NOTE: This page is not up to date but many of the singers listed here are still actively involved with the SsAM Adult Choir.
With choral music being such an important part of liturgy at SsAM, an ensemble of professional singers was established in 1996 when the parish was founded. The SsAM Staff singers serve as the core of the parish choir and perform occasionally as a separate ensemble. Frequently featured in worship at SsAM as well as in concert settings, they perform a wide range of music from Gregorian Chant and Renaissance motets to selections from the contemporary and world music repertoire.
Kimberly Doucette, Soprano
Kimberly received her Master of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Delaware and holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice and a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from the Schreyer Honors College at The Pennsylvania State University.
Isabel Gray, Soprano
Originally from the Philadelphia region, Isabel moved back to the area after she and her husband raised their family in Scotland (UK), Virginia, and finally New Hampshire, where they lived for many years. Ms. Gray has a Bachelor of Arts in Music, performance concentration, from the University of New Hampshire and a Master of Science in Library Information Science from Drexel University. She is the Director of Library Services for Camden County College (NJ) and is a Navy veteran.
Isabel’s first church gig was at the age of seven, singing in the junior choir at The Church of the Good Shepherd, Pitman, New Jersey where her mother was the organist and choir director. Isabel was a section leader/soloist for several churches while living in New Hampshire and continued in this role at Trinity Church in Asbury Park, New Jersey for several years. She has taught vocal classes for high school students as part of the SYMS program at the University of New Hampshire and was the first director/vocal coach for a hospice care singing group in New Hampshire.
In addition to solo appearances with various choruses in New Hampshire, Isabel was a member of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the Boston Symphony’s resident chorus, for many years. She had the privilege of working with many world famous conductors while a member of the Chorus. She participated in several Carnegie Hall Choral Workshops, including ones conducted by Sir Neville Mariner, Charles Dutoit, and Andre Previn.
Solo and ensemble credits include Dubois’ Seven Last Words of Christ, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Yeoman of the Guard, Benjamin Britton’s A Ceremony of Carols, Bach’s Magnificat, and many major oratorios, cantatas, and choral symphonies. Recital appearances include local and international venues. She is a former student of Richard Conrad and currently studies with David Christopher.
Tina Betz, Contralto
Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of Wilmington, Tina Betz is known for her role in coordinating and raising funds for numerous large-scale events and community arts projects, such as the DuPont Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Community Celebration, the City’s Independence Day celebration, Art-On-The-Town. She also developed innovative and successful projects such as the Wilmington Children’s Chorus, the Fringe Wilmington Festival, Clifford Brown Year Round concert series, and the City’s first and only theater dedicated to independent films, filmmaking and filmmakers, Theatre N at Nemours.
A classically trained singer, Tina is not only a member of the SsAM Collegium, but performs frequently at SsAM and throughout the community as highly sought after vocalist. Also well known as an actor, recent credits include narration with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra (Copeland’s The Promise of Living vocal ensemble and Lincoln Portrait narration), First State Ballet Theatre (Nutcracker Suite narrator), and lead roles in countless shows from Sweeney Todd to The Vagina Monologues.
Tina has served on the board of many local arts organization as well as the grant review panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council for the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Pennsylvania Artists on Tour, Delaware Division of the Arts, and New Jersey Council on the Arts. Her contributions to the community have been recognized with the YMCA’s Black Achiever’s award; Christiana Cultural Arts Center’s “Christi Award” for Outstanding Achievement by an artist; Girls Inc.’s Strong, Smart and Bold award; and Cab Calloway School of the Arts’ Arts Smarts Award for commitment to the arts in the community.
Tina earned a Bachelor of Liberal Studies degree from Boston University and studied pre-law at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts.
Gus Mercante, Counter-tenor
Augustine Mercante, a 2013 Delaware Division of the Arts Fellow, enjoys an active career performing repertoire from the Baroque to The Great American Songbook. He was a Fellow at the 2013 Tanglewood Music Center where his performance in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin was called “glowing” by The New York Times. As a 2010 Fulbright Scholar, he studied in Germany at the invitation of Edith Wiens and performed with companies in Augsburg, Munich, and Nürnberg, as well as Salzburg, Austria, where he performed at the Salzburg Festival.
Augustine Mercante is the founder and Creative Director of LifeSongs, an organization that takes music to under-served audiences and produces benefit concerts for individuals with special medical needs. He and his partner, Justin, live in Wilmington where Gus maintains a private teaching studio and sits on the faculty of The Music School of Delaware.
Philip Doucette, Tenor
Philip Doucette has been Associate Director of the Wilmington Children’s Chorus (WCC) since 2009 and served as WCC chorus manager from 2005-2015. Mr. Doucette is the director of WCC’s Tenor/Bass Choir (TBC) and co-directs the other ensembles.
