Holly and I met at church and started dating during the Summer of 1987 after I sent her flowers on the day she got her wisdom teeth pulled.  Holly's mom thought the flowers were just a friendly "get well" gesture, but her dad knew better.  Anyway, the bait worked and I was able to snag my prize.  We were married August 15, 1992 in a beautiful ceremony among our family and friends, and are living happily ever after.

Holly, who was born and raised in Fountain Valley, California, spent much of her youth on the softball field.  She is a licensed Marriage, and Family Therapist working in private practice.  She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from California State University at Long Beach, and then her Master of Arts in Psychology at Chapman University in Orange, California.  In addition to working caring for the boys, she enjoys working out and gardening.

As for me, after extensive musical experience as a child playing the clarinet in school and singing in church choirs, I began my collegiate level musical training at the University of California at Irvine in 1984 as a Vocal Performance major, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989.  Then, considering a vocation as a Lutheran pastor, I went on to Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California, where I earned the degree, Master of Theological Studies in 1993.  In the process of working toward this goal, however, I discovered a growing desire to teach music and conduct.  To that end, I returned to pursue graduate studies in Choral Conducting at UC Irvine in 1993, ultimately completing the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Choral Conducting in the Spring of 1995, before coming to UC Davis to continue my education in musicology.

I enjoy and have had the opportunity to conduct a wide spectrum of choral music.  One of my strengths as a conductor lies in the area of Baroque style and performance practice which I learned from Jeffrey Thomas, music director of the American Bach Soloists and conductor of the UC Davis choirs.  In addition to this, I am interested in American and English choral music, and music from the Renaissance, but have a particular fondness for twentieth-century Hungarian choral music.  Unfortunately, with the exception of a few works by Bartók and Kodály, this Hungarian repertory is largely unknown in this country.  Hungary has a outstanding tradition of choral singing, and an equally notable body of outstanding composers whose works deserve to be heard: names such as Lajos Bárdos, Farkas Ferenc, György Orban and many others.  I take great pleasure in sharing this music with American audiences.

I have had numerous experiences conducting both student and professional musicians.  In addition to my current position as a teacher of music and scripture at Loretto High School in Sacramento, I also direct the choir (and serve as webmaster) at the Lutheran Church of the Incarnation in Davis, and I am the Founder and Music Director of a community chorus called the Davis Festival Singers (which is currently in a state of hibernation due to my lack of free time).  I have held conductor positions for several ensembles, including Sacramento's professional (but now defunct) Choir of St. Cecilia, and the Sacramento Valley Concert Choir.  I served three years as Assistant Conductor of both the University Chorus and Chamber Singers at UC Davis and held a two-year tenure as Assistant Conductor of the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, and have conducted the world premičres of several instrumental works—two of which were played by one of Northern California’s finest professional contemporary music groups, the Empyrean Ensemble.  I have taught music in public school in Davis, as well as at the prestigious Sacramento Country Day School.  These diverse experiences have provided me with opportunities to work with musicians of all levels, and I have been very successful in accomplishing the musical goals that I have set for each ensemble.

I have also had a wide variety of opportunities to conduct some fantastic church choirs.  Aside from my most recent position as Choir Director at LCI, I have also served as Assistant Choir Director at The Episcopal Church of Saint Martin in Davis, and worked for two years as the Parish Choir Conductor at St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church in Costa Mesa, California.  This choir, whose membership ranged from 70-100 singers, was very active both at the church and elsewhere.  In addition to the weekly liturgy, the choir put on annual Christmas and July Fourth concerts where, in addition to the choir, I conducted a small chamber orchestra.  Under my direction this choir was one of only 24 out of over 170 college, high-school, and church choirs chosen by audition to sing at the 1995 Disneyland Christmas Candlelight Processional conducted by Albert McNeil.  By far the most exciting opportunity which I had at St. John's, however, was to conduct the choir on a tour through the British Isles during the Summer of 1995 where we performed concerts at several churches including St. John's Cathedral Franciscan Church in Limerick, Ireland, and the Clifton Cathedral in Bristol, England.  Before this, I worked in several capacities at Grace Lutheran Church in Huntington Beach; first as a Youth Director and later as the Youth Choir Director.  This experience culminated in my having the opportunity to conduct an amassed youth choir made up of high school and college-aged singers from several churches at the annual synod assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in the Spring of 1993.

I have also had many fantastic opportunities to sing and perform with ensembles in a variety of contexts and settings.  While at UC Irvine, I sang in choruses which performed such masterworks as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Bach's B-Minor Mass, Mozart's Requiem, and many more.  In addition, the choral department put on a series of Madrigal Dinners every year, and I have performed in these for seven years as a singing member of King Henry's court, a singing court servant, and a member of the Renaissance band in which I played the viola da gamba.  I have also had the opportunity to participate in three European tours with the UCI Concert Choir and Chamber Singers.  Twice we toured Eastern Europe and competed in the Béla Bartók International Choral Competition in Debrecen, Hungary, and on another we sang in many locations throughout England and Wales, and competed in the International Eisteddfod competition in Llangollen, Wales.

I am continually fascinated by, and in awe of the choral singing experience.  People choose to sing in a choir for many reasons, but arguably one of the most common is the sense of community that exists there.  I really believe that there is nothing in the world more personal than the sound of one's own voice, and nothing more spiritual than sharing that voice with and in a community.  A basic philosophy of mine is that in order to truly make music, participants must merge into a single 'spiritual' entity (the ensemble) with a common purpose -- not that individuals become totally subsumed into the group, but each person relinquishes some of his or her self and offers it as a gift to the ensemble.  Seen in this way, choral singing becomes a powerful manifestation of community and communal spirituality even apart from any religious context.  I can say unequivocally that some of my most religious experiences have come while singing with 'secular' choirs in 'secular' settings.

Finally, I have received several academic awards including a Karl Schwarze Fellowship and a Graduate Summer Research Fellowship at UC Davis, and the Leo Freedman Fellowship and McDonnell Douglas Management Club Scholarship at UC Irvine.  I am a member of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), the American Musicological Society (AMS), the College Music Society (CMS), and the Society for American Music (SAM).  I am passionate about music and I seek to be creative, adaptable, and even entertaining in my teaching and my preparing ensembles for concerts.  Regardless of what I am doing, however, I prepare well and take the task at hand very seriously, because I believe that the arts are an integral part of who we are as human beings: they unite us by expressing our shared joys, sorrows, hopes and fears.

-- Anthony M. Lien