Alan Thayer, President

Alan founded Trinity Lyric Opera in 2005 with a view to providing greater performance opportunities in the greater Bay Area for audiences and performers alike. He holds a double B.A. in Theatre Arts and French from the University of the Pacific and an M.A. from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. As an oboist and English horn player, he has appeared with numerous orchestras throughout the Bay Area and has sung with the Oakland Symphony Chorus. He spent a summer as an intern with the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, where he was introduced to vocal coach Richard Wagner. He also served as Assistant Conductor of the Hayward Youth Symphony. His passion for opera includes vocal training with Mr. Wagner and Camille Mauranne in France. Alan has also received training in classical Ballet, and has studied with several recognized teachers, and has performed with the San Joaquin Concert Ballet, for which he also choreographed "The Planets" by Gustav Holst. He also appeared as Principal Dancer in a new setting of "Simple Symphony" by area choreographer Robert Ronan, and danced the role of the Burgermeister in a National Dance School Festival production of "Coppelia" in Saint-Quentin, France, partnering the former Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo star Solange Golovine.

More recently, Alan hosted the long-running "Sacred Concert Hall" program on national network radio, a position he held for ten years. He has traveled extensively throughout Canada, Europe and Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union, and has attended opera performances in many of the major European opera houses. He has also served as a free-lance conference interpreter, having interpreted for specialized agencies of the U.N. and NATO, and numerous multinational corporations and organizations across the Country.

 

John Schaff, Vice President

John Schaff is Branch Manager for American Home Mortgage in Folsom, California. He graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural and Resource Economics. Not one to shy away from a challenge, he has worked in accounting and finance in both corporate and entrepreneurial enterprises. His love of music performance goes back to grade school band as a trumpet player and on into High School Concert Choir and Chamber Ensemble, and has blossomed into a love of choral performance as a recent member of the Sierra College Concert Choir and Chamber Chorus. In addition, John is Director of the Foothill Bible Church Choir. Other interests include education, aviation and cooking. His dedication to Trinity Lyric Opera is deeply rooted in his appreciation for the performing arts of the highest quality.

Thad McKinney, Secretary and Treasurer
Thad has worked in radio broadcast management since 1963, and is serving currently as Northwestern Regional Manager of Family Stations, Inc. He is the current President of New Millennium Strings, and is the past President of First Baptist Church in San Francisco, and Abounding Love Ministries. Thad is active in recording and processing classical music in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also instructing a course in electronic media at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

 

Lawrence Duckles, Director, and Chair, Advisory Board

A native of Bakersfield, California, his family moved to Berkeley, where his father was head of the music library at UC Berkeley, when he was four years of age. He started playing flute at age six and joined the Oakland Symphony Orchestra at age 18, where he remained for 14 years, serving for 12 as Production Manager and the last two years as Music Librarian. Larry joined the Cabrillo Music Festival Orchestra in 1965 and spent the next 25 years with this fine ensemble as a musician. He became Music Librarian in 1974 and Personnel Manager in 1991. Larry joined the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra in 1975 and spent five years with the company, the last two as Music Librarian. He moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1979, where he free-lanced and worked for the Arizona Opera Company as a musician, and backstage as an Assistant Stage Manager.

Following a move to Irvine, California in 1985, he worked for a year as musician and Production Manager of the Riverside Opera Company. He joined the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in 1986 and spent the next five years as musician, Production Manager and Music Librarian. In 1991, Larry joined the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and spent the next twelve years as Production Manager. He resigned in 2002 upon returning to the Bay Area. He also served from 1990 until 2002 as House Stage Manager for the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

John Kendall Bailey, Director, and Member, Advisory Board

John Kendall Bailey is the Music Director and Chorus Master of Trinity Lyric Opera, Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, and the Founder and Music Director of the Berkeley Lyric Opera. He has been a guest conductor with the Oakland East Bay Symphony, Oakland Youth Orchestra, and Oakland Ballet, and music director and conductor for productions with North Bay Opera, Goat Hall Productions, Solo Opera, the Crowden School and Dominican University. He is also a composer, and his works have been performed and commissioned in the Bay Area and abroad.

Mr. Bailey also maintains a busy performance schedule as a bass-baritone, oboist, and pianist, and has performed with the San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Oakland East Bay, Berkeley, Redding, Napa, Sacramento, and Prometheus symphonies, American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Midsummer Mozart and West Marin music festivals, San Francisco Bach Choir, Coro Hispano de San Francisco, Pacific Mozart Ensemble, California Vocal Academy, San Francisco Concerto Orchestra, Masterworks Chorale of San Mateo, Baroque Arts Ensemble, San Francisco Korean Master Chorale, the Master Sinfonia, the Mark Morris and Merce Cunningham dance companies, Goat Hall Productions, Opera Piccola, the Berkeley, Golden Gate, and Oakland Lyric Opera companies, and many other groups. He has recorded for the Harmonia Mundi, Koch International, Pro Musica, Wildboar, Centaur, and Angelus Music labels.

Mr. Bailey has been a pre-performance lecturer for the Oakland East Bay Symphony and the San Francisco Opera, a critic for the San Francisco Classical Voice, a writer of real-time commentary for the Concert Companion, and has taught conducting at the University of California at Davis.

 

Jennifer Dirking , Director and Chair, Development and Fundraising

Ms. Dirking recently returned home to the San Francisco Bay Area after spending 17 years in Seattle, Washington. There she served as Annual Fund Manager for the UW World Series at the University of Washingtonâ��s Meany Hall, a program that presented international chamber music, piano, world music and dance. In her ten years with the program, she enjoyed seeing over 200 performances ranging from the Emerson String Quartet to Ensemble Tartit from Mali. As a member of the Seattle Opera Guild, she enjoyed supporting all aspects of the company, but especially their educational outreach programs. Seattle Opera repertoire inspired her appreciation of 20^th Century composers such as Marvin David Levy (Mourning Becomes Electra) and Daniel Catán (Florencia en el Amazonas), in addition to the more familiar works of Puccini, Verdi and Wagner. Her more recent experience as Director of Development for the Burke Museum of Natural History led to a passion for Native American Art, which she collects to this day. Jennifer currently serves as Associate Director at the Foothill - De Anza Foundation in Los Altos Hills, fundraising for a broad range of education initiatives, including a new Visual and Performing Arts Center on the De Anza College campus.

 

 

Alan Thayer, Executive Director

John Kendall Bailey, Music Director and Chorus Master

Lawrence Duckles, Production Director and Stage Manager

Patrick Brandon, Scene Shop and Carpenter

Lynne Hutelein Homeres and Deborah Pitts, Choreographers

Jimmy Lee Feinstein, Stage Manager, Webmaster and Graphic Arts

M. Pamela Lauser Esq., Legal Counsel

John Evans C.P.A. , of Hardin and Evans, Accountant