Steve Harvey earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Viola performance at the University of the Pacific and performed as a violist in Mexico, Japan, South Carolina, Nevada and many groups in the San Jose and Monterey Bay areas (12 years with the Monterey County Symphony). Currently performing with the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony. After returning from Japan in 2000 he devoted time to voice, studying with Dr. Jay Pierson and performing first with the Silicon Valley Gay Men's Chorus and then the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and performs regularly with the Trinity Lyric Opera Chorus. Steve gives a voice recital every year at Old First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco singing art songs and opera arias. Steve earns his living as a software engineer for electronic design applications.
A native San Franciscan, Steve Ng began singing in a boy's choir at age 7. He continued in music studies obtaining degrees in viola performance at the University of Pacific and the University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, the honorary music society. While studying viola, he also continued vocal studies with George Buckbee and Mark Elyn. He was a member and principal violist in the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Society of Philadelphia and also performed with the Colorado Philharmonic. He was a singing member in the Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus, co-founder and director of Spruce Street Singers in Philadelphia, and performed with the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus (SFGMC). He has sung as a SFGMC soloist in San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Washington, DC, Boston, and Sydney, Australia. He founded the SFGMC select group Nota Bene which released its own CD. When not in rehearsal, he is home with his partner Mark and three pug dogs. He also enjoys riding his Harley Davidson every chance he gets!
Steve Burton (awaiting image), a transplant from Montana, has been singing in various groups since the tender age of 9. Of course, that doesn't include the family car trips with Kenny, Dolly, and The Beach Boys that started much earlier. He studied voice in high school and college, but decided his vocation lie in the computer industry. Since moving to the bay area in 1997, Steve has sung with The HP choir (yes, they had one back in the day), SVGMC (helping to found their small ensemble, Outburst), Opus Q, LGCSF, and now Colla Voce. Always the classic libra, Steve can't make up his mind which part he sings - baritone, second or first tenor, and sometimes soprano. Lucky, the skill and varied repetoir of Colla Voce has the need for such flexibility so he is very happy to be singing with them.
Rene Puliatti has sung with various men's ensembles since college, starting with the Naval Academy Glee Club. After the Navy, he joined the New York City Gay Men's Chorus and joined the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus in 1997, where he sang until 2009. He also sang with Nota Bene and is very pleased to be able to continue the unique small ensemble experience with Colla Voce. Rene is an attorney with a focus on non-profit management, and is currently the Executive Director of the California Psychology Internship Council, which works to promote excellence in professional psychology training. He is also active in the gay veterans community, and is a former officer of Alexander Hamilton Post 448 of the American Legion.
Randy White was born in Wichita, KS but started his singing passion in Kansas City, MO. There he sang with Heartland Barber Shop Singers SPEBSQSA (Society for the Preservation & Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America). Other music involvement in Kansas City: Kansas City Civic Chorus, Longview Community College Chorale, church choirs and various gospel ensembles. He moved to Dallas, TX and there became one of the earlier members of the Turtle Creek Chorale. He has now settled in San Francisco and is currently singing with the San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus and is a former member with Nota Bene.
Joe Tseng-Gill (awaiting image) made his singing debut in his dramatic and provocative interpretation of “Little Polly Parakeet” in first grade on stage at Will Rogers Elementary School in San Antonio. His performance heralded a life of singing. Joe majored in Voice Performance at Trinity University in San Antonio and has sung in many choruses. Joe is an avid fisherman and an aspiring bowler. He moved from Texas to San Francisco in 1991. Joe moved to Alameda three years ago where he resides with his dashing partner Gerry, their “vibrant” teen daughter Elaine, and devoted and cuddly Shih Tzu JoJo.
Jim Gatteau (awaiting image and bio)
Dan Rivard (on leave) was born and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, and began choral singing as a boy soprano in the Ste. Jeanne d'Arc Church boys' choir, which sang exclusively in French. At the age of 10 he began playing accordion, and continued to do so through college, where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Music Business at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. While attending University he sang in numerous choral groups, including Jazz Choir, Concert Choir, Consortium Artis Musicae (madrigal choir), and Gospel Choir.
Upon moving to New York City in 1985, he joined the Big Apple Chorus (the Manhattan chapter of SPEBSQSA), where he was Lead Section Leader, Dance Captain, Board Member-at-Large, and Producer for three shows at Carnegie Hall. After 10 years, he closed the door on barbershop and began a late venture into community theatre.
Dan left the New York metro area in 2004 and spent a year in Vancouver, BC, where he sang with the Vancouver Men's Chorus under the direction of Willi Zwozdesky, and its primarily a capella sub group, Synergy, under the direction of Stephen Smith. This resulted in an instantaneous love of gay choral singing, and upon his move to San Francisco he was delighted to find Colla Voce.
Dan was employed by Sony Music Entertainment for 16 years and is an expert in music of the Standard Era. Between 1989 and 2004 he produced hundreds of reissues and compilations of classic popular music.
Brian Weart (on leave) was born in Madison, Wisconsin, spending his formative years in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He attended Cornell College in Iowa and upon graduation, he moved to California to pursue a career in retail advertising.
Musically inspired early on (his mother was a harpist), he started singing in boys', church, and school choirs. In addition to singing, he played the flute in high school and college bands and orchestras.
Since moving to California in 1980, he has sung baritone and bass with the California Bach Society, the Dick Kramer Gay Men's Chorale, the Lollipop Guild, Nota Bene and is currently celebrating his 19th year as a member of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus.
Since 2004, he is privileged to be a member of Colla Voce and is glad to "follow the voice"! Brian make his home in the Castro district of San Francisco.
Orion (on leave): A native of "the heart of the Amish country" in Pennsylvania, Orion has had an eclectic non-career as a professional actor/theatre producer, college professor/department chair, church organist/choirmaster, bank administrative assistant/lackey, and, of course, waiter. As a pianist for the U. S. Navy Band, he neither asked nor told, and once accompanied the Kingston Trio on a remote Pacific Island long after their heyday, and may have been responsible for their eventual demise. This life’s through-line has been a ceaseless search for the spirit, which is now manifest by numerous incomprehensible tattoos in sundry bodily locations. In fits and starts, he crochets like a fiend, evidenced by his website www.hookinman.com.
Doug McGrath (on leave) was born to country-and-western parents. That he fell in love with classical and choral music may lend argument to nature versus nurture, but that’s a story for a different time. Born in Colorado and growing up on a farm in western Kansas, he was drawn to piano at an early age, but didn’t start lessons until the ripe old age of 13. Since moving to California and adapting to color, he’s accompanied--and is currently accompanying--the Silicon Valley Gay Men’s Chorus, the Rainbow Women’s Chorus, and Opus Q. Software engineering supports his musical habit, and when not at the piano or playing geek, he can be found underwater with the Northern California Rainbow Divers. He serves as webmaster for Colla Voce, is single, and lives on the peninsula.