Dr. Phillip Harris
President

Phillip Harris has a diverse background in vocal music as a performer and teacher in classical, musical theater, gospel, and rhythm & blues. 

He has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and with the San Francisco Symphony, Reno Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Pocket Opera, Mountain Play, Island City Opera,Opera Las Vegas, and the San Francisco Opera (Chorus). Recordings include Phillip Harris in Recital with Damien Sneed featuring art songs, arias, spirituals, gospel, and musical theater repertoire in addition to an EP of original music, In My Philz.

Dr. Harris has present or former teaching affiliations with Convent & Stuart Hall, San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco Girls Chorus, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, West Valley College, Head-Royce School, Menlo School, YMTC, MoonSchool at 42nd Street Moon. 

An avid researcher and performer on the classical songs of black composers, he has given lectures on the topic at Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Westminster Choir College, University of California, Santa Cruz, Alabama State University, and San Francisco City College. His students have graduated from Boston Conservatory at Berklee and placed in national, regional, and local competitions with NATS. Other students have placed in Elite International Music Competition, American Protégé International Vocal Competition, and the Junior Bach Festival. Other students attend Oberlin Conservatory, Interlochen, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, MPulse at University of Michigan, Stagedoor Manor, and UCLA Summer Musical Theater Program, and Vocal Academy at San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Phillip earned voice degrees from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Doctor of Musical Arts), the University of Michigan (Master of Music), and the University of California, Irvine (Bachelor of Music). He previously served as Co-VP of Student Auditions for SFBAC-NATS. 

More information at www.philliplnharris.com

Dr. Robin Fisher
co-Vice President of Programs

Soprano Robin Fisher has performed to critical acclaim in Paris, Vienna, Prague, Hamburg, Chicago and Dallas. …“amazingly precise coloratura, melting diminuendi, splendid high notes and delightful musicality” (Opernwelt) and her “mature timbre and total self-assurance.... an extremely exciting singer-actress” (Westdeutsche Zeitung).

A native of California, Dr. Fisher began her vocal studies at San José State University and went on to graduate from Smith College cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She won both the prestigious Fulbright-Hayes Scholarship and a Rotary Foundation Award to pursue studies in Europe and received the coveted Artist's Diploma cum laude from the University of Vienna. She holds a D.M.A. degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Fisher joined the Sac State School of Music faculty in 2003 and holds the highest rank of Full Professor.

Sac State voice students have been winners in major regional competitions and received scholarships to attend such prestigious post-baccalaureate programs as the San Francisco Conservatory, Cincinnati College Conservatory, New England Conservatory, Bard College, UCLA and the Manhattan School of Music as well as programs including Merola program, Music Academy of the West, Seattle Opera Studio, and the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

As an educator, Dr. Fisher has taught courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels including Applied Voice, Diction (Italian, German, French), Vocal Pedagogy, Song Literature, Career Planning for Singers, and a weekly studio class for performance practice.

She founded and led “Empowering Singers” in Sacramento as an intensive workshop to join voice study with the Alexander Technique. In 2013, Dr. Fisher founded Lingua e Canto, a summer intensive for young singers to study the Italian language, opera performance and vocal technique.

dr. karine st. pierre

co-vice president of programs

Montreal-born soprano Karine St-Pierre completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice Performance and Vocal Pedagogy at the University of Toronto. She holds a Master of Music degree in Voice Performance and Vocal Pedagogy from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Université de Montréal.

Ms. St-Pierre has performed opera and operetta roles, including the roles of Ilia (Idomeneo, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), Annina (La Traviata, Giuseppe Verdi), Bella (Paganini, Franz Lehar), Stella (La fille du tambour major, Jacques Offenbach), Gabrielle (La Vie Parisienne, Jacques Offenbach), Fleurette/Hermia (Barbe-Bleue, Jacques Offenbach), Princess Stasi (Princesse Czardas, Emmerich Kálmán), Huguette (Pas sur la bouche…, Maurice Yvain), and Délicia (Madame, Henri Christiné). She has sung recitals in Canada, the United States, and France. In 2019, she performed a recital of French mélodie and French Canadian repertoire with pianist Daniel Lockert as part of the Sausalito Song Society Concerts in California. Ms. St-Pierre has premiered the cycle “Quatre mélodies québécoises” by Matthew De Lacey Davidson in Toronto.

Ms. St-Pierre has adjudicated several music festivals and voice competitions, she has presided over the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and she has developed a guide to the interpretation of nineteenth-century French Canadian songs for voice and piano.