Young Voices Staff

Jena Dickey - Founder and Artistic Director

Director of Concert Choir, Signature and Cantus

Our founder has always had a burning desire to inspire people with vocal music, and what better way to do so than by leading an organization that gives thousands of children the skills necessary to develop their voices and musical talent? Her Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from the University of Texas (Austin) and her Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Colorado (Boulder) formally prepared Jena for this mission. Her postgraduate study through Choral Music Experience (Doreen Rao), the Kodály Institute (in both the U.S. and Hungary), Toronto Children’s Chorus Symposia (Jean Ashworth Bartle), Creating Artistry (Henry Leck) and other specialized courses has propelled her to the forefront of children's choral organization leadership. In addition to inspiring her choirs to achieve excellence, Jena has led over 100 individual children through successful auditions for national and regional honor choirs and has coached two boys to win international solo competitions in the U.S. and Wales. She has prepared children's choruses and soloists for many of the leading choral and instrumental conductors in the state. As a leader in the field, Jena has served the Colorado chapter of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) as R &S  chair for Children’s Choirs and the Organization of American Kodály Educators as a member of the National Children’s Choir Committee. She is currently ACDA’s Southwestern Division Children’s Choir R&S Chair. Her moments of greatest joy are found in the highs of rehearsals and performances of the Young Voices choirs and the Sing A Mile High International Children’s Choral Festival.

Chrys Harris - Festival, Tour and Program Director

Chrys Harris is the Program Director and Tour Director of Young Voices, as well as the Founder and Festival Director of Sing A Mile High (SAMH) Children's Choral Festival. A native of Wales, Chrys received her Bachelor of Science degree with Honors in Psychology from The Open University of Wales. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and a Certificate of Choral Management from Chorus America. She completed her Master of Nonprofit Management degree at Regis University in Denver in 2001. She is also certified to teach KinderMusik. Chrys's innovations for Young Voices include the SAMH vision and its highly successful implementation. For SAMH, she has engaged and featured several world-renowned composer-conductors, including Dr. Rollo Dilworth, Dr. David Brunner, Bob Chilcott, Paul Caldwell, Sean Ivory, and Dr. Catherine Sailer. She also initiated the Master Classes in Conducting taught by Dr. Sailer. For Young Voices, Chrys created the first Young Voices Yearbook and the Young Voices leadership program, with its Choir Council and Young Ambassadors. She has created and directed Young Voices tours to seven U.S. states, including Hawaii, and to seven European countries.

Margie Camp - Administrative Director and Director of TrebleMakers and Cantus

Margie is the Administrative Directo and directs the TrebleMakers and Cantus for Young Voices of Colorado. She is on the music education faculty at Metropolitan State College of Denver, where she teaches the music methods classes and supervises student teachers. Mrs. Camp taught public school music for 30 years and retired from the Cherry Creek School District in 2004 after spending 15 years as choir director at Campus Middle School. Mrs. Camp also served the Cherry Creek School District as the music coordinator. Margie is SWACDA President and has been Program Chair for the SWACDA 2008 and 2010 Conferences. She has served both Colorado ACDA and Colorado Music Educators Association in many leadership capacities. Margie has served as clinician, adjudicator and director for workshops, contests and honor choirs throughout the United States. Prior to coming to Colorado, Margie taught in San Antonio. While in Texas, she served the Texas Choral Director’s Association as Secretary/Treasurer and was on the board of Texas Music Educator’s Association. Mrs. Camp received her Bachelor of Music Degree from Trinity University, her Master of Music from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and her Specialist in Education from the University of Colorado at Denver.

Paul Smith - VoiceMale Director

Paul Smith received his undergraduate degree in instrumental music from Lawrence University in Appleton Wisconsin. In the mid-1970’s, he attended the University of Colorado at Boulder and earned an MME degree in choral music. At CU, Paul studied voice with Dr. Barbara Doscher, and choral conducting and literature with Dr. Lynn Whitten. Paul has spent most of his professional life teaching high school choral music. After several years in Iowa, he began in 1976 at Niwot High School in Longmont, Colorado. In 1982 he came to the Cherry Creek School District where he taught choir and directed musicals at Cherry Creek High School and Overland High School. He was a member of the cadre that developed Grandview High School and was the choir director and Performing Arts Coordinator at there from 1997 through 2004. He retired from public school teaching in June of 2004. He is currently directing the Lamont Men’s Choir and teaching choral literature at the University of Denver. Paul is a life member of the American Choral Directors Association and has served twice as President of the Colorado chapter of ACDA.

Gretchen Timmer - TrebleMakers and Cantus Accompanist

Gretchen Timmer started accompanying rhythm band in kindergarten and has continued to love making music with others. She earned a B.A. at Hastings College in music education and piano/organ where she studied with Warren Scharf, and an M.M. at University of Nebraska- Lincoln in music education with a piano component and study with Larry Lusk. She taught music in Omaha and Lincoln schools and retired from the Cherry Creek Schools in 2006 after teaching 23 years at High Plains Elementary. She has served numerous churches as organist and/or choir director. Besides serving as a collaborative accompanist for Young Voices, she is organist/choir director/ music director at St. Joseph Episcopal Church in Lakewood. She is co-founder of the Joyful Orange Music Scholarship for which she teaches piano. Her passions are peace, spiritual studies, and helping young children to learn and experience music. She loves to attend hymn festivals and music performances from diverse cultures.

Jane MacQueen - Concert Choir and Signature Accompanist

Jane MacQueen, Concert Choir and Signature accompanist, currently serves as staff accompanist for the choirs at Grandview High School and is in her 7th year as an accompanist in the Cherry Creek School District. She previously accompanied the choirs at Campus Middle School and Cherry Creek High School including the Meistersingers and Girls’ 21. She has enjoyed the honor of performing upon several occasions with selected choirs at the Colorado Music Educators Conference. Jane has performed with choirs under the direction of Anton Armstrong, Randall Stroope, Hillary Apfelstadt and Dennis Keene. She performed with the 2004, 2005 and 2008 Colorado ACDA Honor Chorus, and the 2008 Colorado All-State Women’s Chorus. Jane has played for many choral, vocal and instrumental solo, and musical theatre performances and has served as organist/pianist at several Denver and Houston area churches. Jane MacQueen received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Oklahoma.

Marcia Koster, Substitute Accompanist

Marcia Koster received her Bachelors Degree in Piano Pedagogy and Organ Performance at the University of Montana and Masters Degrees in Organ Performance and Piano Collaboration from Eastern Michigan University after raising her ten children. In addition to accompanying for Young Voices, Marcia is the organist at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Littleton and the accompanist for the Colorado Women’s Chorale.

2012 Board of Directors:
Kathryn Ake, President
Mary Fran O'Connor, Vice-President
Carole Hedrick, Secretary
Jena Dickey, Founder/Artistic Director
Cathy Collins, Member-at-Large
Janet Lebar, Member-at-Large
Stephanie Johnson, Member-at-Large

Office Staff:
Anna Larsen, Administrative Assistant
Tedra Harring, Webmaster and Database