Leadership

Staff

Kevin Robison - Artistic Director joined the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus for its 2007-08 season as its first full-time artistic director. After receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from the University of North Alabama and a Master of Arts degree in choral conducting from the University of Nevada, Kevin moved to Southern California where he served as Resident Director of Music for the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts and on the faculties of Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal-Poly Pomona, and Cal-State Fullerton. For three years he served as assistant conductor of Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and artistic director of the South Coast Chorale in Long Beach.

Kevin has been actively involved with GALA Choruses (the international association of gay and lesbian choruses) for over a decade and has become one of its most sought-after composers and arrangers. Published by Hal Leonard and Oxford University Press, Kevin has received commissions from some of the leading choruses in the nation, including the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, Seattle Men’s Chorus, Turtle Creek Chorale, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, and the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus. Kevin’s arrangements have been sung on stage by Malcolm Gets, Jenifer Lewis, Lily Tomlin, Joanna Gleason, Susan Egan and many others. He has also collaborated on productions with Del Shores (of Sordid Lives fame), Kate Clinton, and Miss Coco Peru. Much of his music for male voices has been performed and/or recorded by Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, including his tribute to Kander and Ebb, which received an OutMusic Award nomination for best new CD in 2005.

Kevin is an accomplished pianist, published author, composer, arranger and a specialist in singing for actors. With roots in Alabama and Virginia, Kevin is thrilled to be back in the South and committing his full-time energy to the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus.  In Novemeber 2011, Kevin was included as a member of Fenuxe Magazine’s Fenuxe 50, recognizing his laudable contributions to Atlanta’s arts and LGBT communities.

Crystal Anderson - Executive Director joined the AGMC in fall 2011 as the chorus’ new executive director. She has 15 years of professional experience in the fields of operations management and nursing. Most recently, for over three years she was senior vice president of programs for StandUp for Kids, a nationally recognized non-profit organization that helps rescue homeless and at-risk youth.

Through her work with homeless youth, as well as her extensive history of volunteering with hospice patients and LGBTQ organizations, Crystal has developed a deep passion for non-profit work and an intense desire to make a positive impact on her community through program development, social awareness and advocacy. Her strengths lie in her unwavering commitment to the organizational mission, her ability to lead others toward a shared goal, and in creating and implementing an effective administrative infrastructure.

Melissa T. Arasi — Conductor, Women’s Chorus Project serves as the supervisor of performing arts: general/choral music, theatre and dance for the Cobb County School District in Marietta, GA. Prior to this supervisory role, she was the choral director and Fine Arts Department chair at Walton High School in Cobb County for 14 years. Dr. Arasi served as visiting assistant professor of music at the Georgia Tech choral program, where she founded and conducted the Women’s Choir and assisted with vocal development for the entire Georgia Tech choral program from 2009-2012. Dr. Arasi teaches private voice and has taught elementary general music as well as conducted children’s choirs in several Atlanta area churches.

Dr. Arasi received a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from Shorter College in Rome, GA; a Master of Arts in Music Education and a PhD in Teaching and Learning in Music Education from Georgia State University. She received her Educational Leadership Certification from The University of West Georgia.

Choirs under her direction have performed at Carnegie Hall, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and in Montreal, Quebec City, Venice, Florence, Rome, Vienna, Budapest, with her women’s choir receiving second place in an international festival in Prague. Dr. Arasi frequently conducts honor choirs and serves as a clinician and adjudicator in Georgia and in the Southeast. Dr. Arasi was a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus primarily under the direction of Robert Shaw for five seasons. Dr. Arasi is a member of MENC, GMEA and ACDA, and served as the ACDA Southern Division Women’s Choir R&S chair for three terms.

Robert Strickland - Principal Pianist joined the AGMC as principal pianist in early 2012. In his extensive career, he has played piano for the Atlanta Pops Orchestra with artists including Lena Horne, Germaine Jackson, Teddy Wilson and many others. He has been at the keyboard for concerts with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Savannah Symphony Orchestra and the Ritz Carlton Jazz Orchestra, including concerts with Diane Schurr, Joni Mitchell, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Rob Evan.

Robert has performed in hundreds of cabaret shows across Atlanta with such perennial local favorites as Libby Whittemore, Robert Ray, Shawn Megorden, Bernardine Mitchell and Carolyn Calloway. He has performed in the orchestra of Theater of the Stars and the Broadway Series in some 50 shows including The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Evita, Annie, Ragtime, Titanic, The King and I, A Chorus Line, The Will Rogers Follies and many more.

Robert also conducted the 2007 production of Dreamgirls starring Jennifer Holliday. He has appeared with the Center for Puppetry Arts, the Atlanta Lyric Theatre and in more than 25 productions with the Alliance Theatre.

Office Manager
Elizabeth Scott