Choir Camp >Faculty

Camp Director - Karen Soderberg-Sarnaker
Dr. Karen Soderberg-Sarnaker is the Director of Vocal/Choral Activities and Chair of the Department of Music. She earned degrees of B.MEd. from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon; M.MEd. from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, M.M. and D.M.A. in Conducting and Vocal Performance from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. She studied conducting under Brock McEhleran, L. Stanley Glarum, Norman Luboff, Paul Salamunovich, Maurice Skones and Eric Ericson in Stockholm, Sweden.

Dr. Sarnaker's choral program is noted for its excellence, and, for its performances of music of many cultures. Highlights of the choral program include performances of Handel's Messiah, Brahms's German Requiem, Orff's Carmina Burana, Poulenc's Gloria, Hadyn's Nelson Mass, Mozart's Requiem with professional orchestras and soloists. Dr. Sarnaker has also conducted the Goldsmiths University of London Chamber Choir and University Chorus. She also performed with the Kalina Choir, who specializes in Russian Choral Music, at the Royal Festival Hall in London, England and the Asia Pacific International Choral Institute Chamber Choir in Singapore. She will be taking the FSU Chamber Choir to China this spring performing in Beijing and Chansha, Hunan.

She is active as a guest conductor, solo performer, adjudicator and clinician.

Tenor Jonathan Hodel
Jonathan Hodel is the head of Opera Theatre and teaches all opera related courses, including Diction for Singers, Vocal Pedagogy, Applied Voice, Opera History and Opera Workshop. He received his B.MEd. degree from Valparaiso University, a M.A. in Choral Conducting from the University of Iowa, a M.M. in Vocal Performance and his D.M.A. n Vocal Performance and Vocal Pedagogy from Indiana University.

Dr. Hodel has appeared in opera, concert and oratorio in the United States and in Europe. With over thirty-five roles in his repertoire, he has appeared the Pittsburg Opera, Opera San Jose, Asheville Lyric Opera, Bayshore Lyric Opera, St. Petersburg Opera, the Heschise-Stattstheater (Wiesbaden, Germany), the Compagnia d'opera italiana di Milano international tour, the Pine Mountain Music Festival and the Breckenridge Music Festival. He was an apprentice artist with Central City Opera, Opera Theater of Saint Louis and the John E. Connelly Pittsburgh Opera Center at Duquesne, where he performed the role of Rinuccio in the world premier of Michael Ching's, Buoso's Ghost.

As soloist, Dr. Hodel has performed Mendelssohn's Lobgesang, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Choral Fantasy, Berlioz's Te Deum, Britten's St. Nicolas, Handel's Messiah, Rachmaninov's The Bells and Verdi's Requiem.

Mezzo-Soprano Patricia Kelby
Patricia Kelby teaches voice at FSU. She is a diplomate of the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where she completed a five-year full scholarship graduate program. While there she was a featured soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, the Bucks County Playhouse, and National Educational Television's productions of Opera Theatre and Portraits in Music, and sang with both the Philadelphia Grand and Lyric Opera companies.

After moving to New York, she continued her studies with the renowned Marinka Gurewich, performed at Carnegie Hall and as a soloist on several occasions with the American Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Leopold Stokowski. She has performed both staged and concert versions of many operas, including Aida, Don Carlos, Carmen, Cosi Fan Tutte, Cavalleria Rusticana, Samson et Dalila, Der Fliegende Hollander. She is equally at home with lieder, art songs, and musical theater pieces.

Ms. Kelby also maintained a voice studio in Westchester County, New York. Because of her love of the great sacred choral literature, she continues to do solo work with many choral/orchestral groups, including the acclaimed Festival Choir and Orchestra, and in collaboration with her colleague, Judith Brown, conducts yearly choral workshops and clinics. Always a student, she annually attends Voice Department Master Classes at the Chautauqua Institution's eight-week program; Marlena Malas,

Clarinetist and Theory Professor Mark Gallagher
Mark Gallagher holds a B.M. degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied with Lawrence McDonald. He also holds a M.M. degree from the Eastman School of Music having studied with D. Stanley Hasty and a D.M.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he studied with Dr. Linda Bartley. Dr. Gallagher has performed with the Contemporary Music Forum of Washington, U.S. Navy Band, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Ballet Orchestra, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Bronx Symphony, New York City Ballet Orchestra and the Skylight Opera Theatre Orchestra. Currently he is an assistant professor of clarinet at Frostburg State University and has held pedagogical posts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Carroll College.