The Choir

Amabilis is a mixed SATB choir of between 50 to 60 members from all walks of life. They practice in New Westminster, B.C. Canada, perform in locations around the Lower Mainland three or four times a year, and occasionally tour throughout B.C.

Accompanist

Ingrid Renee Verseveldt has an ARCT, B.Mus., and M.Mus. in Piano Performance. She completed her studies under full scholarship at the University of Victoria with Bruce Vogt. Ingrid has participated in Masterclasses with Paul Badura-Skoda, Joachim Segger, and Damjana Bratuz, and received a Canada Council Grant to study at the Banff School of Fine Arts with Gyvrgy Sebok. After graduating, Ingrid took time to raise her family while continuing to volunteer as an accompanist in various communities across the United States and here in Metro Vancouver. In recognition of her extensive volunteer work, Ingrid was a recipient of the Leadership in Music Education Award in 2005. Since September 2002, Ingrid has been the accompanist for the Amabilis Singers. She is also a co-founder, co-director and accompanist for Vivo Children's Choir and an accompanist for the BCMEA Honour Concert Choir. In addition to choral music, Ingrid enjoys performing chamber music and teaches piano privately in Burnaby, where she lives with her husband Ian and their five children.

Artistic Director

Ramona Luengen, a graduate of UBC, completed her Doctor of Music in Composition at the University of Toronto. She is privileged to have had her compositions performed and recorded in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan as well as broadcast on CBC, BBC, WDR (Germany), and the national radio stations of Denmark, Hungary and Sweden. On September 20, 2006 Ramona's first Piano Concerto was premiered by Jane Coop and the CBC Radio Orchestra in the Orpheum Theatre. Her 45-minute opera for young audiences based on Joy Kogawa's novel Naomi's Road and commissioned by Vancouver Opera for its Opera in the Schools Programme, was viewed by over 41,000 students and adults in 2005-2006. As a sessional lecturer, she has taught a variety of courses in composition, counterpoint, theory, and 20th century music appreciation at both UBC and SFU over the past twelve years. In addition to conducting the Amabilis Singers and the Shaughnessy Heights Sanctuary Choir, Ramona has been the Artistic Director of the highly-respected, award-winning Phoenix Chamber Choir for the past twelve years.