biography
John St. Marie is a versatile musician, conductor, and teacher. Currently he directs the choir at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Whittier, and founded the Greater Whittier Area Interfaith Community Concert Series which has produced numerous orchestral and choral works. John maintains a studio in the Whittier area for both conducting and voice students, and serves as a music festival adjudicator and clinician for schools and churches around Southern California. This is John's second year serving as faculty in applied conducting at California State University, Los Angeles in their Three Summer Master of Music in Choral Conducting program.
John served as Assistant Conductor for the Concert Choir at the University of Southern California in 2007-2008. He also served as an Adjunct Faculty member teaching Undergraduate Conducting at California State University, Los Angeles. Recently, he conducted the choirs of the Los Angeles High School of the Arts in a concert featuring Handel’s Messiah. Both the California Music Education Association and the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts Education Series invited him to be a featured presenter.
John is a frequent soloist in the Los Angeles area and is known for his versatile, impassioned performances in various vocal styles. He has received critical acclaim for his solo work in Bach’s B Minor Mass and in works by Lili Boulanger with the Pacific Chorale and Pacific Symphony. As a featured soloist, John has performed throughout Southern California, Utah, Louisiana, Asia and Europe in works such as Orff’s Carmina Burana, Vaughan Williams’ Hodie and Mass in G Minor, Beethoven’s Mass in C and Ninth Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Conversion of St. Paul. John has also brought to life numerous operatic roles in productions of The Crucible, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Traviata, Die Zauberflöte, and L’elixir d’amour. When not performing live, John’s vocal talents can be heard on numerous movie soundtracks, popular video games and various artists’ albums.
John graduated with Bachelor degrees in Music Therapy and in Voice from Loyola University, a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from California State University, Fullerton, and is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Southern California in Choral Conducting.
