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Featured Singer, Carol Barbieri, alto section
The “grande dame” of the Master Singers, Carol has had many roles with the choir. She has been our treasurer, choral liaison, our business manager for 7 years, seamstress for the costumes (both making them and altering them as we change!), and she has also leapt into action anytime something special was needed--sometimes at the spur of the moment: “Carol, do you think you could find some way of hiding those wires with some kind of cloth for tonight?” Carol to the rescue!
As with most choir members, she comes from a musical family. Her mother taught piano. One of her sisters was a music major in college. That sister, Charmaine, sang with us when we went to Venezuela in 2000. All the kids played piano, other instruments and/or sang. That tradition carried on into the next generation; Carol’s children and nieces and nephews have also benefited from music having a central place in their family.
Carol is a native Californian, but because her husband of over 50 years, Richard, was in the military, she has lived all over the world. “She swept me off my feet,” he says as he shows me a picture of the beautiful 19 year old woman he married. They both talked about how they started their life “from scratch,” having to go to the “5 and
After many moves, they finally settled in Sacramento. Carol worked in Accounting for many years, but singing was always a part of her life. She had sung in the Yuba College Choir, a choir in the Philippines, and in 1977 she joined what was then called the Richard Hull Chorale, and that eventually, after a few transitions, became the Sacramento
Outside of the Master Singers, she has sung with her sisters’ choirs, which means she has sung all over Europe and has sung in Carnegie Hall! As you can see, music is in her blood! I asked her if there was something about her she thought the choir members might not know. She seemed puzzled, but Richard joined in quickly, letting me know that she had laid every one of the bricks on the patio we were sitting on – about 7000 in a beautifully round
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Nancy Balenzano is the alto section leader for the 2010-2011 season. She has frequently been a part of the leadership of SMS--in the Fall of 2000 she served as director during Hughes’ sabbatical and Nancy ably served as assistant conductor during the 2009-2010 season. Look forward to her expanded bio soon.
David Temme is the current tenor section leader. He studied piano from an early age and took up the viola, leading to four years as a member of the San Joaquin Youth Symphony. He started singing while in college and since has sung with many choral groups including the Stockton Chorale, Chico Opera Workshop, and the Sacramento Opera Chorus. David has been with the Sacramento Master Singers since 1986 and is thrilled to be starting his eighteenth season. “This choir has brought so many joys to my life. It is an honor to be part of a group dedicated to bringing magical choral performance to our community.” In addition to being the tenor section leader, David served SMS as treasurer for nine years. David spent 20 years as a manager in the banking industry. After five mergers, he went to work for the State of California where he is currently a unit manager for the Department of Personnel Administration. He enjoys gardening and cooking and can usually be found engaged in two favorite pastimes: puttering in the kitchen or pushing the lawn mower!
William Zinn, SMS Bass section leader, has spent his professional life dedicated to the Sacramento area's musical community as a teacher in the public schools, as a church chorister, and as a member of the Sacramento Opera Chorus for 19 seasons. Mr. Zinn serves as Artistic Director of the Sierra Music Mountain Camp. He was also Assistant Chorus Master with Sacramento Opera. He serves as president of the SMS Board. His students were invited to perform in Washington D.C. in April 2000 and with them he has collaborated with Michael Neumann and the Sacramento Youth Symphony in their Veterans' Day Concert series 2000 through 2003. After 18 years of service to the Sacramento City Unified School District, he has joined the music staff of the Davis Joint Unified School District and looks forward to many years of service to the community and students of Davis.
Each SMS member proves their independence on their singing part by participating in quartets, and Barbetta Laurelle is the quartet coordinator. She attended a school where music was given a high priority, learning soprano recorder in first grade and violin in second. By fourth grade she was in the orchestra and choir, and remained in each through High School graduation. The summer she was 14 she learned to play the guitar and has been a folk music aficionado ever since. She also began private voice lessons that year. Barbetta has a bachelor of music degree from CSUS, teaches private voice lessons from her home, directs her church choir, and teaches voice, choir and music appreciation at a local private school. She has two grown daughters who grew up attending SMS concerts and have very fine voices, and she has a cat that sings with her on pitch! In her spare time she loves to read and go to movies and regrets that no one will play the Lord of the Rings trivia game with her, since she is known to have lost count after her fortieth re-reading of the Trilogy. Barbetta joined SMS in the 1989-90 season and was soprano section leader from 1990 until 2009. When asked her favorite Master Singers memory she replied: “At the end of a Christmas concert when we surrounded the audience to sing and sign “Peace, Peace,” I noticed some audience members who were watching me intently. When the audience joined in, the grandmother bent to her granddaughter and started signing “Silent Night.” I still tear up when I think of it.”
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 Jenny Guemmer  David Temme  Nancy Balenzano  William Zinn  Barbetta Laurelle 
... the choir showed off its great capacity to deliver musical phrases and ideas with nuance and poise.
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