Artistic Staff & Singers

MARY KAY GESTON has been Great River Chorale’s artistic director since 2010 and artistic managing director since 2015. Previously she was associate professor of music at UNW, visiting professor of choral studies at CU Boulder, and director of choral activities at NSU. She has taught at UWRF, UMTC, UMN-Morris, CSP, and St. Olaf College, conducted the MMTA Honors Concert, and was founding director of the Fargo Moorhead Choral Artists and the Minneapolis Vocal Consort, associate conductor of Longmont Chorale, inaugural director of MN Chorale’s Voices of Experience, and directed church choirs for 21 years. Choirs under her direction have performed at state and regional ACDA, Chorus America, MMEA, and SDMEA conferences. She has prepared choirs for the SCSO and MN Orchestra, directed all-state and honor choirs in CO, MN, KY, ND, SD and WI, and guest conducted in Taiwan and South Korea. She has been a clinician or panelist at state, regional and national professional conferences for ACDA, AGO, CMS, NAfME, and NATS. An accomplished soprano, she sang professionally with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers on tour and at Carnegie Hall, and as a soloist with orchestras in MN, CO, ND, and SD. Geston has served in numerous elected and appointed positions in ACDA including as president of ACDA North Central Region and ACDA-MN, and chair of ACDA-MN’s F. Melius Christiansen Endowment Fund Committee. Mary Kay received ACDA-MN’s 2012 Choral Director of the Year Award. She has a DMA in choral literature and conducting from CU Boulder, an MM in choral conducting from UMTC, and a BA in vocal performance and teaching certification from NDSU.

BARBARA BROOKS is an active collaborative pianist, vocal coach, and music director in the Twin Cities and Saint Cloud. She has worked with Great River Chorale since 2015 and is in her 36^th year as pianist and choral advisor for the Minnesota Chorale. Barb is also in her third year as music director of Woven Voices, a Twin Cities chamber choir for experienced sopranos and altos from various Minnesota-based choirs. She has served as a vocal coach for the MN Opera’s Resident Artist program and currently is on the music staff of the Wesley Balk Institute. Previously she was music director at First Unitarian Society in Minneapolis for 33 years. Ms. Brooks has worked with various opera companies including Canadian Opera, MN Opera, New Orleans Opera, Opera Banff, Berkshire Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, KY Opera, as well as the UMN Opera and UNT Opera programs. She has been a music director for Theatre de la Jeune Lune and The Minneapolis Children’s Theatre Company, and coached opera at universities in TX, CO and MN. Barb holds an undergraduate degree in piano performance from Augsburg University, a master’s degree in piano performance from the UM Ann Arbor and has studied with György Sándor, Martin Isepp, and at England’s Britten-Pears School.