These are the talented, funny, kind, generous, and occasionally wicked men who breath life into Colla Voce. We are a family, and here are our stories.

Orion 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 journey to the spirit, having recently reached full fruition in the singular realization that his favorite color is probably orange. He owns a Gary Blaise clavichord and crochets like a fiend.

Sam Kohler started singing with a church choir at the University of Illinois. After college he moved to Chicago where it took him a few years before he missed the music and started singing with the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus. Sam moved to San Francisco in 1989 and again took a couple of years before he joined the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus (SFGMC) in 1991. Sam also sang with Nota Bene on and off for several years. In 2001, Sam left SFGMC and did not really sing again until Colla Voce. Sam has two wonderful dogs, Milo and Brandy, who wish he would spend less time practicing and more time taking walks.

Rick Crane was raised in Los Angeles via Chicago. Rick began singing at a young age and apparently showed considerable musical talent and presence. His mother was approached by his elementary school music teacher to encourage Rick getting private voice lessons. However, his mother felt that it was not “fitting” for boys in the 50s to get singing lessons, so a clarinet was stuck in his month instead. Needless to say, Rick hasn’t kept his mouth shut since.

Rick sang in choral and madrigal groups in high school and at UC Santa Cruz. Upon relocating to San Francisco from Santa Cruz in 1974, he and his then girlfriend joined Danica, a Bay Area Eastern European music ensemble. Rick sang with Danica and with Balkan Pacific, a spin-off country-eastern band, for five years.

Rick joined the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and its Chamber Singers ensemble in 1980, left in 1981 and then rejoined after a 14 year hiatus. He sang with both the Lollipop Guild and Nota Bene at different times over the 6 years he sang with the chorus. He is a founding member of Colla Voce. Rick has always kept his musical diva-quotient in check and with a lifelong ambition to be a back-up singer, is happily content to be in a member of this ensemble.

Mario Champagne started playing music in middle school, but came to singing later, in high school. Since then, he has sung in his county's honour choir, at Pomona College with Jon Bailey and the Glee Club there. After a hiatus from singing in North Carolina (where he got his PhD in music history), he joined the Durham Civic Choral Society and its Chamber Choir under Rodney Wynkoop and participated in several attempts to start a gay men's chorus in the Triangle area (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill). Upon moving to Washington, DC, he joined the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington where he participated in his first GALA in Tampa, FL. Moving to San Francisco in 1997, he joined both the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus (SFGMC) under Stan Hill and Nota Bene, one of SFGMC's subgroups, under Steve Ng. Mario left SFGMC in 2003 to join the Golden Gate Men's Chorus under Joseph Jennings and was one of the founding members of Colla Voce.

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!

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 continues to sing. 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 involved in project management work at Glide Health Services. He is active in the gay veterans community, serving as an officer of Alexander Hamilton Post 448 of the American Legion.

David Trutanich began singing as a boy soprano at the age of 11 in the South Shores Elementary School choir. It wasn't until his senior year in high school that he sang in a chorus again and was selected to perform with the Los Angeles All-City Honors Choir. Much to his surprise, there always seems to be a need for high-tenor voices. He received a partial scholarship to study voice at California State University, Long Beach.

In 1984, David began his involvement with gay choruses by becoming a member of the Los Angeles Gay Men's Chorus. Soon after moving to San Francisco, he joined the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus in 1990. While a member of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, he joined the chorus' sub group Nota Bene so that he could sing in an ensemble setting. In 2002, he joined the short-lived Opus-Q, which had great promise, but could not survive itself. As a member of Colla Voce, he believes he has finally found the singing group he was always looking for .

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.

Dan Rivard 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 Wearth 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 and Richard, his partner of 17 years, make their home in the Castro district of San Francisco.

Growing up in San Diego, John Raines got serious about music with piano lessons at the age of ten. In his terrible 20s he performed with a local early music group, Bacchanale Baroque. After a slow migration northward to the San Francisco Bay, John brushed up with Eric Howe and did vocal stints in Opus Q and Sacred & Profane. He performs currently with the Oakland-East Bay Gay Men's Chorus. And John is still practicing on his piano and harpsichord.

Doug McGrath 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 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 in San Francisco.

A lyric tenor, Peter Graney performs a wide range of repertoire including art songs, oratorio, opera, musical theatre as well as classic jazz standards. Peter made his professional debut in January 2005 with the Sacramento Baroque Soloists performing J.S. Bach's Cantata 82 'Ich habe genug' and has sung several solo recitals since. He currently studies voice with Eric Howe in Oakland.

Peter holds a bachelor’s degree in French, mathematics, and music from Northwestern University and spent his junior year in Paris, where he received the Certificat Pratique de Langue Française 1er Degré. Upon graduation, Peter remained in Chicago where he sang with the Windy City Gay Chorus for seven seasons. After completing an MS at the University of Pennsylvania, he moved to Davis, CA to pursue a PhD. Taking an acting class rekindled Peter's passion for the arts and he promptly abandoned the doctorate and instead went on to receive a Bachelor’s of Music in Vocal Performance from CSU Sacramento.

By day, Peter makes a living as a computer geek for a major financial institution. Peter also practices yoga and enjoys dancing and downhill skiing. A relatively new transplant to the SF Bay Area, Peter is looking forward to the opportunities that the region offers for music performance as well as making connections within the gay community. This is Peter’s first season with Colla Voce and he finds the musical quality of this small gay men’s ensemble to be quite satisfying and enjoys the special camaraderie that members share with each other.