Erin Pike Tall
Artistic Director
Erin Pike Tall has been the artistic director for the Salt Lake Symphonic Choir since 2009. She holds both a bachelor’s degree in Choral Music Education and a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Utah.
As the Director of Choirs at Cottonwood High School in Salt Lake City from 1999 to 2010, Ms. Tall had the opportunity to work with students and directors in concert venues throughout the state of Utah, California, Nevada, and Washington. She served as an assistant conductor, accompanist, and vocal soloist for the Salt Lake Choral Artists under the direction of Brady Allred. She sang with the Utah Chamber Artists and with the Deseret Chamber Singers. Tall worked for several summers at the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSA) in Fredonia, New York, serving as conductor, theory teacher, and accompanist. Ms. Tall served as the Utah All State High School Choir accompanist, having worked under the baton of renowned conductors Z. Randall Stroope, Ann Howard Jones, James Jordan, Mack Wilberg, Geoffrey Boers, and Lynn Gackle.
Ms. Tall has accompanied for the national ACDA convention, for Heritage Festival of Gold, and has served as a clinician and adjudicator throughout Utah, California, and Nevada. Much of Ms. Tall's early career was spent as director and organist for choirs and congregations in the LDS church and as Chancel Choir director for the First Congregational Church. She spent her undergraduate studies as an accompanist, student conductor, and president for the University of Utah Concert Chorale under the direction of Dr. John M. Cooksey and as a singer and student conductor for Dr. Edgar Thompson in the University’s A Cappella Choir.
Ms. Tall maintains a private vocal studio, has conducted and arranged music for the choirs in numerous LDS General Conferences, and enjoys making a home in the Salt Lake Valley. She and her husband Michael are the proud parents of four beautiful children.
Amanda Bjarnson
Assistant Director
Amanda Bjarnson grew up in Salt Lake City and attended Cottonwood High School. She joined choir as a 7th grader and continued her study through high school, under the direction of Erin Pike Tall. Amanda is a graduate of Utah State University where she studied secondary Choral Music Education. While attending USU she was named the 2008-2009 Horrigan Scholar and conducted two different age groups for the Cache Children’s Choir. Amanda subsequently taught at Skyline High School where she learned to love barbershop. At the end of her student teaching she ventured on to be a full time mom. She joined Salt Lake Symphonic Choir in 2017 and made her debut as Assistant Director for the 2018 Christmas concert series.
Debbie Griffiths
Accompanist
Debbie Griffiths has been the accompanist for Salt Lake Symphonic Choir since 2012, and she loves working with Erin Pike Tall. She played for Utah Opera for 14 years and was a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for 11 years, along with her husband Greg. Debbie’s whole family is musical, and her greatest joy is to perform with her husband and their six children and their spouses. The Griffiths family loves performing throughout Salt Lake, Idaho, and Wyoming, but their most treasured experiences have been performing for inmates at the Utah State Prison.
Roger Crandall
President
Adam Holladay
Composer-in-residence
Adam Holladay began the piano at age 5 and went on to study composition under the late British composer Steve Martland, attending Martland’s first Strike Out composition course at 19. He attended the University of Durham in Britain at which he was the University College Organ Scholar, composing works for the college choir, and graduating with a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s degree in electronic music, majoring in composition in both. His choral music is firmly in the British tradition, with traits of twentieth-century composers Gerald Finzi, John Ireland and Herbert Howells, and for the Salt Lake Symphonic Choir has set e e cummings' from spiralling ecstatically this and arranged Silent Night in celebration of the carol's 200th anniversary. He also plays electric piano and Hammond organ in soul and funk band The Soulistics, is self-taught in jazz, and his influences are the two Herbies, the one Stevie, and the one and only Dudley Moore.
Erin Pike Tall
Artistic Director
Erin Pike Tall has been the artistic director for the Salt Lake Symphonic Choir since 2009. She holds both a bachelor’s degree in Choral Music Education and a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Utah.
As the Director of Choirs at Cottonwood High School in Salt Lake City from 1999 to 2010, Ms. Tall had the opportunity to work with students and directors in concert venues throughout the state of Utah, California, Nevada, and Washington. She served as an assistant conductor, accompanist, and vocal soloist for the Salt Lake Choral Artists under the direction of Brady Allred. She sang with the Utah Chamber Artists and with the Deseret Chamber Singers. Tall worked for several summers at the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSA) in Fredonia, New York, serving as conductor, theory teacher, and accompanist. Ms. Tall served as the Utah All State High School Choir accompanist, having worked under the baton of renowned conductors Z. Randall Stroope, Ann Howard Jones, James Jordan, Mack Wilberg, Geoffrey Boers, and Lynn Gackle.
Ms. Tall has accompanied for the national ACDA convention, for Heritage Festival of Gold, and has served as a clinician and adjudicator throughout Utah, California, and Nevada. Much of Ms. Tall's early career was spent as director and organist for choirs and congregations in the LDS church and as Chancel Choir director for the First Congregational Church. She spent her undergraduate studies as an accompanist, student conductor, and president for the University of Utah Concert Chorale under the direction of Dr. John M. Cooksey and as a singer and student conductor for Dr. Edgar Thompson in the University’s A Cappella Choir.
Ms. Tall maintains a private vocal studio, has conducted and arranged music for the choirs in numerous LDS General Conferences, and enjoys making a home in the Salt Lake Valley. She and her husband Michael are the proud parents of four beautiful children.
Amanda Bjarnson
Assistant Director
Amanda Bjarnson grew up in Salt Lake City and attended Cottonwood High School. She joined choir as a 7th grader and continued her study through high school, under the direction of Erin Pike Tall. Amanda is a graduate of Utah State University where she studied secondary Choral Music Education. While attending USU she was named the 2008-2009 Horrigan Scholar and conducted two different age groups for the Cache Children’s Choir. Amanda subsequently taught at Skyline High School where she learned to love barbershop. At the end of her student teaching she ventured on to be a full time mom. She joined Salt Lake Symphonic Choir in 2017 and made her debut as Assistant Director for the 2018 Christmas concert series.
Debbie Griffiths
Accompanist
Debbie Griffiths has been the accompanist for Salt Lake Symphonic Choir since 2012, and she loves working with Erin Pike Tall. She played for Utah Opera for 14 years and was a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for 11 years, along with her husband Greg. Debbie’s whole family is musical, and her greatest joy is to perform with her husband and their six children and their spouses. The Griffiths family loves performing throughout Salt Lake, Idaho, and Wyoming, but their most treasured experiences have been performing for inmates at the Utah State Prison.
Roger Crandall
President