Santa Barbara Master Chorale: Our Conductor and Accompanist
Steven R. Hodson, a native of Portland, Oregon, holds a bachelor's degree from Lewis and Clark College, a master's degree from the University of Oregon, and a doctor of musical arts degree in the literature and performance of choral music from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Dr. Hodson is past president of the Western Division of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), which encompasses California, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona, and past president of California ACDA. He enjoys directing honor choirs and adjudicating choir festivals around the Western region.
He is currently a professor of music at Westmont College, where his duties have included directing the New Sounds jazz and world music group, the Chamber Singers, and the Westmont College Choir, as well as teaching piano, organ, music survey, conducting, and church music. From 1990 to 1996, Dr. Hodson was Director of Choral Activities at Modesto Junior College, where his community choir regularly performed choral masterworks with orchestra.
While a part-time instructor in the choral doctoral program at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Hodson served as assistant conductor of the University of Colorado Graduate Choir, director of the University of Colorado Jazz Choir, and instructor of computerized music sequencing and editing. Prior to moving to Boulder, he lived in Roseburg, Oregon, where he was director of choral activities at Roseburg Senior High School and conductor of the local master chorale.
Anne Weger, a long-time member of the Santa Barbara music community, received a music degree from Santa Barbara City College, attended the Music Academy of the West, and continued her musical studies at California Institute of the Arts. Her teachers have included Beth McRoberts Reams, Dr. Reginald Stewart, and Leonid Hambro. In 1977, Anne Weger was awarded the Maer-Volkwein Scholarship from the National Guild and American College of Musicians, and was the winner of the Santa Barbara Young Soloists Competition.
Over the years, she has been involved in many musical theater productions locally and is currently a collaborative pianist for a voice studio and a flute studio. She is also on staff at First United Methodist Church in Santa Barbara, where she is the Handbell Director and the Assistant Choir Director.