Mr. Doucette’s interest in the human voice has taken him down many paths as a performer, collaborator, teacher, conductor, researcher, and clinician. As a performer, he has extensive professional experience in a variety of styles including opera, oratorio, operetta, choral, musical theater, and popular styles including folk, rock, and pop. As an artistic collaborator and voice teacher, Mr. Doucette has had the pleasure of working with singers and artists of the highest caliber in opera, classical and contemporary concert music, musical theater, choral music, and jazz as well as non-western traditions including classical Arabic and Indian (Hindustani and Carnatic) song.
Phil is a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist with clinical experience assisting individuals recovering from vocal injury as well as variety of speech, language, and swallowing dysfunctions. He is a member of the Voice Care Team at Philadelphia Ear Nose and Throat Associates where he serves at a Speech-Language Therapist and Singing Voice Specialist.
He has been a featured presenter on issues relating to the changing young male singing voice for regional American Choral Directors Association events and has been a presenting lecturer at several colleges and universities on voice health and care for the high-performance voice user. He is Associate Director of the Thomas Jefferson University Choir. He is a regular reviewer for The Journal of Voice, a peer-reviewed journal of voice medicine and research.
Mr. Doucette holds a Master of Music in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from The Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Arts in Speech-Language Pathology from West Chester University. He is a member of The National Association of Teachers of Singing, The Voice Foundation, The American Speech and Hearing Association, the American Guild of Musical Artists and The American Choral Directors Association.
Ben Gonczi, Tenor
Benjamin Gonczi is a music educator, conductor, vocalist, and composer originally from Wilmington, DE. Benjamin has always been hardwired to seek music out wherever and whenever he could, quickly falling in love with the choral art form in high school, both as a vocalist, and as a conductor. Early formative experiences of musical facilitation would inspire him to receive a Bachelor’s in Music Education from the University of Miami. During his time at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, Ben sang under the direction of Dr. Amanda Quist as a member of the renowned Frost Chorale; through this ensemble, he has had the opportunity to perform under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas alongside the New World Symphony, and collaborate with world-renowned chamber ensemble, Voces8. During his time as an undergraduate student, Benjamin also served as a student conductor and Teaching Assistant for the Miami Children’s Chorus, through which he achieved his first compositional world-premiere, and as a staff singer with the Master Chorale of South Florida.
Most recently, Ben served as the Graduate Choral Activities Manager at the University of Delaware, pursuing his Master of Music in Choral Conducting. Through this experience, Benjamin had the pleasure of honing his craft in a variety of ways, from serving as the clinician for two public school honor choirs, to conducting the pit orchestra for the University of Delaware Lyric Theater’s Fall 2024 production. Ben’s tutelage at the University of Delaware also served as a conduit for his participation in the Delaware Choral Scholars’ international competitive choir, which received a number-one world ranking from Interkultur following the 2024 World Choir Games in Auckland, New Zealand.
Now having finished graduate school, Ben has proudly assumed the role of Vocal and General Music Teacher at Louis L. Redding Middle School in Middletown, DE. Ben hopes to be able to share his fiery passion for choral education, performance, and composition with as many students as possible, and teach budding musicians how to use their voices for good!
Clint Williams, Baritone
Clint Williams serves as Chair of the Performing Arts Department at Sanford School, where he conducts three choirs, teaches acting, general music, guitar, and produces the plays and musicals. He is past President of Delaware Music Educators Association and Delaware American Choral Director’s Association. Clint is a graduate of the University of Central Oklahoma, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music. He also pursued post-graduate studies in opera performance at Temple University. Before teaching at Sanford, Clint spent a decade performing as a professional singer in many operas and oratorios. Among his honors as a singer are second place in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and being named a finalist in the Orpheus National Vocal Competition. An accomplished pianist and vocal coach, Clint also enjoys music directing, accompanying, and conducting musicals at Sanford School and at professional theatres in the area. Recent musical performances include conducting the world premiere of the ballet Irene with First State Ballet at The Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Delaware, and appearing as the countertenor soloist in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, also at The Grand. He resides in Hockessin, Delaware, with his wife, Noël, and their son, Elliott.
Brian Carter, Baritone
Praised for his warm, polished tone and his ability to infuse his characters with deep authenticity, baritone, Brian Carter, has delighted audiences on operatic stages throughout the United States. Memorable performances include the Figaro in Opera Delaware’s Il barbire di Siviglia; the title roles in Verdi’s Rigoletto and Macbeth at Sarasota Opera and Opera in the Heights, respectively; Ping in Turandot at Opera North; Sam in Trouble in Tahiti with Greensboro Opera; George in Of Mice and Men and Tonio in Pagliacci with Opera San José. Brian has also performed extensively on the concert stage as a soloist for oratorios including Messiah (Handel), Elijah (Mendelssohn), The Creation (Haydn), Magnificat (J.S. Bach), and Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven); as well as a recitalist, having sung programs which included Dichterliebe (Schumann), Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Mahler), L’horizon chimérique (Fauré), Banalités and Le travail du peintre (Poulenc), and Songs of Travel (Vaughan Williams). A graduate of San José State University and The University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Carter currently teaches applied voice on the faculty at University of Delaware School of Music and at the University of Pennsylvania.
