RUBEN VALENZUELA, Founder & Artistic Director

RUBEN VALENZUELA is the Founder and Artistic Director of Bach Collegium San Diego (BCSD), one of this country's leading ensembles for early music. As a conductor and keyboardist, he has led the ensemble in acclaimed performances of music from the Renaissance, early and high Baroque, Classical era, and the twentieth century. Under his leadership, BCSD has garnered national and international recognition for its virtuosic and stylistically informed performances of both iconic masterworks and lesser-known repertoire. Valenzuela's performances have been described as “dramatic,” “vibrant,” and “able to unlock the true power of Baroque music” (SanDiegoStory.com). Valenzuela and BCSD were honored with Early Music America’s 2023 Laurette Goldberg Award for outstanding achievement in early music engagement. In 2020, he received the Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal from Chorus America.

With BCSD, Valenzuela has toured to the Festival Internacional del Órgano Barroco (Mexico City) and the Festival Internacional de Música Renacentista y Barroca Misiones de Chiquitos (Bolivia). In 2024, he led BCSD in its European debut at Bachfest Leipzig in collaboration with the Pauliner Barockensemble, with additional performances in Arnstadt (Bach-Kirche) and Naumburg (Stadtkirche, St. Wenzel).

A sought-after guest director and keyboardist, Valenzuela has appeared with Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity (New York), Bach at Emmanuel Church (Boston), Juilliard415, Washington Bach Consort, Seraphic Fire, Handel and Haydn Society, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and the Academia de Música Antigua/UNAM (Mexico City), among others. Notable upcoming performances include Handel's Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony.

As a musicologist, Valenzuela has conducted research at Mexico City’s Archivo del Cabildo and the Centro Nacional de Investigación, Documentación e Información Musical (CENIDIM). In 2016, he presented his work on Mexican religious iconography and basso continuo practices at the inaugural Historical Performance Institute at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.

Additional musical pursuits include a lifelong interest in Jamaican urban music from the 1950s and 1960s—including Blue Beat, Ska, Rocksteady, and early Reggay. He performs as a keyboardist with the Los Angeles–based bands The Kingston Beat All-Stars, The Trojanites, and Western Standard Time Ska Orchestra, all of which are dedicated to the golden age of Jamaican music.

Valenzuela holds a Ph.D. in Musicology from Claremont Graduate University.

rubenvalenzuela.org

KATIE HICKEY, Executive Director

Katie Colleen Hickey, whose voice “electrified…with operatic ecstasy” (Ken Herman, San Diego Story), is a professional soprano, the Executive Director of Bach Collegium San Diego, arts management consultant, and the owner of a luxury arts & culture experience firm.

Katie began her professional career in Washington D.C., singing with some of the finest choirs and conductors in the city. Katie has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (DC), the Washington National Cathedral, St. Giles Cathedral (Scotland), Seoul National Theatre (Korea), Copley Hall (San Diego), Cadogan Hall (London),  Smetana Hall (Prague), and Eglise de la Madeleine (Paris), as well as at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod (Wales). Since moving to San Diego in 2011, Katie has been sought after as a soloist and choral musician regularly performing with the Bach Collegium San Diego and SACRA/PROFANA. Recent solo appearances include Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Magnificat, Rutter Magnificat, Saint Saën Christmas Oratorio, Brahms Requiem, Haydn Missa in Angustiis (“Lord Nelson Mass”), Rutter Magnificat, and Vivaldi Gloria with the Village Community Chorale, Handel’s Messiah and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, and the Faure Requiem with the Escondido Center for the Arts Center Chorale.

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 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 across the U.S.

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.