The staff of the north american choral company wants to take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to giving young people the chance to excel musically, the courage to excel personally and to provide a safe place where every individual matters.

The north american choral company was co-founded by its executive director Jayne Schuitema in 1998. Jayne has headed choral programs for children for the past 12 years. During that time she has created and produced many multi-media concerts including one in 1999 commissioned by the Friends of the United Nations to honor the recipients of the UN's Global Peace and Tolerance Awards. She spearheaded a tour to Havana for the purpose of collecting rare treasures of obscure Cuban music, and brought famed Polish composer Hendryk Gorecki to Grand Rapids for a retrospective of his work. During the past five years Jayne has taken children on performance tours of Washington D.C., the Netherlands, Ireland, and to perform at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina.

Artistic Director Sanna Valvanne is an inspiring children and youth choir conductor and begins her new position with the north american choral company in September. She is known world-wide for her Creative Choral Method: Making Music with Body and Soul. Conductors and choirs at international choral festivals have hailed this unique method that combines movement and drama with vocal expression and performing since 1994.

Sanna started working with her own choirs in 1998. Her fresh and unique way of working with choirs has charmed audiences and attracted increasing numbers of young singers. In the spring 2004 the choirs became well known to Finnish families through the 20 part series of national television programs starring Sanna and her choirs. Each program presented music from different cultures blending the music with movement that was organic to each song.

In 2004, Sanna founded the Kameleontti- (Chameleon)-Choirs at the Espoo Music Institute for the growing number of children interested. The choir has grown over 2 years to 160 singers, ages 6-16, from around the Helsinki Capital area. This past season they were featured with the Finish National Symphony and just this summer performed for the Para-olympic's opening ceremonies and for Finland’s president Tarja Halonen.

Sanna's work with choirs reflects her colorful background of studies in music, dance and theatre, as well as her connection with the world famous Tapiola Choir. Sanna sang in the Tapiola Choir for 13 years and worked as the choir’s vocal trainer for five years. For many years she has been working with both Professor Erkki Pohjola (Founder and Conductor of Tapiola Choir, 1963-1994) and Kari Ala-Pöllänen (Conductor of Tapiola Choir, 1994-) as their assistant in international choral seminars.

In 1998 Sanna graduated with her Masters in Music from the Sibelius Academy’s Music Education Department in Helsinki. She specialized in Music and Movement as well as Combined Arts and wrote her thesis on African Dance. Since 2001 she has been the course leader and main teacher for Multicultural Studies at the Helsinki Polytechnic and Conservatory of Music.

Apart from music education, Sanna is a singer, songwriter and versatile performer. She has performed her songs in concerts, theatres and on television. From 1997 to 1999 she also played the main female role on a weekly children's television program.

board of trustees

Robert Ellis

Judy Freeman

Kristine Huizen

Meribeth Nudelman, president

Thomas Swets

Marcia Warner, secretary