President
Cynthia Hoff

Cynthia Lee Hoff, soprano. Before moving to the southwest, Cynthia was a Vocal Performance student at Oberlin Conservatory. She received her Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Grand Canyon University and holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance Pedagogy at Arizona State University. Her performances include various roles in Lyric Opera and Musical Theatre, as well as singing in prestigious choirs that have toured the United States and Europe with whom she has soloed in Carnegie Hall, and Notre Dame Cathedral. Cynthia has sung the National Anthem at Bank One Ball Park, composed and recorded two original songs, as well as a full length CD of inspiring hymns. Cynthia's most recent award was the 2nd place National Winner in the American Mothers Association Vocal Competition in 2006. She has also performed sacred and patriotic concerts in various community events, including during a recent trip to the Ukraine. . In addition she is actively involved as a vocal adjudicator for vocal auditions, and has held various musical leadership roles at her church.

Cynthia joined the Chandler Gilbert Community College Music Department as Adjunct Music Faculty in the spring of 2007 in addition to her private studio in Gilbert. Cynthia's students have been NATS Winners, Arizona Regional and All State Choir participants. Several of her students continue on with vocal pursuits at the college level and have performed leading roles in local community musical theatre.

Along with her family she loves to hike, golf, swim and enjoy the mountains. She and her husband have lived in Arizona now for over twenty five years, and have two wonderful kids, both now in college.

Vice President - Membership
Jenny Armendt

Jenny Klein Armendt, mezzo-soprano, received her B.M. and M.M. in voice performance from the University of South Carolina and studied in the doctoral program at Northwestern University. She has performed in master classes of Gerard Souzay (French mélodie) and Ralph Appelman (vocal technique), and has coached privately with John Wustman in song literature. Her public performances include many solo recitals, and appearances as featured soloist in chamber music, orchestral, choral, oratorio and operatic performances. Recent performances include a program at the Kerr Cultural Center in Scottsdale, AZ, presented with Christine Parker, titled The Art of Beautiful Song, and a program of French cabaret music titled An Afternoon in Paris. Before moving to the Phoenix area, she taught voice at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio and at Capitol Conservatory of Music in Bexley, Ohio. Ms. Armendt currently teaches private voice in Scottsdale.

Secretary
Kaarin Safsten

KAARIN SAFSTEN - soprano, has taught voice for 10 years and is in her
fifth year teaching collegiate music courses. She currently teaches at
Chandler-Gilbert Community College in addition to maintaing a private studio.
Ms. Safsten has sung several operatic roles, including Fiordiligi (Cosi fan
tutte), Marie (Wozzeck) and Electra (Idomeneo). She has also sung, recorded,
and toured the United States as a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Ms. Safsten holds a Master of Music (Voice) and Performance Diploma in
Professional Opera Studies from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Music
Performance and Pedagogy (Voice) from Brigham Young University.

Deborah Raymond
Soprano Deborah Raymond has sung extensively in Europe and the United States.  Her debut as Salome in 1988 at the Semper Opera in Dresden in Joachim Herz's production was televised throughout Europe. OpernWelt wrote: "Deborah Raymond's voice culminates in a rapturous top. One has seldom experienced such a sensitive princess since Cebotari". Subsequently Ms. Raymond has performed the role of Salome in other German theaters, with Utah Opera, Opera Carolina, Arizona Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera and covered in the Luc Bondy production at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and in the Peter Hall production at San Francisco Opera.

Other roles performed include Marie in Wozzeck, Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, and Gerhilde in Die Walküre, singing at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Stadttheater Aachen, Opera Forum Enschede/NL, the Netherlands Opera, Bolshoi Opera of Belorus, Minsk, Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels.

She recorded die Frau in Erwartung with the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, and has performed it in the US. She was Eine Dirne in the world premiere of Reigen by Philippe Boesmans at the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Strasbourg and the Théatre du Chatelet in Paris, directed by Luc Bondy. Reigen is available on Compact Disc It was filmed for European television.

Added to her repertoire in the US are Mimi in La Bohème, Nedda in I Pagliacci, Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly and Tosca with Indianapolis Opera, Virginia Opera, Florentine Opera, Opera Carolina,  Mobile Opera, Pamiro Opera, Nevada Opera,  and Sacramento Opera. Her Marie in Wozzeck with Spoleto Festival USA was a personal triumph, where she was also featured in Schoenberg’s second String Quartet,(also performed with the Chicago String Quartet for the Sedona Chamber Music Festival). Of her Tosca one critic wrote, "Although Raymond's voice is more rounded, less reedy, she often reminded me of the legendary Magda Olivero".

Ms. Raymond is Assistant Professor of Voice at Northern Arizona University. While teaching full-time, she has performed Cio-Cio San and Tosca with Nevada Opera, Tosca and Mimi in Michigan, and has appeared as soprano soloist in the Verdi Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Samuel Barber’s Knoxville:Summer of 1915, Mozart’s C Minor Mass and Britten’s War Requiem with the Flagstaff Symphony.  She has premiered new works with the NAU Orchestra, and recently performed the Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with this orchestra as well as the Missoula Symphony, where she also sang the Poulenc Gloria. Last season she performed scenes from Tosca with the NAU Orchestra.  In 2009 she will perform Donna Elvira in Arizona Opera’s new production of Don Giovanni.