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Soli Deo Gloria Mennonite Community Choir

Soli Deo Gloria Mennonite Community Choir

Board

Six directors look after the charity. Yuri Klaz conducts, with Karis Wiebe as associate conductor. Karis also sits on the board.

Artistic leadership

  • Yuri Klaz

    Conductor and artistic director

    Born in Petrozavodsk, he trained at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and came to Winnipeg in 2000. He has led the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir and The Winnipeg Singers, and prepared choirs for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

  • Karis Wiebe

    Associate conductor

    Soprano, conductor, and vocal pedagogue with more than three decades of performing, teaching, and choral leadership. She directs the Choral Department at Grant Park High School.

  • Verna Wiebe

    Accompanist

    Pianist for professional and amateur ensembles, including the Winnipeg Singers and Winnipeg Philharmonic Choirs. A freelance collaborator, private piano instructor, and longtime music faculty member at Canadian Mennonite University.

Directors

  • President

    Ingrid Moehlmann

    Education consultant, French instructor at Canadian Mennonite University, and freelance translator. Former president of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. Lifelong Mennonite choir singer.

  • Vice-president

    Reinhard Penner

    Thirty-eight years in telecommunications management. He and his wife run a bed and breakfast, and he volunteers with newcomers.

  • Treasurer

    Heidi Birchard

    CPA and owner of Birchard Financial Services. Long service on charity boards, usually in finance, and forty years of singing in Mennonite choirs.

  • Secretary

    Lori Klassen

    Lifelong chorister and a literacy support teacher.

  • Member-at-large

    Margarete Moulden

    Singing in the Mennonite choral community since her youth. RCM Grade 8 Voice with honours. A nurse for 35 years, now managing a personal care home in Stonewall.

  • Member-at-large and associate conductor

    Karis Wiebe

    Soprano, conductor, and vocal pedagogue with more than three decades of performing, teaching, and choral leadership. She directs the Choral Department at Grant Park High School.