Summit Choral Society Staff

DR. FRANK C. JACOBS, Founder/Artistic Director

Dr. Jacobs has taught elementary, junior high, and high school music in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and California, and served as director of choral activities for five years each at DePauw University and at the University of Akron. During this time, he devoted much of his interest and energies to the study and performance of major choral/orchestral works, and continues to have a primary interest in that area of performance. In the spring of 2000 he became the recipient of one of four Ovation Awards presented by the state-wide organization VARN (Vocal Arts Resource Network) for "instilling and inspiring the love of vocal music through his work with children and adults, and through the Summit Choral Society's outreach into their whole community."

In the summer of 2005, Dr. Jacobs was privileged to be invited to conduct Bach’s B Minor Mass in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, China. As a result of that invitation, forty members of the SCS Masterworks Chorale and the West Shore Chorale of Cleveland combined with sixty-five singers from Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music to sing this monumental work accompanied by the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra to a capacity crowd. Reviews were universally outstanding and many friendships were forged.

In addition to his duties with the Summit Choral Society, Dr. Jacobs remains active as a popular choral clinician and guest conductor. He resides in Fairlawn, Ohio with his wife, Arlene.

MRS. GINNY DICKOS, Director of Finance and Development

Mrs. Ginny Dickos is excited to be entering her second year as the Summit Choral Society’s Director of Finance and Development. She has already been associated with SCS for the last five years serving as an accompanist for the Summit Children’s Choir Program. She is a native of Akron and received her Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Akron. She has gained over fifteen years of accounting and tax experience with various Fortune 500 Companies and with several smaller corporations throughout Northeast Ohio and in Europe. She continues to maintain an interest in her ‘musical self’ by teaching private piano and serving as an organist at St. Hilary Church of Fairlawn and Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church of Akron. She and her husband, Alex, live in Akron with their two daughters Cristina and Alessandra.

MRS. BARBARA EATON, Training Level III

Mrs. 'Bobbie' Eaton is a native of Huntington, WV and received her Bachelor and Master degrees in music education and voice from Marshall University. She is enjoying retirement after thirty-five years of teaching vocal music in the Akron Public Schools. She served as a director of the citywide May Festival Select Choir for fifteen years and her choirs have sung in many community programs and special events throughout Akron. Mrs. Eaton has been a member of the Masterworks Chorale since its inception and this is her sixth year on the SCC music staff after a six-year hiatus as director of the very first Summit Children’s Choir.

MRS. ARLENE JACOBS, Touring Choir

Mrs. Arlene Jacobs holds Bachelor and Master degrees in Music Education from DePauw University (Green-castle, Indiana). She has taught music for public schools in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and California and is currently in her nineteenth year teaching elementary music, K-4 at Arrowhead Primary School in the Copley-Fairlawn City Schools. She is an active member of the Ohio Music Educators Association (OMEA), American Orff-Schulwerk Association (OAKE), American Kodaly Educators, and the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). Mrs. Jacobs sings with the Masterworks Chorale, and is now in her fifteenth year as director of the SCC Touring Choir.

MRS. LAUREL LABBE, Concert Choir

Mrs. Laurel Labbe is in her fifth year as a member of the Summit Children’s Choir Staff. She has Bachelor of Arts degrees in both English and Music from Duke University and a Master degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Massachusetts. Her Kodaly training has been taken at Cleveland State University. Mrs. Labbe is in her eleventh season as Director of Choirs for the Orrville City Schools and as conductor of the Orrville Community Chorus. Her professional affiliations are ACDA, OCDA, MENC and OMEA. She has sung with the Masterworks Chorale since moving to Akron in 1997 and lives in Copley with her husband, Ed and their two children.

MS. JENNIFER MIDCAP, Director of Operations and Marketing

Ms. Jennifer Midcap, from Hartville, Ohio, is happy to be the Director of Operations and Marketing for the Summit Choral Society. She graduated magna cum laude from Malone College (Canton, Ohio) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Arts and extensive coursework in music. Jenn is an accomplished flutist who has been playing the flute for over 14 years, and has been singing publicly for approximately five years. She frequently shares her music by performing in church services, nursing homes, weddings and other functions, and always welcomes the opportunity to play and sing in new venues. Jenn is also the Director of Music at Oak Hill Presbyterian Church in Akron, where she directs the Chancel Choir and Bell Choir, along with organizing numerous other ‘musical’ tasks. Jenn is in her third year of singing in the Masterworks Chorale and also occasionally plays her flute with several SCS choirs.

