About

Dr. Ryan Keeling is active as a teacher, singer, and conductor in the Pittsburgh area. Ryan is the Director of Choral Activities at Westminster College where he conducts the Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, and Treble Choir and teaches classes in diction and choral conducting. Ryan also serves as the Artistic Director of Voces Solis, a premier chamber choir. Under Ryan’s leadership, Voces Solis has been selected by blind jury to perform at regional and state ACDA conferences. Recent performances include John Corigliano’s Fern Hill with Voces Solis and the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, the east coast premiere of ODC|Dance’s production of Path of Miracles by Joby Talbot, choreographed by KT Nelson with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh Professional Core, Andrea Bocelli International Tour with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd with Hilltop Opera, Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass and Howard Goodall’s Eternal Light with Voces Solis. Ryan also serves as Artist in Residence at Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park. Ryan is in demand as conductor of honor choirs having conducted middle and high school honor choirs in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. As Chorus Master, Ryan has prepared choirs for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and artists Andrea Bocelli, Mandy Gonzalez, and The Chieftains.

Ryan was previously Director of Choral Activities at West Liberty University, the Assistant Director of Music and Worship Life and Director of Choirs at Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park where he conducted five choirs, Director of Choral Music at Mt. Lebanon United Methodist Church, Professional Core tenor, Assistant and Associate Conductor, and interim Music Director of The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, and the Director of the Pappert Men’s Chorale at Duquesne University. As Music Director and Principal Conductor of OvreArts, Dr. Keeling conducted the OvreArts Sinfonia and was the founding conductor of the OvreArts Chamber Singers.

Ryan has been heard as tenor soloist in performances with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale, and at the National Pastoral Musicians National Conference. In 2012 he made his New York City debut performing Bach’s cantata BWV 4 Christ Lag in Todesbanden and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Ryan holds the D.M.A. degree in Conducting from West Virginia University where he studied with Dr. Kym Scott and Dr. Jeffery Redding, the M.M. degree in Choral Conducting from East Carolina University, where he studied with Dr. Daniel Bara, and the B.A. degree in Music Education from West Liberty State College, where he studied conducting with Dr. Alfred de Jaager and voice with Dr. Linda Cowan. He has worked with such preeminent conductors as Dale Warland, Simon Carrington, Manfred Honeck, and Osmo Vänskä.

Becki Toth is a professional singer, actor, director, and teacher living in the Pittsburgh area.  A familiar face to Pittsburgh’s theater audiences, Becki has performed with City Theater, Pittsburgh CLO, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Front Porch Theatricals, Stage 62, MTAP, and many other local and regional companies.  Becki was twice named Pittsburgh’s Favorite Actress by Pittsburgh’s City Paper.  She also served as the Voice Department Assistant at the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts, and worked as the Director of Educational Outreach for Saltworks Theater Company.

Becki is the co-lyricist and co-composer of the musical Abduction, which won an honorable mention at the 2019 New York Musical Theater Festival (NYMF) and second place in the 2021 International Search for New Musicals.  

Becki has performed with such varied acts as Ben Folds, The Chieftains, The Skivvies, and odc/dance.  Becki teaches Song Coaching and Voice at CMU’s Musical Theater Pre-College Program in addition to her position as Lecturer in Musical Theatre at the University of Pittsburgh.

Pianist Ellen Fast is an active contributor to Pittsburgh’s music scene.  She founded the Jade Piano Trio, which gave its debut performance in October 2018 as part of the Music in a Great Space series at Shadyside Presbyterian Church.  She collaborates often with area vocalists and instrumentalists and has appeared with the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale, the Incidental Chamber Players, and OvreArts.  She plays regularly for Mt. Lebanon High School choirs and has served as rehearsal accompanist for Resonance Works | Pittsburgh.

Ellen also loves choral singing and is a member of several area choirs: the chamber choirs Pittsburgh Camerata and Voces Solis (which performed at the 2018 Eastern Division ACDA conference and has collaborated with the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh); and the Chancel Choir at Shadyside Presbyterian Church.  She was a member of the twelve-voice professional women’s ensemble Seraphic Singers and was a Core member and occasional accompanist for the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh.

Ellen received a master’s degree in collaborative piano performance from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she was a student of Martha Fischer and a recipient of several scholarships.  Her undergraduate degree is from Goshen College in northern Indiana, where she studied with Marvin Blickenstaff and was a winner of the school’s annual Concerto-Aria Competition.

Ellen recently completed a diploma in Horticulture Technology at Bidwell Training Center and is working at a garden center in the North Hills.  She also proofreads books for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and music scores for A-R Editions.  In her free time, she enjoys baking, doing the New York Times crossword puzzle, and gardening.