BAAY Staff

David Post, Artistic Director of BAAY David Post, director of BAAY and conductor of Bellingham Children's Choir, holds a Bachelors degree in Music Education from the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music and a Masters degree in Choral Conducting from Northern Arizona University. He has been an educator in public and private schools for over twenty years.  David formerly taught voice and choral music at Mendocino College, the School for Music Vocations,  and in both public and private grade K-12 schools. Additionally, David has worked as a church choir director in over five congregations since 1983.   Highlights include being the Chair of Repertoire and Standards for Middle School Vocal Music, State of California Choral Conductors Association and head judge of music festivals for the California Music Educators Association and conductor/commissioned composer for the C.M.E.A. Bay Section conference.   David has been featured clinician for the San Juan Music Educators and California Music Educators festivals and remains active as a professional jazz singer in the US, Canada and Russia.  His choirs have performed in a combined concert at Carnegie Hall, sung our national anthem for the San Francisco Giants and performed at Disneyland and Disneyworld.  David has been the head of BAAY for five years and directed or produced more than 40 musicals and choral concerts, totaling more than 200 performances. His hobbies include playing basketball, taking care of his dog Simba, cooking, and enjoying nature.

Lisa Markowitz, Choreographer and Director Lisa was a member of the performing group The Young Americans, based in Southern California, for four years as a dancer/singer.   While in the group, she went on three National Music Outreach Tours across the country, going into schools and teaching dance, choral singing and theatre in three-day performance workshops. The goal of these tours was to enrich the lives of kids through the performing arts, and to rekindle a love of the stage, especially in schools that have had to cut their arts programs.     She has taught dance at camps in California, where she was awarded Specialist of the Year for three years in a row, Maine, and for the last four summers, in Leysin, Switzerland, where she directs the dance program. She currently teaches in upstate New York during the summers. Lisa has a B.A. in English from California State University, Long Beach and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing-Poetry from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  She is a poet and her work has been published or is forthcoming in such journals as Colorado Review, Interim, American Poetry Journal, Mad Poets Review, Portland Review, and Cream City Review. In her spare time, she loves spending time with her dog, a Dachshund named Zoey.

Steve Barnes—Musical Director Steve has been working with BAAY for many years now and is an invaluable asset to all of our shows, we couldn’t do this without him. Steve has over 20 years of piano experience and also many years of choral directing and singing experience. Steve also has a B.A. in music education from W. Washington University.

Mary Evans—Choreographer Mary is an internationally certified dance instructor to the grand masters level in Swing, Latin and Ballroom dance, as well as an international examiner and judge with National Dance Council of America. She also has experience and education in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Hip Hop, Belly, Hula, Folk, and Country dancing and dance history.She has been teaching dance to children and adults at all levels for 15 years. Mary attended Emerson college in Boston where she studied Theater and Film and appeared in many student films and plays. This is her 5th year working with kids at BAAY.

Toni Hess, musical and choral director Toni comes to Bellingham via Nebraska, where she has been an award-winning public school and private choral and musical director for over 25 years. We are thrilled to have this wonderful teacher on our staff!

Ann MacDonald, Choral Conductor/ Voice Instructor Ann holds a Masters degree from the University of Arizona, and a Bachelors degree from Boston Conservatory of Music. She specializes in voice training for young singers and beginners using dynamic, positive, intelligent and kind instruction. For voice instructions please contact Ann directly at: 360-676-2396.

Oscar Rojas, BAAY Artistic Consultant Oscar holds a Bachelor's degree in Dance from the University of California at Santa Cruz. He also holds AA degrees in music, dance, theatre and communication from Cabrillo College, and was the recipient of the Lacy J. Dalton Inspiration in Music scholarship on four occasions there. He has been on the faculty of the University of Venezuela in Caracas as a guest performing artist. He also has worked extensively with Tandy Beale, Lisa Norris, Merce Cunningham and Mel Won. Mr. Rojas has co-written and co-directed with David Post. He also has choreographed and performed over 100 modern dance pieces. He is a guest faculty member at the UCSC Dance Department in modern and jazz forms. Avante guard theatre director Bruce Lee said "Oscar is the most inspiring student I have ever had in all my years of teaching."

Johanna de Vries, BAAY Visual Arts Instructor Johanna teaches visual art classes for all ages at BAAY. She is an accomplished portraiture artists and teaches in many different media. Johanna holds a BA of Fine Arts from Pacific Northwest College of Art, as well as an AA in Fine Arts from Lower Columbia College. Please contact Johanna directly at 360-303-2116 to enroll. Learn more about Johanna's classes at http://baay.org/content/art-johanna-devries

Erika Chambliss, BAAY Bellydance Ensemble Instructor and General Stage Manager/Drama Assistant