Altos

Gretchen Collins, Principal

Gretchen Collins serves as Co -Director of Music Ministry at South Congregational Church in Hartford. She studied conducting with and sang under the direction of Marguerite Brooks at Yale University. For five years she worked at Salisbury School as Director of Music. Gretchen was a charter member of the critically acclaimed a cappella group, the Woodland Scholars, directed by Larry Allen and has sung with CONCORA, directed by Richard Coffey. She also enjoyed a long association with Gaudeamus, directed by Paul Halley, of which Gretchen has served as the Assistant Conductor. Gretchen and her husband Floyd Higgins, a tenor with Voce, reside in West Hartford with their son David.

Karen Dieterle

Karen has enjoyed singing in a choir somewhere since joining her church choir in California at the age of 5. Her love of choral music was nurtured through high school and college where she was a member of the UConn Concert Choir. She has also sung with The Manchester Symphony Orchestra and Chorale and the Hartford Chorale and is currently a member of CitySingers of Hartford and is the alto section leader for the Center Congregational Church Chancel Choir in Manchester, CT. When not singing, Karen enjoys watching the UConn Women’s basketball team with her husband Steve and attempting to grow plants in her heavily shaded garden.

Meghan McGinnes

Meghan McGinnes, mezzo-soprano, is thrilled to be joining Voce. She received her Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from Boston University and attended the Florence Voice Seminar in Florence, Italy, where she sang various operatic roles. She was the third place winner in the Student Division of Opera Theater of Connecticut’s 2005 Amici Vocal Competition. She recently has sung solos with the Farmington Valley Chorale and the Naugatuck Valley Community College.

Ms. McGinnes is currently pursuing a certificate in music education at Central Connecticut State University and studies privately with Constance Rock at the University of Connecticut. She performs at various churches throughout Connecticut and is a cantor at St. Laurent and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parishes in Meriden. She also currently sings with the Greater Middletown Chorale and the Professional choir - CONCORA.

Melissa Carter

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Melissa has recently relocated to Connecticut. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in voice from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. While attending William Jewell, Melissa studied voice with Dean Wilder and sang in the Concert Choir under the direction of Dr. Arnold Epley, as well as the William Jewell Chapel Choir, under the direction of Dr. Donald Brown. She was a member of the Kansas City Symphony Chorus for 6 years, singing under the batons of many conductors including Anne Manson, Michael Stern, and Nicolas McGegan. She was a soloist and section leader at Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kansas as well as Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Melissa currently is employed by the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, CT, where she resides with her husband Jay and their two children, Emma and Ian.

Salli-Jo Borden

Salli-Jo Borden was born and raised in New York. Inspired at the age of ten by seeing Judy Garland at the Palace Theater, Salli-Jo became a singer, dancer and music teacher. A graduate of the Crane School of Music at Potsdam, NY and with a masters degree from NYU, she has performed leading and supporting roles at the Hartford Stage, Park Road Playhouse, Warner Theater, Producing Guild, Opera Theater of the Hamptons, Connecticut Concert Opera and New York Vocal Artists at Cami Hall. Salli-Jo is a frequent soloist and is currently a member of CONCORA, in addition to Voce. In addition, she teaches yoga, has a husband and three musically talented children and a singing dachsund named "Bartok." A highlight of her career was singing "There is a Balm in Gilead" in St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice with the Hartford Chorlale.

Pam Johnson

Pamela Frigo Johnson, mezzo-soprano, is a native of Wisconsin where her first singing experience was as a member of her family’s nine-voice choir singing sacred classical music for Catholic Masses… and she’s been singing ever since. Pam received her Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from Lawrence University’s Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin. She is a section leader and soloist in the Chancel Choir at South Church, and has been a featured soloist with the Hartford Symphony the Manchester Symphony and Chorus, the Farmington Valley Symphony and Middletown Chorale. She was the vocal coach for the Hartford Stage’s production of Constant Star. She performed in Bach’s B Minor Mass with The Carnegie Hall Choral Workshop Professional Choir under the direction of Peter Schrier. She is currently a member of CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists) under the direction of Richard Coffey and VOCE under the direction of Mark Singleton. She directs the St. Patrick-St. Anthony Treble Clef Choir in Hartford where she also cantors. Ms. Johnson is a regular guest artist for the Newcomb, Long Lake and Lake Placid New York Concert Series. She lives in Newington with her husband Matt, two sons Robert and Glen, and their happy yellow lab Molly.