Laura Witte, Soprano

Laura Witte graduated with a Master’s Degree in Arts Administration from Indiana University. She’s a Hoosier, born and raised. She loves to travel, has two cats, and all things arts related. Laura started her career as Development Officer with The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in March 2023 and joined the The Santa Fe Symphony Chorus shortly after, in the fall 2023.

Kathleen Mead

I am a life-long singer; I discovered my musical passion singing in the kindergarten Christmas pageant and have been singing ever since. While still in college, I began singing with the newly formed Saint Louis Symphony Chorus under the direction of Thomas Peck. After five years, my teaching duties and a new family forced me to scale back my commitment. For a few years, I sang with various community groups.

I was thrilled to eventually be invited to join the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus—a professional a cappella chorus based in Saint Louis, Missouri. I was honored to sing with them for more than two decades. Concurrently, I performed with the Ellenwood Consort, an early music ensemble under the direction of lutanist, Jeffrey Noonan.

When a cross-country move landed my husband and I in Pennsylvania for two years, I sang with the Pittsburgh Camarata. Our next move brought us to Santa Fe where I’m delighted to be singing with The Santa Fe Symphony Chorus!

When not singing, I love to travel; most trips these days are to visit far-flung family members, including our three adult children. Our youngest is carrying on the family musical tradition as a pianist and composer in the Bay Area. When not singing or traveling, I am usually “playing with fabric” and enjoying the company of other fiber artists.

LaVelle Martin

LaVelle Martin grew up in a musical family. Her dad had a country western band and played engagements all over the Panhandle of Texas. He couldn’t read music, but played many instruments by ear—his specialty was the violin (or fiddle as it was known in Texas). Music has been an important and satisfying part of LaVelle’s life. When she was two or three years old she often sang in family friends’ homes with her dad accompanying her on the piano. Two songs she remembers well are “It’s a Sin To Tell a Lie” and “You, You, You.”…It must have been an interesting show.

After moving to Los Alamos at age nine, LaVelle continued to sing at many functions and for anyone who cared to listen. She took voice lessons in high school and participated in singing groups throughout her school years.

LaVelle is a retired teacher from the NM Public Schools. In 1974 LaVelle moved to Santa Fe from Albuquerque, where she had attended UNM. She began singing with the Chorus of Santa Fe in 1979, and when The Santa Fe Symphony decided to add a chorus she immediately joined. She has sung with them every season since. Perhaps she imagines her last breaths will be while singing with The Symphony and her wonderful fellow choristers.

Cathy Lewis, Alto

Alto Cathy Lewis joined The Santa Fe Symphony Chorus for the 2018-2019 Season, having just moved to Santa Fe from the Bay Area with her husband Jon and their two cats. Cathy’s work as a development professional includes several years with San Francisco Opera, and before that, as development director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Her choral singing experience began decades ago, in Portland, Maine, with her temple’s youth choir. In 2003,

Cathy joined the San Francisco Lyric Chorus, a small community chorus, where she sang and served on the board of directors until 2010. During that time she also sang with the choirs of Trinity Episcopal Church in San Francisco, and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Belvedere.

In 2010, she joined the 140-member San Francisco Symphony Chorus, under the direction of Ragnar Bohlin. Her eight seasons there included dozens of performances, led by Michael Tilson Thomas and an array of guest conductors, including Charles Dutoit, James Conlon, Ton Koopman, and Andras Schiff, among others. Cathy has also sung with the San Francisco Festival Chorus at the Grand Teton Music Festival, led by Donald Runnicles, and participated in the Berkshire Choral Festival in Canterbury, U.K. Choral singing is a source of great joy for Cathy, and she is delighted to be a part of The Santa Fe Symphony Chorus.

Carolyn Ives, Soprano

  Carolyn Ives began singing at age 5 in the Children’s Church Choir, in Duluth Minnesota, where her father was minister. From performing in the Adult Choir, she gained knowledge of classical music. She acquired experience in popular music in high school and in college,...

