeswomen (March 2011), and the Oakland Youth Orchestra performed her composition: Rumplestiltskin later the same month.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CWO’s Board of Directors consists of at least seven women elected for a one-year term by the orchestra membership.
- Anita Engles – president (violin)
- E. Gilliam – vice-president (trombone)
- Barb Dornseif – treasurer (trombone, tuba)
- Audrey Nelson – secretary (violin)
- Linda Kay (viola)
- Sandra Regan (viola)
- Valerie Ruma (violin)
- Beth Voge (flute, librarian)
- Marcia Weisman (french horn)
