Corey Holt Merenda will be celebrating her 10th year on staff with GCYC this season. As accompanist for Le Petit Choeur, she has toured throughout the United States, Scotland, England, Wales, and China. She received her Master of Music from the Eastman School of Music and is active both as performer and teacher. Ms. Merenda has performed and recorded a wide variety of music, specializing in 20th and 21st century piano works.  Her solo CD, Unmistakably Modern, was released in January 2003 and features many works written specifically for her. She has performed on over two dozen recordings, both classical and pop. 

Ms. Merenda serves as Vice-President of the Bonk Festival of New Music, an annual concert series in Tampa, FL featuring avant-garde music from around the world, and has been a core performer at this festival since 1992.  As a member of “Confluences”, a trio consisting of trumpet, trombone and piano, Ms. Merenda has performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and many other venues throughout the east coast. 

http://www.bonkmusicfest.com

Kelli Cavender is the accompanist for the Cadet Choir after joining the Gulf Coast Youth Choirs in the winter of 2004.  She is from Birmingham, Alabama, but she attends school here in Florida.  Kelli received her A.A. degree from Florida College in May 2006.  She currently is a junior at the University of South Florida, where she has received both academic and music scholarships.  She is studying piano with Dr. Averill Summer, and her plans are to obtain an undergraduate degree in Music Education. 

Kelli began private piano lessons at age 7 and, while only in the sixth grade, she began accompanying her middle school's choirs.  She continued to accompany school choirs through high school while also being a member of the women’s choir, chamber choir and show choir band.   Her experience has included accompanying instrumentalists as well as performing solo pieces.  Kelli also worked as a lab assistant in the group piano class for piano majors at Florida College and is a member of the Collegiate Music Educators National Conference. 

Mary Gant is a graduate of the University of South Florida with a degree in piano performance.  Mary has been an active accompanist in the Tampa Bay Area for many years, including playing for GCYC from 1993-1995.  She has also served as an accompanist for dance classes and for various ensembles for the USF College of Visual and Performing Arts, and was a teacher of Kindermusik for the USF Community Music Division. She has played for numerous Bay area theatrical productions, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Fiddler on the Roof, Nunsense, The Sound of Music, Godspell, and The Fantasticks.  Mary is currently the music director at St. Paul Catholic Church in Carrollwood, along with her husband, Russell. 

Teresa Ancaya frequently performs as a piano soloist and chamber musician in central Florida. While a sophomore at Florida Southern College, she was a winner of the 1989 West Coast Chopin Competition. She received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at the University of South Florida, Tampa. She served as an accompanist for various groups at USF from 1989-1999. Ancaya was on the piano faculty of the Community Music Division from 1996-1998 concurrent with accompanying for Dr. Lynne Gackle with Le Petit Choeur and the Gulf Coast Girl Choir. Ancaya was a featured soloist with the Florida Orchestra and has performed numbers of concerts with its members. In 1999, Ancaya taught piano at FCS in Lakeland. Later that year, she moved to Miami where she was engaged as an accompanist for the voice and string departments at Florida International University and the University of Miami. She instructed class piano at FIU and played several concerts during her stay in the Miami-Dade area. She performed with voice professor Ed Pierson, who formerly sang with the New York City Opera. After relocating to central Florida in 2002, Ancaya worked as an accompanist for the Gulf Coast Children's Choir under the direction of Margie Smith. Since then, Ancaya has served as an accompanist for Southeastern University and  Florida Southern College. She was a soloist with the Imperial Symphony Orchestra in 2006 and rehearsal accompanist for the production of "L'elisir d'amore," an opera by Donizetti. Ancaya is looking forward to an exciting year with the Gulf Coast Girl Choir for the 2007-2008 season.

Directors