The concert will feature three of Pacific Chorale's children's choruses in a delightful holiday concert for all families to enjoy. Mary Ester Blakley, Pacific Chorale Children's Chorus Director , has taught at Villa Park High School and Cerro Villa Intermediate School for the past 18 years and has been choir director and head cantor at St. Nicholas' Catholic Church, Laguna Hills , for the past 14. East Carolina University in North Carolina. Now in its eighth season, the Pacific Chorale Children's Chorus appears independently as well as with the Pacific Chorale and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. It has toured on its own, taking third place at the International Music Festival at Bournemouth in l994, and this summer will tour to the Pacific International Children's Choir Festival in Eugene, Oregon.
Members rehearse weekly, studying vocal production, reading and notation and musical terminology.
In December, it will again join forces with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and the Joffrey Ballet in performances of The Nutcracker at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Zach presently teaches choral music in the Irvine Unified School District, grades one through eight. In addition to his school position, Zach is choirmaster at St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach, where he works with the adult choir, children's choruses, and handbells. Zach is married and has two children, ages two and four. Jean Turrell , Girls Chorus Director, holds degrees from the University of California, Santa Barbara and from Stanford University.