January 26-27, 2024
All-Carolina Select Choirs

Moira Smiley is a Singer / Composer who creates and performs new work for voices.  A musical polyglot, and vocal shape-shifter, her voice – and composing – are heard on feature films, BBC & PBS television programs, NPR, and on more than 60 albums. She accompanies herself with banjo, accordion, piano and percussive movement, and when she’s not leading her own group, moira smiley & VOCO, Moira has toured with Indie artist tUnE-yArDs, Irish super-group, Solas, The Lomax Project and Billy Childs’ “Laura Nyro Re-Imagined”.  She’s also toured with Paul Hillier’s Theater of Voices and KITKA. A well-known choral composer (recent commissions include Los Angeles Master Chorale, Ad Astra Festival, ACDA) and arranger, there are millions of singers around the world singing her works. In 2018, she released a solo album and choral songbook called ‘Unzip The Horizon’.

Karla Mundy is a vibrant, soulful and diverse vocalist, pianist, arranger and choir leader. She conducts community choirs in Vancouver, North Vancouver, Bowen Island and Nanaimo. Karla leads harmony singing workshops and performs extensively throughout BC and Alberta. She also organizes workshops and music trips through her organization SongRoots. She is a founding member of The Shirleys, an all-female acapella sextet; TriVo, a vocal trio with Brian Tate and Dawn Pemberton; and Plough, an old-time string quartet. Karla specializes in vocal traditions and rhythms, and is passionate about “getting music off the page” and learning to embody the rhythm of the music.
 

Dawn Pemberton has deep musical roots that take her powerful voice from gospel and soul to jazz, funk and world music. She has become a staple of the Vancouver music scene and can often be found tearin’ it up as a vocalist, teacher, facilitator, choir director and “go to girl” for live performances and studio sessions. A passionate songwriter and performer, Dawn crafts her music with a sense of adventure, quirkiness, and serious groove and shapes it into her own unique and dynamic package.
Tight, expressive and bold, Dawn will hit you where it counts, funk you up and make you say “Go ‘head!”
 

Gregory Fletcher is a versatile, award-winning artist thriving in the greater Los Angeles area. As a vocalist originally from California’s Inland Empire, he has become a multifaceted musician, obtaining session work in various musical genres including R&B, jazz, gospel, pop, classical, musical theater and folk. Gregory has recently finished his studies at the prestigious Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University Long Beach, focusing his education towards a degree in Jazz Studies. Fletcher has received numerous accolades over the years, including a full tuition Jenkins Scholarship, two Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival soloist awards, and the chance to perform around the world, spanning from the Monterey Jazz Festival, multiple ACDA and JEN conventions, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, to venues in Europe including St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and the Eisteddfod competition in Llangollen, Wales. He has performed alongside world-renowned artists including The New York Voices, M-Pact, Kurt Elling, House Jacks as well as R&B artist Ledisi and American Soul band Frankie Beverly and Maze.

 

Jake Asaro holds a Bachelor’s of Choral/Vocal Music Education from CSULB’s Bob Cole Conservatory of Music. He currently works as a freelance conductor and vocalist in the LA and OC area. Jake is an Associate Conductor with the South Bay Children’s Choir in Torrance, as well as leading a choir of Honda employees called the “Sounds of Honda.” As a choral vocalist he sings with LA-based social justice choir, “Tonality”, led by Dr. Alexander Blake and the OC based “Meistersingers” led by Brian Dehn. Jake has also worked as a studio singer for several projects, including the recent film “Dark Encounters” by Strathie Studios.