About the GSCC

Wendy McKee is originally from Chicago, Illinois and graduated from DePaul University with a Bachelor of Music degree with an emphasis on Vocal Performance. She was the Founder and Artistic Director of Brava!, a professional women’s ensemble from 2001–2009 and also served as the Music Director for St. Paul UCC in Palatine, IL from 2002–2009. McKee was the Artistic Director for the Palatine Children’s Chorus from 2002 to 2006, where she conducted the top 3 of their 5 choirs. In 2009, Wendy was promoted to manage the JW Pepper store in Kent, WA, which stalled all of her choral directing and singing activities. She worked extensively with Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska ACDA groups and was also on the board of the NW ACDA as the Industry Representative. Wendy worked with ACDA National from 2010 to 2016 on their National Convention booklets as well. In 2016, she retired from JW Pepper in order to spend more time with her daughter. Wendy’s daughter sings in Rainier Youth Choirs, which she loves. Since 2017, Wendy has served on the Board of RYC as the Marketing Chair person, assisting them in all manners of marketing and working with the fundraising team as well.

Aaron Giles enjoys finding ways to connect music and technology. He is responsible for developing GSCC’s online GIGS system, as well as day-to-day management of GSCC’s online presence, both at seattlesings.org and on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Outside of his GSCC activities, Aaron is the founder of the Summer Fling Singers, and an active tenor in the Vicars of Christ Church Compline Choir, and the St. Margaret’s Episcopal church choir. Aaron previously spent several years singing with the Seattle Bach Choir, and served for four years as General Manager of the (now defunct) Sacred Music Chorale. He is also the owner of the rehearsaltracks.net website, which presents singers with tools for learning their music and navigating through recorded rehearsal tracks.

Scott Kovacs is a professional choral musician and non-profit arts administrator in the Seattle area, currently serving as Executive Director of the professional choir Emerald Ensemble (which he helped found) as well as the Executive Director of the Medieval Women’s Choir. He is the immediate Past President of the Compline Choir at Saint Mark’s Cathedral (where he also sings) and has an active role in the musical life of Saint Mark’s. His arts consulting and leadership group, Arcadia Arts, assists small and mid-non-profits with development and organizational challenges. He also teaches private voice to a growing number of students with an emphasis on the aging voice. He is a founding (past) director of the Greater Seattle Choral Consortium and helped create the Seattle Sings Choral Festival, which he co-chairs.

Stephanie Harris is a lifelong choral singer, having sung throughout primary and secondary school and in the Pembroke College (Brown University) Glee Club under the direction of Erich Kunzel. Stephanie currently sings with the Bainbridge Chorale.

She is a past board member of the Bainbridge Chorale, serving over the years as Secretary, Treasurer and Vice President. In 2009, she retired from board service to become the chief administrator, assuming the post of Executive Director in 2014. Believing strongly in the Bainbridge Chorale mission of engaging the community in choral singing activities, Stephanie instituted several ongoing public-participation programs, including the annual Messiah Sing-along, a family-oriented caroling event each December, and a series of summer choral reading events.

Stephanie is a charter member of Schola Nova, a women’s ensemble that sings the office of Evensong monthly at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church on Bainbridge Island. In 2019, Stephanie co-founded, with colleague Ginnilyn Hawkins, the Constellation Choir, a chamber ensemble that performs with the Bridges String Orchestra, a Bainbridge Island-based ensemble. Her other passion, in addition to choral singing, is cultivating an ever-expanding collection of lilies at her Bainbridge residence.

Dr. Daniel A. Mahraun, in his third season as Artistic Director of the Seattle Bach Choir, is a freelance choral conductor, lyric baritone, and editor/arranger of music for choirs.

Since 2010, he has worked with the early music group The Rose Ensemble as an archivist, researcher, transcriber/editor, and performer. As such, he was instrumental in the production of their two most recent CDs, A Toast to Prohibition and Treasures from Baroque Malta.

Mahraun has served as Director of Choral Activities at Minnesota State University Moorhead and at Bethany College (Lindsborg, Kan.). For 10 years at the latter, he also served as Music Director of the Bethany Oratorio Society, whose appearances during the annual Messiah Festival of the Arts consisted of annual performances of Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. During several years on the Big Island of Hawaii, he also guest conducted with Early Music Hawaii and the Hilo Community Chorus.

He holds degrees from the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Northern Iowa, and Wartburg College.

David Rice is a current Board member and active Tenor with the Seattle SeaChordsmen. He also sings Bass at PRLC under the direction of Beth Ann Bonnecroy. He has been the writer, director, performer, organizer and emcee for 5 musicals and 5 Holiday Shows for the SeaChordsmen. He has been very encouraging of multiple other community choruses and youth choirs, involvement. The December Holiday Program involved 7 different choirs and over 200 performers. David brings a passion for performance and building community through music to the GSCC board. David’s day job is a Financial Advisor with Edward Jones and he also is on the board of the Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce.

A lifelong choral singer, Michele Yanow is Founder and former Board President of the Seattle Jewish Chorale. An East Coast native, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from Yale, where she was a devoted member/officer of the Yale Glee Club. Michele moved to Seattle in 1992, and sang with the Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society, Seattle Symphony Chorale (where she served on the Chorale Council), and HachiPele (a Jewish a cappella group at UW), before starting Seattle Jewish Chorale in 2008. She is a charter member of the Yale Alumni Chorus—with whom she has traveled and performed around the world since 1998—and Las Kantaderas del Noroeste, a new women’s vocal ensemble formed by Sarah Riskind to explore Sephardic choral music. Michele has worked as a theatrical scenic artist, bookstore owner, teacher, literary/cultural event series producer and boutique pastry chef/caterer, and has served on the boards and committees of several community non-profits. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two daughters, and, when not singing, can usually be found gardening, cooking, baking or painting.

Jeremy Edelstein is a conductor, singer, arranger, & writer new to the Seattle area. This year marks his maiden voyage as artistic director of the Northwest Chamber Chorus, and he sings and conducts regularly with groups across the city. He comes to the PNW from Chicago, where he earned a master's degree in choral conducting at Northwestern University under the mentorship of Grammy-winning conductor Donald Nally, and founded the Twinbird Project, a flexible vocal ensemble interested in presenting innovative concert programs in unconventional spaces. He feels equally at home with singers and instrumentalists, in a variety of genres, and collaborating across art forms. Poetry, fresh air, new music, and good coffee are the keys to his heart.

Rachelle Bunch's journey began in Eastern Washington, where she delved into her passion for jazz voice, piano, and singing. At Columbia Basin College in Pasco, WA, she honed her skills under the mentorship of Dave Cazier, performing with the vocal jazz group Freeform and learning the art of arranging vocal jazz charts. Continuing her musical education at Central Washington University, Rachelle contributed to both choral and jazz ensembles, further developing her talents in arrangement for vocal jazz groups.

A unique opportunity led her to Las Vegas, where she spent six years as a gondolier, serenading passengers with opera while navigating the canals of the Venetian. Amidst this adventure, Rachelle founded a professional caroling group and collaborated with the Las Vegas Philharmonic through the Las Vegas Masters Singers.

Since 2018, Rachelle has served on the board of directors for Wellspring Ensemble, channeling her passion for choral music into enriching her musical journey. This passion also serves as a respite from her demanding role as a community manager in the fast-paced world of multi-family housing in Seattle.

In recent years, Rachelle has ventured into composing choral music, embarking on an exciting new chapter in her musical exploration.