Meet the Artistic Team

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    Don Scott Carpenter

    MUSIC DIRECTOR

    Don Scott Carpenter is a San Francisco based conductor who focuses on orchestral, choral, and large-scale choral/orchestral repertoire. He is the Music Director of The Healdsburg Chorus, the Founding Music Director of the Zephyr Symphony and Vox Humana SF, and also is the Chorus Director of the Brentwood Community Chorus. Across these roles, he has led performances ranging from standard symphonic literature to sacred masterworks, early music, and contemporary compositions. Mr. Carpenter’s conducting discography reflects a broad engagement with the core Western repertoire and related sacred traditions. With the Zephyr Symphony, he has recorded Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter” and Exultate, jubilate. His recordings with the Lakeside Symphony include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and Schubert’s Mass in E-flat. He has also conducted recordings of Renaissance choral repertoire — works by Byrd, Monteverdi, Victoria, Palestrina, Josquin, Gibbons, and others — with San Francisco Renaissance Voices. In addition, he appears on Shalom conducting the Santa Fe Desert Chorale in a live recording devoted to music of the Jewish tradition. Further recording projects include collaborations with trumpeter Michael Tunnel, composer Elizabeth Alexander, and the Louisville Chorus. In performance, Mr. Carpenter regularly conducts major choral/orchestral works and symphonic programs that combine established repertoire with music addressing historical, literary, or social themes. His work emphasizes structural clarity, text-driven interpretation, and long-term ensemble development, with a particular interest in repertoire that brings orchestral and choral traditions into sustained dialogue, and musical communities together.

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    Beth Benjamin

    COLLABORATIVE PIANIST

    Beth Benjamin is delighted to be part of the Healdsburg Chorus family as their Collaborative Pianist. She has been actively involved in teaching piano, organ, and accompanying for many years in MN and CA. She started accompanying as a 6th-grade choir member and has never stopped. After graduating from Bethel University in MN, she started teaching piano and organ.  She currently serves on the Board for the Music Teachers Association of California-Sonoma. In her spare time, she and her husband Kerry, enjoy gardening, fishing, camping, and their six grandchildren.