Jeanne Kelly, Founder
Jeanne Kelly is the founder of Encore Creativity for Older Adults, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing an excellent, accessible, and sustainable artistic environment for older adults over 55 years of age, either beginning, intermediate or advanced levels, who seek arts education and performance opportunities under a professional artist.
Jeanne Kelly’s career of over forty years has produced a unique blend of experience as a vocal performer, teacher, conductor and music administrator. She earned an undergraduate degree in voice performance and piano from the University of Findlay and a master’s degree in voice performance from the Peabody Conservatory.
Mary Ann East (DMA, Boston University; MM, George Mason University; BME, Indiana University) has taught music to ages 3-93. She is a former Fairfax County Public School music teacher where she taught elementary general music through high school choir. Mary Ann has also adjudicated and guest conducted throughout the state of Virginia. In 2013 she founded Capital Harmonia, a local women’s chorus whose mission is to bring music composed by women and for women’s voices to the DC area through partnerships with local women’s organizations. Mary Ann is currently the Music Director at Community of Faith UMC in Herndon, adjunct professor at George Mason University, and owner of Monarch Music, offering private piano and voice instruction in northern Virginia.
Stephen Harouff is the conductor or the Columbia and Towson Encore Chorales. He is also the Music Director and Organist at Towson Presbyterian Church. As a collaborative artist he has performed with the Annapolis Opera Company, Peabody Opera, the US Naval Academy Band and Annapolis Wind Symphony. He holds a Master of Music degree in Organ from Peabody Conservatory and has undergraduate degrees in music education and piano from West Virginia University.
Joey Hoopengardner is the conductor for the Southern Maryland Encore Chorale. Joey taught choral music in the St. Mary’s County Public Schools for 33 years. He has been the guest conductor and adjudicator for various elite honors choirs and choral festivals across the state of Maryland. Early in his career, as a founding member of the Hollywood Harmoneers, Joey recorded six studio albums and traveled the Eastern seaboard performing with his gospel band. He served as the musical director at Lexington Park United Methodist Church for over 20 years.
Deborah Int Veldt has a B.S. in Music Education from the University of Maryland in addition to many years of private training in vocal performance, working with such luminariesas Ruth Drucker and Molly Donnelly. She taught secondary vocal music in the Montgomery County, MD school district for 20 years and has taught voice and piano privately in her home for the past 15 years. In 1994, Ms. Int Veldt joined the Frederick Chorale (where she met her husband Nick) with whom she is a frequent soloist and the soprano section leader. She is the Music Director at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick and leads a 30-voice adult choir there. She has high hopes of starting a children’s chorus at the church in the near future.
David Brian Lang is a prominent choral conductor, vocal coach, professional accompanist and concert organist throughout the greater Washington area. He has prepared choruses for performance in numerous concert halls, and worked with such notable conductors as Emil de Cou, Placido Domingo, Marvin Hamlisch, Kurt Masur, and Leonard Slatkin. Lang is now in his thirteenth season as artistic director for The Reston Chorale.
Ingrid Lestrud enjoys an active career as a conductor and educator. She currently serves as the Principal Associate Conductor for the National Children’s Chorus in Washington, D.C., and her choirs perform at major concert halls throughout the country including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the Kennedy Center. She has recently served as the Director of Choirs for the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, the Assistant Conductor for Symphony Nova in Boston, MA, and as Director of Choirs and Voice Department Chair at the Merit School of Music in Chicago, IL. Prior to her conducting studies, Dr. Lestrud earned a Bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Lawrence University. She holds her formal conducting degrees from Southern Methodist University where she studied with Paul Phillips, and Northwestern University where she studied with Victor Yampolsky.
DAVID SIMMONS, who is no stranger to Encore, was raised in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania. Upon graduating from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA in 1988, David moved to Washington, DC, where he attended The American University, Washington College of Law, and where he lived for 33 years. After a short career as a litigation and real estate attorney, David returned to his true passion, music, where his career has taken him from the music classroom to the church organ and choir loft, and from work as a recital soloist and accompanist to a variety of conductor's podiums, stretching from choral and orchestral work to turns in musical theatre, jazz and opera.