Ellis Grabe

A member of The Santa Fe Symphony Chorus since August 2018, Eilis Grabe sings with the St Francis Pontifical Chorus directed by Carmen Florez Mansi. He also performs for three masses at San Felipe de Neri Parish in old town Albuquerque, and with Lingua Angeli, a group of singers mostly from Our Lady of Assumption in Albuquerque, in addition to singing for the archdiocese’s television masses. Over the years, he was performed with two different folk groups—a Scots Gaelic and a Welsh singing group—as he enjoys singing old Irish songs, brought over from his grandparents who emigrated to the U.S. from Ireland. He himself lived there for many years with extended family, singing songs called “Sea’n No’s.” Ellis has been singing and playing music since he was 5 years of age. By 17, he was playing the violin, guitar, banjo, and mandolin. He and his sister used to sing at “Hootenannys” in the Washington, D.C., area when they were teenagers. In 1992, the duo made a CD of sacred music.
Ellis is currently researching and writing his family’s history, a genealogy project that focuses on his grandmother and mother’s legacies that he will eventually give to his family. He spent his career in the field of Pastoral Ministry, specifically hospital chaplaincy. He also taught for both public and private schools and, for a time, worked in corporate America. He is presently working hospice care which he believes to be the most important work he has ever undertaken. “It is a blessing to have the gift to sing,” he reports, “but more importantly, to give praise and attention to God.”
He is a member of the Pastoral Musicians Association and the National American Association of Catholic Chaplains. While he has lived in cities such as Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco and in various parts of Europe, Ellis reports that he doesn’t currently have a pet of his own here in Santa Fe, but that he particularly enjoys the company of cats.

Doug Escue, Tenor

Doug has sung first and second tenor with The Santa Fe Symphony Chorus since moving to Santa Fe in 1991. He and his wife, Laura, and their two sons, Nathan and Samuel, came to Santa Fe when Doug was called to serve as pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church.

He has enjoyed singing all his life coming from a family of singers and performers. His parents and family perform with Shady Grove Bluegrass.

Having sung for many years with the Santa Fe Men’s Camerata, Doug currently sings with Canticum Novum chorus. He considers it his greatest musical experience to have sung with the eighty voices of the 150-year-old Concordia Seminary Men’s Chorus of St. Louis Missouri.

Doug received his undergraduate degree in Theology from Concordia College in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he majored there in vocal music. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.

“I consider it a privilege to sing and support The Santa Fe Symphony and Chorus. For me, singing G.F. Handel’s Messiah is nothing less than a spiritual experience!” God bless the tenors—the backbone of every good chorus!

Bill Epstein, Accompanist

Bill Epstein began piano lessons at the age of eight in Linden, New Jersey. He studied for six years with Adeline Gerschenson, a local teacher, and one year with Vittoreo Versé, a professor at Rutgers University. From the beginning he played piano four-hands with his mother, eventually going through all of that extensive repertoire.
At the age of fourteen he and his family moved to Chicago. He took up his piano studies there with Rudolf Ganz, then eighty-six years old, a well-known Chicago teacher who had heard Brahms play.
Bill did his undergraduate college degree in music at Harvard University, where he had classes in theory with composer David del Tredici. He also participated in a chamber music performance class directed by Leon Kirchner. After college he lived for a time in Germany. While there he attended a summer music program at the Janacek Academy of Music in Brno, Czechoslovakia.
Back in Chicago, Bill’s activities included playing for the Chicago Children’s Choir, the Esperanza School, and the University of Chicago’s Gilbert & Sullivan Company. Eventually he went back to school, earning a master’s degree in music at Roosevelt University with a thesis on the music of Ernest Bloch.
In Santa Fe since 2002, Bill has played for Canticum Novum, the Santa Fe Waldorf School, the Santa Fe Community College Chorus, the Men’s Camerata, The Santa Fe Symphony Chorus, and the Santa Fe Women’s Ensemble. He enjoys the cultured life of Santa Fe and appreciates the milder climate and more relaxed pace of life here in Santa Fe.