Joanne Hollenbeck received her BS degree with a major in voice at Suny/Fredonia, where she accompanied the Festival Chorus, Opera Theatre, numerous vocal and instrumental soloists, and was the organist and children's choir director for the Dunkirk Presbyterian Church. Her musical career included vocal music teaching in the East Aurora and Hamburg school systems, and organ studies under Frederick Burgomaster and David Bond. She has held positions at the Hamburg Christian Scientist Church, the Orchard Park Presbyterian Church, and is currently keyboardist at the Hamburg Presbyterian Church. Ms. Hollenbeck has accompanied choruses and soloists in the Western New York area and at summer music conferences in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina. A former Emergency Medical Technician, each January she spends a week in Haiti doing medical mission work with Functional Literacy Ministry. The Orchard Park Chorale is pleased to have had Ms. Hollenbeck as its accompanist for twenty five years.
Dr. Keenan-Takagi is an experienced choral director who has led many ensembles in Western New York including Freudig Singers, which she founded in 1984, and, more recently the Cheektowaga Community Chorus and Masterworks a la Carte. She is a frequent guest conductor at choral festivals and is music director at First Presbyterian Church in East Aurora, NY. She is an Adjunct Professor in the music program at Canisius College and a member of the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus Board of Directors. In Illinois, Keenan-Takagi worked with Civic Chorale and the Philharmonic Chorale.
Keenan-Takagi is a graduate of Orchard Park High School, State University College at Potsdam, Crane School of Music, the University of Illinois and University at Buffalo.
