Leanne Magnuson Latuda has been performing professionally, directing and teaching for more than 25 years. She has a Master of Music Degree from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Administration from Augustana College, where she was a Presidential Scholar and graduated cum laude.

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Leanne is a gifted mezzo-soprano who has sung professionally with opera companies, musical theaters, and choral ensembles. She has performed locally as a soloist with the St. Louis Symphony, The Bach Society, and the Masterworks Chorale and has been directing STLWC since 2012.

Ruth Stith is a faculty member of Saint Louis University, where she directs the SLU Piano Ensemble and teaches class and applied piano. Prior to moving to St. Louis, Ms. Stith was an instructor of piano and theory at Vanderbilt University, where she also served as a staff accompanist. She has a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (summa cum laude), and a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from Vanderbilt University. Mrs. Stith lives in St. Louis with her husband and three children, and has enjoyed accompanying the Saint Louis Women's Chorale since 2014.

Marc Bernstein is the Founder and CEO of Balto, a St. Louis-based AI company that helps sales and customer service professionals solve customers' problems faster. Over the past 8 years, Marc has built a team of 60 full-time employees, raised $60 million in venture capital, and partnered with hundreds of the world's leading brands in retail banking, insurance, and healthcare.

Marc was named a Contact Center Week Next Generation Leader and included on St. Louis’s Titan 100 list of executives shaping our region. Marc holds a B.S. in Entrepreneurship, Marketing, and Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis.

Italian mezzo soprano Benedetta Orsi has made quite a name for herself in the St. Louis area. Awarded the Paul Harris Fellow as one of the most influential Italian excellences to spread Italian culture and art abroad, Ms. Orsi has recently been one of the Featured Artists by the Missouri Arts Council.

As a recording artist, her latest album, INcanto, recorded for the Swiss Label BAM International at Webster University in collaboration with the Arianna String Quartet and pianist Alla Voskoboynikova, has been awarded the Double Gold Medal at the Global Music Awards as Best Classical Album and Best Female Artist. 

Mrs. Orsi is one of only a few contemporary mezzo sopranos to have performed all three of Donizetti's Tudor Operas: Jane Seymour in Anna Bolena, Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda and Sara in Roberto Devereux with Royal Opera Theater in Manchester, UK. Recent performances also include Adalgisa in Norma with Winter Opera St. Louis, the title role of Carmen with Winter Opera St. Louis, Amore Opera in New York, Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana with the New Jersey Festival Orchestra, Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera with the Miami Lyric Opera and Maddalena in Rigoletto with Amore Opera. 

Mrs. Orsi’s performance credits include roles in Verdi Rigoletto, Falstaff, Trovatore, Bellini Norma and La Sonnambula, Rossini L’Italiana in Algeri and Il Turco in Italia and Massenet Werther. 

Along with concert appearances at Carnegie Hall and throughout Italy, Austria, England, France, United States, Brazil and Spain, Ms. Orsi is very involved in the St. Louis musical scene, collaborating with the Sheldon, Chamber Music Society, the St. Louis Philharmonic Orchestra, the World Chess Hall of Fame, Gateway Festival Orchestra, Washington University Symphony Orchestra, and more. 

Feature engagements: World Chess Hall of Fame, Chamber Music Society, Art & Faith St. Louis, St. Louis-Bologna Sister Cities “Benedetta Orsi & Friends”, the Magic House On Stage Performances, Missouri Botanical Garden Concert Series, New York Classica. 

Benedetta is very excited to return for the 8th year to be one of the Principal Artists for the St. Louis Women’s Chorale, where she serves as well as Artistic and Development Manager. 

Bonita Cornute was a longtime broadcast journalist at KTVI Fox 2 News, retiring in December 2018 after more than 35 years at the station. A graduate of University of Wisconsin-Madison, she relocated to St. Louis in the early 1980s. Throughout her career, Bonita reported and hosted many different programs at KTVI, as well as mentoring high school students of color through the Minority Journalism Workshop. In 2016, the Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists presented her with the Living Legend Award. Bonita is now semi-retired, but continues her involvement with many organizations in the St. Louis community.

Known for his charismatic energy and musical versatility as a conductor and composer, Darwin Aquino’s career has taken him to orchestra halls and opera theaters across Europe, United States and Latin America. His constant presence as a Dominican artist in multiples stages is seen as a bright light for diversity and inclusion in classical music.

