PSHS Choir Directors

Directors		Voice Teachers
Derrick Brookins	Chris Ahrens	Jeanine Thames	Mark McCrory

Mr. Brookins joined the faculty of Plano Senior High School in the fall of 2003 as Director of Choral Activities. He formerly served on the faculties of Williams High School in Plano and Travis Jr. High School in the Irving Independent School District.

A native of Fort Worth, Mr. Brookins has successfully completed with honors both undergraduate and graduate work at the University of North Texas.

Mr. Brookins has studied and performed with world-renowned composer and choral conductor, Moses Hogan, for nine years. As a vocal performer, Mr. Brookins has performed on four continents for several European Royal Families and in venues such as The White House and The Sydney Opera House.

Mr. Brookins is highly successful as a choral conductor and his choirs have consistently received sweepstakes and division one awards from the University Interscholastic League as well as several “Best In Class” and “Grand Champion” recognitions throughout the United States. While at Williams High School, Mr. Brookins was named the 2000 Teacher of the Year, received the honored Texas Congress of Parents and Teachers’ Life Membership and was inducted into the Who’s Who Among American Educators. As a highly sought after choral conductor, vocalist and choral clinician, Mr. Brookins has been invited to conduct several district, community and TMEA Region Honor Choirs throughout the state. Choirs under his direction have performed by invitation for the Music Educators National Conference and most recently were awarded the distinguished Grammy Award, presented by the National Recording Grammy Foundation.

Mr. Brookins currently holds membership in the Texas Music Educators Association and servers as the Vocal Chairman of Region 24. He is also a member of the Texas Choral Directors Association, American Choral Directors Association and the Texas Music Adjudicators Association and has been recently appointed Division Chairman of Multicultural/Ethnic Choral Music for the Southwest Division of the American Choral Directors Association.

Christopher W. Ahrens joined the faculty of Plano Senior High School in the fall of 2005 as the Assistant Director of Choral Activities. A native of Portland Texas, Mr. Ahrens is a graduate of Gregory-Portland High School. Recently, Mr. Ahrens received both his BME and MM in choral conducting from Texas Christian University. While at TCU, Christopher served as the choral assistant for Professor Ronald Shirey, Director of Choral Activities.

As a vocal soloist and choral performer, Christopher has performed numerous times for the New York Pops Concert at the world-renowned Carnegie Hall under the direction of maestro Skitch Henderson.

Mr. Ahrens currently holds membership with Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, TMEA, MEO, and MENC.

VOICE TEACHERS

Jeanine Thames has thrilled audiences throughout the Americas, Europe and Japan with a voice that has been described as “stratospheric” (New York Times), “exquisite” (Arizona Daily Star), and “silvery and effortless” (Orpheus, Germany). She has been heard on prestigious stages such as Paris National Opera, Berlin Staatsoper, Brussels Royal Opera, New York City Opera, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera and San Diego Opera and she has appeared with numerous symphony orchestras, including Munich Radio Orchestra, Leipzig Radio Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and Phoenix Symphony. In the 2004–2005 season Miss Thames performed ELIJAH with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and she sang the role of Clorinda in CENERENTOLA with the Dallas Opera. She was heard in THE MAGIC FLUTE in Tokyo and Osaka, and she sang the Fauré Requiem with the Symphony of Southeast Texas.

Miss Thames graduated with a Master’s degree in vocal performance from the Juilliard School in New York, and she acquired her Bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Miss Thames has given master classes at Bob Jones University, SC and she will coach and give master classes with Opera Theater of New Jersey this summer. She maintains a vocal studio in her home here in Plano, where she lives with her husband, Allan Glassman and their 6 year old son, Benjamin.

Mark McCrory, one of America's leading young basses, has attracted considerable attention for an imposing voice and galvanizing stage presence, appearing to critical and popular acclaim in the title role of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro for the Minnesota Opera, Hawaii Opera Theater, Opera Festival of New Jersey and Opera Longview, the title role in Don Giovanni with the Madison Opera and with Opera Pacific, Capellio in Bellini's I Capuleti e I Montecchi for the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Claudius in Thomas' Hamlet with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Monterone in Rigoletto and Zuniga in Carmen for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Sparafucile in Rigoletto and Nettuno/ Tempo in Il Ritorno D'Ulisse in Patria for Glimmerglass Opera, Zuniga in Carmen for the Florentine Opera, and Angelotti in Tosca for the Florida Grand Opera.On the concert stage, Mr. McCrory has appeared as Don Fernando in Fidelio with the Chicago Symphony conducted by Daniel Barenboim, bass soloist in the Verdi Requiem with the Quad Cities Symphony, Handel's Messiah with the Richmond Symphony, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Chicago Youth Symphony, and in performances with New York's Mostly Mozart Festival in Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri. He also appeared in a duo recital with Dolora Zajick at the Morgan Library in New York as a part of the George London Foundation Recital Series.In the 2002-2003 season, Mr. McCrory appeared with Portland Opera as Ferrando in Il Trovatore and as Marco in William Bolcom's A View From the Bridge, a role he created at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1999. He also returned to the Richmond Symphony and made his debut with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra as bass soloist in Handel's Messiah. The 2003-2004 season included debuts with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Friar Lawrence in Romeo et Juliette and the Baltimore Opera as Zuniga with a return to the Portland Opera as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor. This season he sings Don Giovanni with the Wichita Grand Opera and returns to Hawaii Opera Theater for Olin Blitch in Susannah.

A recent alumnus of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Mark McCrory has appeared in several productions with that company, including Ariadne auf Naxos, Romeo et Juliette, Die Meistersinger, Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, Turandot, Salome, The Makropulos Case, and Andrea Chenier among others.Mark McCrory is a winner of numerous competitions and awards, including first place in the 2002 Opera Index Competition, a George London Foundation Award (1999) and a Sara Tucker Study Grant (1998). Previously, he was a 1997 Sullivan Foundation Award Winner and a 1994 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He also won first place in the MacAllister Awards Competition in both the professional division (1997) and the College Division (1994). He is an alumnus of the Central City Opera Studio Artist Program and the Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Program.Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Mark McCrory is a graduate of the University of North Texas where he was a student of Dr. Edward Baird. While in the Lyric Opera Center, he studied voice with Margaret Harshaw. He and his wife Sylvia currently reside in Dallas with their sons Colin and Ryan.