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BIOGRAPHIES
John Montanero, Artistic Director
John comes from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Temple University's Esther Boyer College of Music. In the TU choirs John sang with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the batons of Eugene Ormandy, Ricardo Muti, and composer Chrystzoph Penderecki. In 1989 he earned a Master of Music degree at the University of the Pacific's Conservatory of Music (Stockton), studying voice with George Buckbee of the Finnish National Opera, choral conducting with Dr. William Dehning, current Director of Choral Activities at USC, and orchestral conducting with Peter Jaffe of the Stockton Symphony. John was a teaching graduate assistant in theory and composition and conductor of the UOP Orianna Women's Choir. He also served as Assistant Conductor of the 150-voice Stockton Chorale (1990-1999).
Cara Bradbury, Accompanist
Cara holds a B.A. in Music Composition from Mills College, where she studied with Darius Milhaud and Leon Kirchner. Her piano instructors have included Margaret Thompson, Naomi Sparrow and Nathan Schwartz. Cara has worked for many years in dance and theatre, and has toured and performed nationally with the Lewitzky Dance Company as Music Director and Resident Composer. She has also worked with numerous singers, choruses, churches, and opera companies, and is a long-time employee of the Theatre and Dance Department at U.C. Berkeley.
Francisco Ortiz, Assistant Conductor
Francisco is currently working on his Masters degree in Music Education at Holy Names University.  He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music with a minor in Religion from Dominican University in 2006, where he studied percussion with Ken Crawford of Pacific Sticks and choral/orchestral conducting and voice with Dr. Craig Singleton, Director of Music and Graduate Humanities at DU. Francisco has performed with the Chinese Christian Church Music Institute for Worship in their West Coast premier of Handel's Messiah sung in Mandarin; the DU Winifred Baker Chorale and Jazz Ensemble; Vallejo Music Theatre and Theatre Now, Marin. He currently serves as the Music Minister at Raphael's Church and Mission in San Rafael.
Rita Lilly, Soprano

Rita Lilly has appeared as a featured soloist with the American Boychoir, American Classical Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Artek, Bachworks, Bach Aria Group, Concert Royal, Levin Baroque Ensemble, and the New York Consort of Viols, among others.  As the soprano soloist of the Waverly Consort, she toured throughout the U.S. and abroad, including performances at Alice Tully Hall and Metropolitan Museum of Art.  She made her N.Y. Weill Recital Hall debut in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and has toured in recital with the renowned harpsichordist, Anthony Newman.   As a relative newcomer to the Bay area, Ms. Lilly has been a featured soloist with AVE, Baroque Choral Guild (now Cantabile), New Music Works, Magnificat, S.F. Concert Chorale, and numerous operatic and recital programs throughout the bay area, notably Musicsources and S.F. Opera.

Her recordings include three with the Waverly Consort; Handel and Vivaldi’s Dixit Dominus with the American Boychoir; Scarlatti’s St. Cecilia Mass on Newport Classic; Sowerby’s Medieval Poem with the Fairfield Orchestra; a German Baroque Christmas with American Classical Orchestra; and most recently Orff’s Carmina Burana with the S.F. Concert Chorale.
Chie Treagus, Alto
Chie Treagus, a long-time Bay area resident, is an accomplished Mezzo-Soprano with a warm, rich voice which can flow freely between the range of three octaves. Her musical training began early in her childhood in Japan when she started taking piano lessons. Ms. Treagus came to the US to pursue her passion for music. After she earned her Bachelor's Degree in Music from Sonoma State University, CA, Ms. Treagus continued her study with such notable teachers as Svetlana Nikitenko, renowned Ukrainian Soprano (voice), Marcie Stapp, San Francisco Conservatory Faculty (lyric diction) and Martin Rokeach, a leading composer in the modern classical music scene and a professor at St. Mary's College (composition). Ms. Treagus sang with Bay area Opera companies including Martinez Opera, Golden Gate Opera and Festival Opera. Also an avid educator, she is an award-winning music director of Solano Youth Theatre in Suisun, CA. Her artistic goal is to be always truthful and sincere and reflect in singing her own growth as a human being. Ms. Treagus lives in Richmond CA with her husband, Steve, a dog and three cats
Dean Christman, Tenor
Dean Christman has been singing in a wide variety of solo styles all his life - including many oratorio roles, stage appearances and contemporary Christian music recordings. He most recently appeared as Freddy in My Fair Lady at the Pleasanton Playhouse, and will soon serve as music director for their production of The King and I. Other stage roles include Lamar (Godspell), Fyedka (Fiddler on the Roof) and the role of Thomas in the opera I Am the Way. He is also a soloist with the Danville Community Band. Dean has been the featured with Singing City Choir of Philadelphia and the Temple University Concert Choir, and has been on several recordings of Praise and Worship music where he displays an impressive versatility in vocal style and presentation.

Dean has a Master of Music in Conducting from Temple University in Philadelphia, and his teachers have included David Shockey, Sharon Sweet, Philip Cho and Greta Csonka. Most of Dean's performance career has been as a musical conductor and director. His ensembles have performed in venues from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. to the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.
Richard Mix, Bass
Richard Mix appears with nearly a dozen Bay Area opera companies singing a repertoire that embraces Wagner and Monteverdi as well as Scelsi and Stockhausen. A former cellist, he made his singing debut as Truelove in Berkeley Contemporary Opera's 1992 production of The Rake's Progress and went on to the Darmstaeter Sommerferienkurse für neue Musik, to which he was re-invited with the Patenring Award in 1994 and 1996. Local premieres range from Arthur in Maxwell Davis' The Lighthouse to a rediscovered cantata by the nearly forgotten colleague of Buxtehude, Heinrich Pagendarm.