Artistic Staff
Director
Dean Suess brings over 30 years experience conducting volunteers and professionals, largely as a full-time musician for the Lutheran Church. He holds a Bachelor of Music in French Horn Performance from Pacific Lutheran University and a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Washington. He held two graduate fellowships at the University of Washington for work in Medieval Music.
As a folk singer, Suess spent four summers touring the West Coast as a musical ambassador for PLU’s Alumni and Church Relations Departments. As a countertenor soloist, he has sung with most of the Northwest’s standing choirs, including the Versailles Ensemble, Pro Musica, Seattle Bach Choir, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Oregon Repertory Singers, Cappella Romana, Cantores in Ecclesia, the Tudor Choir, Seattle Chamber Singers, et al. He has sung with the Compline Choir for 20 years. He was the alto for the Wexford Ensemble, Circa 1600, and Schola Senexis (Tired Old Men), which enjoyed several grants from the Seattle Early Music Guild.
He has conducted for NBC television, sung for several local Northwest television programs, and recorded for the Canadian Broadcasting Company. In addition, he has served as a clinician for the Choral Conductor’s Guild, is an award-winning conductor of Los Angeles’ GLASS competition, and has directed choir for the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians’ Conference.
Accompanist
Seattle-based pianist Greg Smith is a versatile and adaptable pianist, who has played in a wide variety of groups and styles. Playing in solo, duo, small group, orchestral, big band, choral, liturgical, and theatrical settings, in every style ranging from ragtime, jazz, rock, fusion, latin, blues, and pop to classical, 20th century, baroque and musical theatre allows him to bring musicality and dependability to any musical group in contextually-based manner.
In the past few years, Smith has completed an Associate of Arts at Clackamas Community College, a Bachelor of Music at Cornish College of the Arts, and studied with Peter Mack, Jovino Santos Neto, Clay Giberson, Harold Gray, and Randy Halberstadt. Currently he works as a sideman and accompanist throughout the greater Seattle area, playing for multiple ensembles, schools and theaters.
Organization
Board of Directors
President - Carolyn Horlor
Vice President - Wynona Hasbrook
Treasurer - Hazel Jones
Secretary - Cindy Dedrick
Member-at-large - Phyllis Liljeberg
Our Mission
To be recognized as one of the premier choral groups in the Puget Sound area by:
• Creating an atmosphere of fun and musical fellowship for our members
• Being active in the artistic concerns of our communities
• Providing a rewarding, inspiring and enjoyable music experience for our audiences and our performers!
History
The 50-voice, Cascade Foothills Chorale is a non-audition adult choir
which began as a group of community members who gathered to provide
music at the 1976 Bi-Centennial celebration of local church. The group
began as BECCO (Buckley, Enumclaw Community Choral Organization)and was
later called Northwest ECCO (Enumclaw Community Choral Organization).
Now known as Cascade Foothills Chorale (CFC), the chorus continues a strong sense of tradition and community. CFC performs concerts semi-annually in spring and winter and enjoys bringing our music to the listeners by performing many additional concerts throughout our community.
Membership
Our membership continues to grow and we welcome new singers.
Rehearsals for the Cascade Foothills Chorale follow the typical public school calendar and occur on Thursday evenings from 7:00 - 9:15 in the Enumclaw High School Choir room. New members are welcomed twice yearly for the first three weeks of each concert season (September and January).
Select Ensembles
There are opportunities each concert season to audition for a select
ensemble that performs music in addition to that which the entire
chorale sings for the chosen concert theme.
Special Numbers
Each concert typically has opportunities to audition to perform a solo
or special group presentation that supports the concert's theme.
Dues
Membership dues are currently $40.00 per concert season ($80.00 per year).
Opportunities to Serve
Chorale members are also encouraged to support the good of the
organization by helping with the non-singing tasks of business needs
and concert production. The opportunities provided are (but not limited
to) the following:
Advertising
Publicity
Ticket Sales
Raffles
Catering
Grant Writing
Program creation
Poster creation
Staging
Concert Attire
Program Scripting
