Music

Staff Singers

Diane Plaster

Soprano Diane Plaster, a Southern California native, received her degree in vocal music from California State University at Northridge, after which she studied voice privately with noted voice instructors including Shigemi Matsumoto, and worked closely with the USC Opera Department performing as well as assistant directing. She has extensive experience as a concert soloist and stage performer, and has performed and toured with several choral groups including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Chamber Singers, and the Roger Wagner Chorale. She teaches children's music for Music Rhapsody in the South Bay area, as well as continuing her work for the L.A. Opera Production Department.

Rachelle Fox

Soprano Shelly Fox joined the Choir in the Fall of 2003. She received a B.A. from Syracuse University, then pursued a career as a folk singer-songwriter in Nashville before leaving to attend Indiana University's Early Music Institute, where she earned a Master's degree in vocal performance. Currently she is a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale and has done a number of performances with Musica Angelica, including concerts at the Getty Center. She was featured in a production of "L'Orfeo" by Monteverdi in Vancouver and in Long Beach Opera's production of "Euridice." She has sung for the past several years at All Saint's Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills.

Sara Campbell

Alto Sara Campbell, a native of Pacific Palisades, joined the Choir in 2000. After completing a B.A. in Latin American Studies and teaching bilingual elementary school, she earned a second Bachelor's degree in Vocal Performance/Opera at Cal State Long Beach. She has sung Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, Bastien in Mozart's Bastien and Bastienna, Prince Orlovsky in Strauss' Die Fledermaus and Dorabella in Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte. For the past two seasons she has sung in the Opera Pacific Chorus and the Los Angeles Opera Chorus. Before coming to Saint Matthew's, Sara sang with the Choir at Saint Cyprian Roman Catholic Church in Long Beach.

Rose Beattie

Alto Rose Beattie joined Saint Matthew's Choir in 2002. During the summer of 2002, she also served as Music Director for Saint Matthew's Day Camp. Ms. Beattie received her Bachelor's degree in Vocal Performance from the Thornton School of Music. She has performed as a soloist in Italy’s Marche region, with the Seattle Opera Outreach Program, and with the Lyric Opera of Los Angeles. In addition to opera, Ms. Beattie has sung backing vocals for America’s Millennium in Washington D.C., Michael Jackson, and the Lawrence Welk Stage Show, as well as for Apple Computer and Home Depot. In April 2003, Rose appeared with the Los Angeles Lakers, singing the National Anthem for their final home game of the season. When not performing, Ms. Beattie works as a certified massage therapist and also teaches private voice lessons to students referred to her from UCLA, Santa Monica College and Music Rhapsody.

Pablo Corá

Pablo Corá (tenor/hautecontre) joined Saint Matthew's Choir in January 2004. Pablo began singing and playing recorder as a child in his native Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he completed a trilingual baccalaureate from Barker College. He later completed a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from Ithaca College. He is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Early Music Voice Performance. He performs regularly with the Concord Ensemble, Musica Angelica, The Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Singers and Cappella, and has toured with Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices. Pablo has performed as a soloist in the U.S., Europe and South America, in a vast variety of repertoire ranging from early music and oratorio, to twentieth-century opera. His recorded credits include Harmonia Mundi USA, HM France, Dorian Recordings, Gothic, TCM and other independent labels. He has been a member of the music faculty at the San Diego Early Music Society workshop. In his spare time, Pablo can be found sharing his time among his four nieces and nephews who live in Miami and Northern Argentina.

Tim DeWitt

Tenor Tim DeWitt joined the Choir in 1998. Tim started his music and theater career in early grade school when his 3rd grade teacher passed him off to the choir teacher so she could get a break for a few hours a week. Tim never looked back. He won numerous scholastic awards and scholarships, culminating with a stint at the prestigious Eastman School of Music, where he studied with the famous tenor Seth McCoy.

More recently, he won the Valley Theatre League’s Artistic Director’s Merit Award for Best Actor in a Musical for 1999. His Spring 2000 engagements include "Funny Girl" at Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Center (March 24th – April 2nd), and as Pinkerton in Capitol Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly in Sacramento. This coming season he will be singing with the LA Opera. Tim also appears regularly in Disneyland’s "Animazement" stage show and with various symphony orchestras locally and across the country.

Michael Stevens

Bass/Baritone Michael Stevens is a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma. After graduating form Baylor University with a degree in music education, Mike continued his education in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, completing a Master's degree in vocal performance. Recently Mike has sung with the Pacific Chorale and the John Alexander Singers, Los Angeles Chamber Singers, San Diego Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Long Beach Opera, and USC Opera. Mike keeps busy by teaching as well as performing. Currently Mike is teaching full-time at the Hamilton High School Academy of Music (a magnet school of the Los Angeles Unified School District), at the Colburn School, and he has a few students at Pasadena City College. In his spare time Mike is the associate producer of Chorus America's nationally syndicated radio program "The First Art," heard in Los Angeles on KUSC-FM on Sundays at 12:00. This is Mike's eighth year singing at Saint Matthew's.

Patrick Bell

Bass/Baritone Patrick Bell received his Master's of Music degree from UCLA in 2004 under Professor Juliana Gondek. His concentration is classical opera and art song, although he got his start in, and still loves singing, Broadway repertoire. Patrick has performed as a soloist with the Angeles Chorale in Haydn's Mass in Time of War, conducted by Paul Salamunovich, and as Pilate in Bach's The Passion According to St. John, conducted by Donald Neuen. For many years he was a section leader with the Crystal Cathedral Choir, directed by Donald Neuen, broadcast every week to millions of viewers worldwide. He sings with the Los Angeles Opera Chorus on the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

In addition to his singing experience, Patrick enjoys a career as a professional magician, entertaining audiences all over Los Angeles with his unique blend of sleight-of-hand and comedy.

Patrick joined the Choir in the Fall of 2004.

Adjunct Staff Singer

Robin Guyett-Neenan

Soprano Robin Guyett-Neenan has recently retired from her duties as Staff Singer but is ready to help out on special occasions. Robin is an accountant for the television industry by day (currently working at Nickelodeon) and a cellist by night. Currently she is studying voice with Louis Lebherz of the Los Angeles Music Center Opera. She has studied cello with Alayne Armstrong, Victor Sazar and Eileen Strang and is principal cellist with Saint Matthew's Chamber Orchestra, Music Theater West Civic Light Opera, and The Magnetic Ragtime Orchestra. She freelances with many other groups in Southern California including Thousand Oaks Civic Light Opera, South Bay Civic Light Opera, Torrance Symphony and various churches. She is a former member of the American Youth Symphony, Four Seasons Symphony, guest artist for the Cathedral of St. Luke in Orlando, Florida, and was principal cellist for the Long Beach City College Symphony, Chamber Orchestra and the Bellflower Symphony.

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