Recently appointed Music Director of the St. Louis Philharmonic Orchestra and Assistant Conductor for Opera Theater of St. Louis, Darwin’s 22/23 season includes a number of international engagements. Additionally, he serves as Music Director of the Gateway Festival Orchestra and Conductor-in-Residence for the Washington University Symphony Orchestra.

Gloria Park had a 35+ year career in sales and operations management. Most of her time was at Maritz in St. Louis, MO where she had the opportunity to work in the United Kingdom as well as the US. She earned an MBA in international business at Washington University's John M. Olin School of Business and has an undergraduate degree in music from Washington University in St. Louis. Gloria has long been a supporter of the arts and enjoys her involvement volunteering with organizations in St. Louis now that she is retired. 

Samantha Arten, soprano and music historian, has focused her performance activities in early music, singing primarily in liturgical church choirs and in Baroque ensembles. In addition to singing as a Principal Artist with the Saint Louis Women's Chorale, she is a principal singer with the Bach Society of St. Louis, a staff singer in the choir of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, and a regular soloist with Early Music Missouri. Samantha holds a Ph.D. in Musicology from Duke University and teaches as a Lecturer in Musicology at Washington University in St. Louis, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and Maryville University. “I believe so much in this choir’s great work of inspiring healing and joy. This is a place where women of all identities can come together to make beautiful music.”

Janelle Pierce is a conductor, composer, lyricist, arranger, vocalist, and educator of music. Her career has been as diverse as it has been thrilling, working with some of the most astonishing artists in music and theater, and guiding some of the most promising talent in the world of performance. She is the Director of Music at Trinity Presbyterian Church in University City, and Teaching Artist for the Education and Engagement Department of Opera Theater St. Louis.  

Janelle Pierce earned a B.A. in Vocal Performance from St. Mary's University and holds over fifteen years of experience in musical education and performance in Texas and Missouri. Pierce studied drama in college and has developed a love for the theater through her involvement with the St. Louis Fringe Festival, Emery Entertainment Company, and the St. Louis Public Library Storytime Theater Program. Janelle has performed with the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, Winter Opera of St. Louis, Union Avenue Opera, and The Saint Louis Women’s Chorale.

Janelle joined the Saint Louis Women's Chorale in order to rekindle the original spark that ignited her burning passion for vocal performance: Women's Choir. She is excited to be a part of an ensemble that empowers women, strengthens the songstress, and inspires harmony through the universal language of music.

Amira Siddique is beyond excited and honored to join the STLWC this year as a Principal Artist. She is a fresh graduate from Knox College where she received B.A.s in Music and Neuroscience. Her academic career has led her here to St. Louis, where she is pursuing a doctorate in occupational therapy at Washington University. Back in Galesburg, she served as a section leader and secretary of the Knox College Choir and Chamber Singers, whom she toured Chicago, Denver, and Southern France with. This past fall, she had the thrilling opportunity to join the esteemed Nova Singers for a masterwork performance of the Martin Mass and Vaughn Williams Mass.

Outside the choral world, Amira dabbles in piano, guitar, composition, song-writing, and music production. She is also drawn to non-Western music and has done immersive experiences studying Middle Eastern music in the US and traditional Ewe dance and drumming in Ghana.

She joined the STLWC because of her deep love for choir and the beauty of creating music with a group of dedicated, passionate women. It is truly an honor.

Olivia Roland is a vocalist and violist from New Jersey. She received a Bachelor’s of Music in Vocal Performance from Rowan University, where she studied with Barbara Dever. Her focus was early music, and after graduation was hired to sing at St. Nicholas of Tolentine in Atlantic City, one of just a few cathedrals in the country that still does the Latin Mass in its entirety. She had the chance to tour Europe in 2016 as a featured soloist with the Rowan University Concert Choir, and also sang with the Philadelphia Symphony chorus.  In high school, she studied viola with Kerri Ryan of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and was a part of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra for 5 years, 2 of which she was principal violist. She played in many other ensembles throughout the Philadelphia area, and also had the opportunity to be coached by Sidney Curtiss in one of the top scholarship student string quartets in Philadelphia. 

After moving to St. Louis in 2019, Olivia was awarded the mezzo-soprano Young Artist position with the Bach Society of St. Louis from 2019-2021, and was a staff singer with St. Francis de Sales Oratory and an alto section leader with the St. Louis Symphony Chorus. Her current endeavors include regularly performing with Early Music Missouri since 2022, and performing with the STLWC. Olivia is currently completing her Master of Education in Clinical Mental Health and Counseling, while still maintaining her active music pursuits.