Music Director:  Jean-Marie Kent

Jean-Marie Kent is the choir teacher at Roosevelt High School in Seattle. She recently completed her doctorate in choral conducting from the University of Washington, Seattle, specializing in collaboration and community engagement. Recognized for her ability to get to the heart of singing, she is frequently sought after as a clinician for high school and community choirs. Before moving to Seattle, she taught music on Vancouver Island and in New York where she developed public school music programs for gifted children. She has conducted orchestras and choirs, including the University of Regina Chamber Singers, UW Women's Choir, Nanaimo Symphony Orchestra, and the Victoria Civic Orchestra. 

Accompanist: Clint Gawthrop

Originally from Detroit, Clint began piano studies at age eight.  Thereafter, he added violin, trombone, and organ to his repertoire.  In high school he began studies with Mischa Kottler, a prominent Detroit musician who had studied in college under Rachmaninoff.  While in Detroit, Clint began playing for First Presbyterian's campus ministry.  Moving to Seattle in 1994, he became a full-time musician in 1996, playing at churches, weddings, dinner parties as well as teaching.  Also in his musical adventures, Clint produced a variety show in 1998 and completed his first solo CD Brilliant Blue in 2001.  He is currently the organist/accompanist at West Side Presbyterian Church. 

Assistant Director: Evan Norberg

Evan holds degrees from Edmonds Community College (2003), and Central Washington University (2006), which includes a Masters from Central Washington University (2011), in both Choral Conducting and Vocal Performance.  He has been seen on stage with some of the worlds leading jazz musicians, is an budding arranger and composer, and has been a bass/baritone soloist for various local community and school groups for major works.  Evan is excited to be a part of the Seattle Choir scene as Assistant Conductor for the Magnolia Chorale,  a singing member of Choral Arts, professor at Shoreline Community College, and as Director of Choirs and Drumline at Nathan Hale High School.

Through inspiration and guidance by the great arrangers of the Pacific Northwest such as Vijay Singh, Kirk Marcy, Dave Barduhn and more, Evan has begun arranging his own jazz standards and dabbling in composition with a steady stream of charts for his own ensembles.  More notably, his arrangement of “Love You Madly” was premiered at the National American Choral Directors Association Conference in Chicago in 2011.