Ralph W. Sanders is in his second year as Director of Choirs at Escamilla Intermediate School in the Aldine Independent School District. He teaches 6th grade choir and has 152 members in the Concert Choir. Mr. Sanders also directs the Escamilla Chamber Singers, an elite ensemble of 45, which performs for special events for the community.
Before coming to Escamilla, Mr. Sanders was the Director of Choral Activities at Westfield High School for four years, where he directed the Varsity Mixed Chorale, the elite Varsity Chamber Choir, the Varsity Men’s Choir and the Varsity Women’s Ensemble. He also taught Vocal Production and Musical Theatre. His choral program was one of 100 chosen from across the United States as finalist in the 2007-2008 Grammy Award’s for Excellence in music. His teaching career has included elementary, middle school, and high school levels in both the private and public school systems. His award winning choirs have sung in New York’s Carnegie Hall, in Saint Peter’s Basilica for Pope John Paul II in Rome, and in the Cathedrals of Châtres, Notre Dame, and Château d’Equen in Paris. He has produced and directed several musical theatre productions including
Little Shop of Horrors,
Into the Woods,
Pirates of Penzance,
The Sound of Music, and was the Musical Director of
The Wiz at Westfield, which was nominated for several Tommy Tune Awards in honor of the famous Broadway star. Mr. Sanders managed all aspects of the 250 member organization, along side his assistant Mrs. Melissa Adams.
He holds a degree from West Texas University, where he studied voice with a student of Dame Eva Turner, Ms. Elsa Porter and percussion under Ray Dillard. Mr. Sanders was an All-State Timpanist when he graduated from Aldine High School in 1983. Mr. Sanders was a Teaching Assistant in Voice and Opera at the University of Missouri, Columbia.
As a singer with Houston Grand Opera, he studied voice at the University of Houston with the renowned mezzo-soprano Elena Nikolaidi, and Stephen W. Smith of The Juilliard School. Mr. Sanders started his professional operatic career with Houston Grand Opera in several choruses, and made his professional solo debut as the Marschallin’s Major-Domo in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier with other productions including The Peasant in Leoncavallo’s
I Pagliacci, Nathanael in Offenbach’s
Les Contes Hoffman, The Butler and Liebeslieder Singer in
My Fair Lady, Snout in Benjamin Britten’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bacchus cover/Officer in Strauss’
Ariadne auf Naxos, Il Messagero in Verdi’s
Aida, and two awesome roles in the Wagnerian operas,
Parsifal and
Lohengrin, under maestro Christoff Eschenbach; directed by the international star: Robert Wilson. He recently created the “Voice of the Tree” in the world premier of Michael Remson’s
Sibanda,
A Tale from Africa with Houston Grand Opera’s Opera To Go!He has sung with many famous opera stars, including Placido Domingo, Renee Fleming, Denyce Grave, Eva Marton, Suzanne Mentzer and Marcello Giordani, to name a few.
Mr. Sanders is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Houston Academy of Vocal Arts, from where he has placed many of his private students in the world’s most prestigious music schools and conservatories, including Oberlin Conservatory, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, University of Michigan, among others.
Mr. Sanders’ professional affiliations are TMEA, TCDA, ACDA and the Congressional Youth Leadership Council, where he is an advisor for youth around the nation. He is listed in
Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, in the 2002, the 2005, 2006 and 2007 editions.
Mr. Sanders resides in Spring, Texas with his wife Valerie and his two children, a son in eighth grade and a daughter in third grade.
