LEADERSHIP
John Nettles
Artistic Director John Nettles, a San Diego native, has been involved in the local art scene for multiple decades. After getting a degree in musical theatre, he immediately began his studies in classical music, studying with guitarist Robert Wetzel and singing with San Diego Opera. He began conducting and arranging while developing performing arts programs in local schools. He has spent much of his recent career as a conductor and composer. He is Artistic Director of Pacific Coast Chorale, Assistant Director of Center Chorale and is the founding Music Director for City Ballet of San Diego, where he has participated in many world premiere works involving orchestra, chorus and dancers. He continues to teach music for Vista Unified and was a teaching artist for San Diego Opera and City Ballet. He is a frequent performer for Pacific Lyric Association and Genesis Opera. He has commissioned original works for City Ballet and Arkansas Symphony. He owns and operates an events/entertainment company, A Class Act Productions. |
Rodney Girvin
Assistant Conductor & Accompanist Rodney Girvin is a classical pianist, organist, and private teacher. A San Diego native, he was a student of Ronald Morebello of the Kensington Trio. Under his tutelage, Mr. Girvin was the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including selection into the Music Teachers’ Association of California (MTAC) Young Artist Guild and 2nd Prize Winner in the Senior Division of the Helen B. Goodlin Foundation Piano Competition. Upon graduating high school, he accepted a music scholarship to study piano performance at the University of Missouri with Dr. Raymond Herbert. Recent notable performances include the World Premiere of San Diego City Ballet’s “Four Pair”, a contemporary ballet set to Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque, at the historic downtown Spreckels Theatre and solo recitals at the La Jolla Athenaeum Music and Arts Library and the Lyceum Theatre. Mr. Girvin serves as Director of Music & Organist at First Presbyterian Church of San Diego, Director of San Diego Street Choir, Assistant Conductor/Accompanist for Pacific Coast Chorale, and Dean of the American Guild of Organists, San Diego Chapter. He teaches private piano, organ, and voice lessons to students of all ages and abilities across San Diego County. |
Mari Cox
President Mari Cox joined PCC in Jan. 2017 and joined the Board in March of 2019. Her first position was Membership and soon after, added Librarian. In 2023, she became the Treasurer, and in Feb. 2024, the Board President. Growing up in Santa Barbara, her only singing experience was the middle school choir and her after school, high school “glee club”, led by the very popular Father Forrest McDonald, OFM - a Franciscan robe wearing, sandal tapping, chain smoking priest. Mari joined the U.S. Air Force and was stationed in England. She lived in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, the home of Benjamin Britten, where she enjoyed concerts at his Snape Maltings Concert Hall. After completing active duty, she joined the Air Force Reserve, returned to Santa Barbara to complete a B.A. and then a Teaching Credential at UCSB. Upon graduation, Mari was given a direct commission. After completing a Masters degree in Educational Administration, and being tenured in the San Diego Unified School District, Mari retired from teaching and as a Navy Reserve Officer, with 24 years of military service. In addition to learning and performing all genre of choral music, Mari loves to travel, read, foster puppies, and research her genealogical roots. 
Liz Lindenfeld
Vice President, Hospitality Chair Liz Lindenfeld has been involved with music and choral singing for most of her life. In addition to PCC, she has sung with such choirs as The New York Choral Society, The Vancouver Bach Choir, The San Diego Master Chorale, and The California Contemporary Chorale. She was assistant music director of Vox Nobili, a five-voice a cappella madrigal and caroling ensemble in San Diego. She has performed with The San Diego Gilbert and Sullivan Society and Euterpe Opera Company in Los Angeles. Liz holds a master's degree in Voice Performance from California Institute of the Arts and a bachelor's degree in English from Brandeis University. She was the Executive Director at Manhattan Reading Institute in NY, a remedial reading and math school for disabled adults who were referred by government agencies to improve their basic skills in preparation for advanced education or gainful employment. The mom of three daughters and grandma to a granddaughter and grandson, Liz served on PTA boards at her daughters' schools for many years, chaired the Governance Team at La Jolla High School, and was manager of two of her daughters' soccer teams. She also currently manages rentals for the condo in Maui she owns jointly with her husband, Michael. Liz joined Pacific Coast Chorale in 2015 and has been a member of its Board of Directors since 2016, serving in multiple positions, including President, Vice President, and Hospitality Chair. A native New Yorker, Liz has resided in San Diego since 1984. 
Ruth Turner
Secretary 
Sunny Menze
Treasurer 
Sue McConchie
Assistant Event Coordinator Sue McConchie started singing in a cherub choir in Keene, New Hampshire when she was 4 years old. She attended a large boarding school where music was as important as athletics, and sang in choirs and productions, including the annual Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. Sue earned a degree in occupational therapy from Tufts University in Boston, and participated in the Dedham Choral Society while in school and while in her early career. Always an adventurer, Sue traveled through Polynesia, stopping in Australia, where she met Don, her husband of 52 years. The couple lived in Melbourne for a few years and then went back to Keene where they raised their three boys. Back in Keene, Sue worked for the school district and mental health agency and participated in several choirs. She and Don moved to San Diego in 2010 to support one of her sons. In San Diego, she has sung with the First United Methodist Chancel Choir, Pacificaires, Masterworks Chorale, and of course Pacific Coast Chorale. She loves being a part of this wonderful choir group and is honored to be on the Board. 
Sharon Russakoff
Event Coordinator Sharon Russakoff has been a singer, a teacher and a librarian for over thirty years. Her background includes extensive research experience, information organization, budget management, outreach, grant writing, and musical and technical performance and support, in both bi-coastal and international venues. She has performed organizational and administrative functions in a major university, in middle-class and inner city public schools on two coasts, in prestigious private schools, public libraries, and a medical library in a major East Coast hospital, as well as conducting freelance research. Sharon has authored newsletters for several groups for over ten years, has coordinated volunteer groups and volunteered for the San Diego Symphony, the San Diego Opera, and numerous theaters. She also sews costumes for an iconic local theater. She is always looking for new ways to grow. 
Ann DePeyster
Member at Large Ann had a violin as a small child and took lessons at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music. She also enjoyed singing in her high school choir in Wisconsin. Early exposure to music made a lasting impression that took a long hiatus but resurfaced later in life. Undergraduate education at Pomona College and graduate studies at U.C. Berkeley’s School of Public Health were devoted entirely to other non-musical pursuits. The next 29 years focused on San Diego State University’s new Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) where she was among the founding faculty, developed and directed the Toxicology graduate program, and concurrently served as Director of the GSPH for six of those years. After leaving SDSU in 2012, one new goal became making music a bigger priority in her life. She joined the Chesapeake Chorale, a community choir in tidewater Virginia where she and husband Michael Kirk enjoy a second home when not at their main residence in La Jolla. She also took on maintaining their website, a skill she had to learn but also a responsibility she could reasonably fulfill while living at their main residence in La Jolla. She continues to co-manage the Chesapeake Chorale website and serves on their board of directors. She was thrilled to be introduced to the Pacific Coast Chorale a few years ago, thanks to Liz Lindenfeld. Having recently completed multiple terms on several other scientific and community volunteer boards and ceasing professional consulting activities, Ann will be offering more of her newly acquired free time to helping with various PCC board responsibilities. |