BCSD STAFF
Ruben Valenzuela, Founder & Artistic Director
RUBEN VALENZUELA is the Founder and Artistic Director of Bach Collegium San Diego (BCSD). As a conductor and keyboardist he has led BCSD in notable performances of music of the Renaissance, early and high Baroque, early Classical period, as well as music of the twentieth century. Valenzuela's performances have been described as ‘dramatic’ and ‘vibrant’ and ‘able to unlock the true power of Baroque music’ (SanDiegoStory.com). Under Valenzuela’s leadership, BCSD has achieved international acclaim through virtuosic performances of iconic repertoire, in addition to lesser-known works. Valenzuela and BCSD were the recipients of Early Music America's 2023 Laurette Goldberg Award for achievement in early music engagement. Additionally, Valenzuela was awarded the 2020 Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal by Chorus America.
With BCSD he has toured to the Festival Internacional del Órgano Barroco in Mexico City, and to the Festival Internacional de Música Renacentista y Barroca Misiones de Chiquitos in Bolivia. Recently, he led BCSD and the Pauliner Barockensemble in a noteworthy performance at Bachfest 2024 (Leipzig Germany), with additional performances in Arnstadt and Naumburg. Valenzuela is regularly called upon as a guest director and keyboardist. Notable guest engagements include Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity, New York City, Marsh Chapel Choir and Collegium at Boston University, Bach at Emmanuel Church, Boston, Juilliard415 at Lincoln Center, New York City, Washington Bach Consort, Westminster Choir College with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and Seraphic Fire. Upcoming engagements include Handel+Haydn Society, Philharmonia Baroque, Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity, New York City, and the Academia de Música Antigua (UNAM), Mexico City.
Valenzuela's musical interests are wide ranging to include a lifelong interest in Jamaican popular music of the late 1950s and 1960s, and in particular Blue Beat (Jamaican R&B), Ska, Rocksteady, and early Reggay. He is member of the Kingston Beat All-Stars, a Los Angeles based band which performs the music of Jamaica's musical golden age. Valenzuela holds a PhD in Musicology from Claremont Graduate University.
Katie Hickey, Executive Director
Katie Colleen Hickey, whose voice “electrified…with operatic ecstasy” (Ken Herman, San Diego Story), is a professional soprano and arts management consultant. Solo appearances include Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Magnificat, Rutter’s Magnificat, Saint Saën’s Christmas Oratorio, Brahms’ Requiem, Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis (“Lord Nelson Mass”), and Rutter’s Magnificat with the Village Community Chorale, and Handel’s Messiah and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus.
Katie holds a Masters in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy from Goldsmiths College, University of London and a Bachelor of Music from James Madison University (VA). Katie is the Executive Director for Bach Collegium San Diego. She was the Co-Founder of the San Diego Summer Choral Festival, and the San Diego Pro Arte Voices, founding board member of the Choral Consortium of San Diego, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of The FF Collective - a nonprofit that amplified underrepresented voices in the arts: women, persons of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and differently-abled people, and is highly sought after as a consultant with numerous arts organizations and nonprofits in Southern California.
Katie believes in strengthening the arts and humanity through collaboration and finding common ground, and finds passion in celebrating the creative brilliance of artists, musicians, writers, and composers.
Andrew Waid, Music Librarian and Bach at Noon Coordinator
Violist Andrew Waid is an exciting and versatile performer on both modern and period instruments. Based in San Diego, Andrew performs with the stellar local early music group Bach Collegium San Diego, also serving as music librarian and coordinator/programmer of BCSD’s Bach at Noon concert series. He has been a core member of San Diego Baroque since 2016, principal violist of Opera Neo since 2017, and in 2024 made his debut with La Jolla Summer Music Fest. Further from home, Andrew has appeared with such well-regarded ensembles as Tesserae Baroque, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Corona del Mar Festival Orchestra, and Live Oak Baroque Orchestra, and has performed in Japan, Mexico, and Hungary as well as throughout the USA. An engaging and creative teacher, Andrew is on the faculty of the String Academy at San Diego State University where he leads group and private classes. He holds a DMA from Boston University (2015) and when not playing or teaching, he loves traveling, cooking, and spending time with his wife and three children and their rescued desert tortoise.
Danielle Perrault, Assistant Director of Community Engagement
Caribbean-American contralto and educator Danielle Perrault has made San Diego home since childhood and is deeply invested in the growth and vitality of the local music community. She is comfortable in a wide range of repertoire from opera and oratorio to jazz and folk styles, and her singing has taken her from coast to coast and abroad. She is an active performer, having sung with a variety of San Diego organizations including San Diego Opera, San Diego Symphony, San Diego Master Chorale, Sacra/Profana, Bodhi Tree Concerts, and Project [Blank]. Prior to joining BCSD, Danielle supported community and educational music programs for over 10 years with The Village Church and Community Chorale and The Musical Merit Foundation. She has also been an educator across multiple settings including private voice lessons, youth theater and dance, elementary and college opera workshops, and the preschool classroom. Danielle earned bachelor’s degrees in psychology and vocal performance from Simpson University and California State University, San Bernardino, respectively, as well as a master’s degree in opera performance from the University of Kansas. In addition to her role as Assistant Director of Community Engagement with BCSD, she is also a member of the voice faculty at California State University, San Marcos. An avid, life-long learner herself, Danielle is currently continuing her education in somatic therapy, and she is passionate about making music education relatable and accessible to all types of learners.
Michael Sponseller, Associate Music Director
Michael Sponseller is recognized as one of the outstanding American harpsichordists of his generation. A highly diversified career brings him to festivals and concert venues all around in recital, concerto soloist, and active continuo performer on both harpsichord and organ. He studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with Lisa Goode Crawford with additional studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music, The Hague. He has garnered prizes at the International Harpsichord Competitions of Montréal (1999), the International Harpsichord Competition at Bruges (1998, 2001) as well as First Prizes at both the American Bach Soloists and Jurow International Harpsichord Competitions.
Mr. Sponseller appears regularly as harpsichordist and continuo organist with several of American’s finest baroque orchestras and ensembles, such as Bach Collegium San Diego, Les Délices, Aston Magna, Tragicomedia, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, and can be heard on over twenty recordings from Delos, Centaur, Eclectra, and Naxos et al. At home, he is a regular presence at Boston’s Emmanuel Music, having performed over 125 sacred cantatas of J.S. Bach. His various recordings include a diverse list of composers, including Bach, Handel, Rameau, Praetorius and Laurenti received excellent reviews throughout the world. Early Music America Magazine has said of his performance of the J.S. Bach Concertos: “His well-proportioned elegance carries the day quite stylishly.” Sponseller has been on faculty at Longy School of Music and Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute, and is Associate Music Director of Bach Collegium San Diego.