conducting staff

Charles Taylor, associate conductor

Charles Taylor is a native Chicagoan who has been active both as a performer and educator, and as a Concert Producer and Recording Studio owner. He is on the Artist Faculty as Coordinator of Vocal Ensembles at Roosevelt University. A graduate of the Northwestern University School of Music, Charles has toured and produced nationally in various genres, from world music and jazz to opera and sacred concerts. He is currently a member of the Voice Faculty and a Conductor for The Chicago High School for the Arts, and debuted as the Conductor of the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Orchestra Youth Vocal Ensemble at Millennium Park in a tribute Concert for the late Nelson Mandela. Taylor is a Board member of the Chicago NATS and a founding member of the Illinois ACDA Diversity Committee. He is currently working on a pilot for a children’s music education show and a recording of original children’s music entitled “It’s About Me.”

Anna Therese George, assistant conductor/mezzo-soprano

Anna Therese George is a mezzo-soprano, conductor, and composer from Green Bay, Wisconsin, based in Chicago, Illinois, who recently completed her Bachelor’s of Music in Vocal Performance at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts. At CCPA, she has performed in various roles, including False Boy (The Tsar has his Photograph Taken), Ma Moss (The Tender Land), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Prince Charming (Cinderella) and Soeur Mathilde (Dialogues des carmélites). Outside of CCPA, she has performed as Dritter Knabe (Zauberflöte, Berlin Opera Academy) and Ruggiero (Alcina, Chicago Summer Opera). She also started her first season in 2025-26 with the Chicago Symphony Chorus. In addition to performance, George pursues an extended passion in conducting, presenting a non-degree recital in Fall 2025 with a performance of Haydn’s 45th Symphony, “Farewell,” and serving as assistant conductor for both Great Lakes Operetta’s Orpheus in the Underworld in Summer 2026, and Third Coast Symphony’s 2026-27 season, under the direction of Victor Muenzer. She is also an avid composer, studying orchestration and composition, and premiered her first opera, Greater Love, created in collaboration with Kaz Henderson and Jadie Reeves, in April 2026.