Faculty
Professor Rebecca Duren is Director of Choral Activities at Agnes Scott College, where she directs The Collegiate Chorale, Sotto Voce, and teaches applied voice lessons. Previously, Ms. Duren directed the Women's Chorus and applied voice lessons at The University of South Florida, and at the middle and high school levels at Darlington School, The Lovett School, and Holy Innocents Episcopal School. Ms. Duren has an extensive background as a professional vocalist, having been described as singing with "a clear, bright soprano" voice, in the New York Times. Ms. Duren has appeared numerous times with Miami-based choral ensemble Seraphic Fire, American Opera Theater, Atlanta-based choral ensemble Kinnara, and Musica Nova in Dallas, as well as making solo appearances with Miami Orchestra, Miami Baroque, The Firebird Orchestra, and The Grand Tour Orchestra, in New York City. Ms. Duren appears on the Grammy Award winning recording "Far in the Heavens: Choral Music of Stephen Paulus," with True Concord, and on two Grammy Nominated recordings, "A Seraphic Fire Christmas," and "Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem." Upcoming performances include an appearance with Kinnara at the Chorus America Conference in Atlanta, and 6 additional concerts with Kinnara. Ms. Duren has a Bachelors of Music in Voice Performance from The University of North Texas, a Master's of Music in Voice Performance from Peabody Conservatory, and a Master's of Music in Choral Conducting from The University of South Florida. Rebecca-Duren.com
Elise Eskew Sparks has been the Choral Director at Decatur High School since 2012. For some of these years, she concurrently served as the Director of Choral Activities at Agnes Scott College (2008-2019). Under her leadership, the Collegiate Chorale performed at the GMEA In-Service Conference in Savannah in 2011 and at Spivey Hall in 2014 and 2018. Elise has grown the choral program at Decatur High School from 35 to over 180 in nine years, leading the state in All State Reading Chorus participants and All State Chorus participants from a non-performing arts high school. In the spring of 2015, Decatur High chorus students performed in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin while on a tour of Ireland. Elise holds a Ph.D. in Music Education from Georgia State University, received a Master of Sacred Music in choral conducting from Emory University in 2005, and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1996). Prior to relocating to Atlanta in 2003, Elise taught high school choral music for 7 years in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Elise served as a church music director for over 15 years. A mezzo-soprano, Elise sang nine summers in the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus under the direction of Helmuth Rilling and Matthew Halls. She has sung in Carnegie Hall workshops under Ton Koopman and Helmuth Rilling and has sung with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Chorus. Elise currently sings in the Atlanta-based semi-professional group Coro Vocati. Elise and husband, Steve, are parents to 11-year-old twins, Meredith and Fisher.
Dr. Wooyoung Kwon received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance with a minor in Organ Performance from the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia. She received her Bachelor of Music degree in Composition and her Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at the University of Georgia. She graduated from Seoul Arts High School and studied composition at Ewha Womans University. Dr. Kwon has been teaching piano and composition at Agnes Scott College since 2002. At Agnes Scott she is the collaborative pianist for the Collegiate Chorale and accompanies vocal and instrumental students. She has been a collaborative pianist for the Choral Guild of Atlanta since 2003. Wooyoung has been serving as organist & pianist at churches in Atlanta area since 1994. Dr. Kwon has received the John Henry Dorminy Piano Scholarship and the University of Georgia School of Music Concerto Competition Award.
Special Guest
A high honors graduate in music from the University of Windsor (Ontario, Canada), Dawn-Marie boasts many awards, including Jamaica’s 2002 Edna Manley Award for Excellence in Classical Performance, a JAMI (Jamaican Music Industry Award) for Best Vocal Performer in Classical Music, prize winner in the prestigious Johann Sebastian Bach competition in Leipzig, Germany, a scholarship in Spanish music to Santiago de Compostela in Spain and was a finalist in the International Song Competition in Brazil. As one of Jamaica’s premier classical performers, Dawn-Marie enjoyed engagements in Jamaica with the National Chorale and Orchestra of Jamaica, Jamaica School of Music, Jamaica Musical Theatre Company and the Virtue-James Studio. As a now-native Atlantan, she has performed extensively with The Atlanta Opera for 13 years, singing more than ten roles, under the baton of former Artistic Director William Fred Scott. Also in Atlanta, she has performed solo engagements with the Grammy Award-winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra during their acclaimed summer series at Chastain Park, the Atlanta Bach Choir, the Cobb Symphony Orchestra and at Georgia State University. She is president of The Carilanta Players, a theatre group that performs pieces by Caribbean and American writers. Additionally, Dawn-Marie has performed in various special events throughout the Western hemisphere, including Jamaica, the United States and Canada. Currently she tours with musicians Sam Hagan and Mac Framton in An American Portrait.
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