MR. ROBERT D. MOLLARD, Associate Director and Accompanist

Robert Mollard is beginning his fourteenth year with the Summit Choral Society. He also serves as principal key-boardist of the Akron Symphony Orchestra and Asso-ciate Director of the Akron Symphony Chorus as well as Organist/Choirmaster of Faith Lutheran Church of Fairlawn. His rather eclectic professional career has included work with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Pops, Telarc Records, and with recording artists including Vladimir Horowitz, Victor Borge, John Browning, Andre Watts, Dave Brubeck, Sherill Milnes, Chick Corea, Richard Tucker, and Kathleen Battle. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Conducting from the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and holds an Associate Certificate with the American Guild of Organists (AAGO).

He is the Founder and President of Mollard Conducting Batons Inc., the leading manufacturer of products for professional conductors worldwide. When not performing, Bob is often found sailing Lake Erie in all types of weather.

MRS. JANELLE PHINNEY, Concert Choir Accompanist

Mrs. Janelle Phinney joined the SCC music staff last year as accompanist for the Concert Choir. Mrs. Phinney received her Bachelor of Music degree from Bowling Green State University and her Master of Arts in Religion from Yale University where she was a member of several prestigious choral ensembles including the world renowned Yale Pro Musica. She is a piano teacher as well as a collaborative musician at Mount Union College where she accompanies the choirs and performs with vocal and instrumental soloists and ensembles. She is in her third year as a member of the Masterworks Chorale and lives in Canton with her husband, Nate.

MRS. KATHY REICHENBERGER, Touring Choir Accompanist

This is Mrs. Kathy Reichenberger's eleventh year serving as accompanist for the SCC Touring Choir. During that time she has been an integral part of their growing musical success and continues to be much more than just ‘accompanist’ to the many SCC singers she has nurtured over the time she has been affiliated with the program. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Southwest Baptist University and her Masters Degree in Piano from the University of Akron. Mrs. Reichenberger has accompanied for many choral ensembles including those at Southwest Baptist University, the University of Missouri, Vennard College, and currently at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio where she teaches piano and serves as coordinator of accompanying. She lives in North Canton with her husband, Douglas, and their two daughters, Rachel and Robin.

MRS. JAN RODEFER, Director of Singer Personnel

This year marks Jan Rodefer’s eleventh year as a member of the Summit Choral Society staff and her eighteenth year as a member of the Masterworks Chorale. She retired after thirty years in education and continues to enjoy working with children and youth through the Summit Children’s Choir Program, often traveling with the Touring Choir on their international tours. She is the widow of Chuck Rodefer (first president of the SCS Board of Directors), has four children and five active grandchildren. Jan continues to dedicate to the Choral Society the same organizational expertise and unbounded energy that she was known for throughout her teaching career. She lives in Cuyahoga Falls with her two Cavalier King Charles dogs, Ally and Spirit.

MRS. KAY SHUE, Training Level IV

Mrs. Kay Shue is in her fourth year as a member of the Summit Children’s Choir music staff. She is originally from Kidron, Ohio and received her Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Bowling Green State University. Since then she has completed Kodaly Levels I, II and III and has recently completed her Masters of Music Education with an emphasis in Kodaly from Capital University. She teaches fifth and sixth grade general music in the Orrville City School District and directs the Harmony Children’s Choir at the Kidron Mennonite Church where her husband, Terry, is pastor. Mrs. Shue’s professional affiliations are with MENC, OMEA and OAKE.

MRS. MELISSA SMITH, Training Level II

Mrs. Melissa Smith has enjoyed the love of music since a very early age and has been performing vocally since high school. She rejoined the Summit Children’s Choir Program staff last year after a ten-year hiatus. She received both her Bachelor and Masters degrees in Music Education from the University of Akron and has been teaching in Kent’s City Schools for the past fourteen years at elementary and middle school levels. Melissa has also been choir director of the Mogadore United Methodist Church for the past fifteen years. She resides in Suffield with her husband Dan and their two children, Melody and Rachel. When not teaching or performing, she and her family enjoy boating and camping on the Ohio River.

MR. HAL WALKER, Training Level I

Mr. Hal Walker is in his sixth year as a member of the Summit Children’s Choir staff having first joined us for Summer Vocal Camp 2002. He grew up blowing the harmonica along the banks of the Cuyahoga River. Born into a musical family, he has been singing since before he could talk and, since graduating from Northwestern University (Chicago, Illinois) with a Bachelor of Arts in history, has made his living as a freelance musician and music teacher. He is affiliated with Young Audiences of Greater Cleveland; is an Ohio Arts Council artist-in-residence in Ohio schools; and is Director of Music for the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Kent. He has distributed thousands of harmonicas (complete with beginning lessons) to students throughout Ohio. His original compositions entitled My State Ohio and Home in Ohio were a significant part of the Summit Choral Society’s Ohio Bicentennial Concert in the summer of 2003.