Sons of Orpheus Members

The Director and Accompanist

Grayson Hirst, Artistic Director

Grayson Hirst, professor of voice at the University of Arizona, has devoted himself to the evolution of Sons of Orpheus since founding the organization in the fall of 1991. His full biography can be found here.

Brent Burmeister, Accompanist

Our pianist since 1998, Brent is one who not only can play the accompaniments to perfection, but also carefully checks all arrangements. We appreciate the valuable advice and error checking of the “Orpheus Philharmonic," and also the occasional tidbits from Adler, Schopenhauer, and Nietsche that he throws at us.

The Singers

* Indicates a founding member of the choir

First Tenors

Wilbert Fifield—Wilbert is a singer/songwriter who has finally decided to begin singing.
Eugene Friesen—Eugene has had two careers, first as an army chaplain, and second as a psychologist in private practice in Tucson. In retirement, he gives psychology lectures on crusie ships.
Christopher Hutchinson
Tom McGorray—Section Leader; Listserv Manager
A native of Buffalo, NY, Tom is a former Naval Aviator and a retired FBI agent. Tom has sung with the Barbershopers (SPEBSQSA) in quartets and choruses for 35 years. Tom also sings with the Diocesan Chorale, and St Elizabeth’s Parish Choir here in Tucson.He is a private investigator, FBI BICS investigator, Desk Top Publisher, writer, an Apple Macintosh computer consultant and maintains some 30 web sites on the Internet. He also runs listservs for the Sons of Orpheus(sonsofo), the Knights of Columbus (KC8077), and 1921 retired FBI agents (xgboys).
Bruce Mortensen—Born in Clinton Iowa, Bruce has lived in Tucson since 1978. His partner Vicki Franz works at the American Board of Radiology. “We have two live-in domestic terrierests which keep us on border patrol of our back yard. They think of themselves as great white bush hunters in their little pith helmets, but we have their numbers!”
James Naughton—Born in 1941 in Pittsburgh, James moved to Tucson in 1951. He went to High School, and college at a seminary in California and graduated from the University of Arizona in 1963. Married to Lesa, James has two children and owned and operated Naughton Plumbing until his retirement on January 1, 2000.
Matt Perri—Raised in Tucson and a graduate of the U of A and California State University (LA), MA Ceramics, he is a self-employed Broker and has been singing since his High School & College days. He has performed in different church choirs in Tucson over the years. Matt’s inspiration for singing comes from childhood memories from hearing Opera sung from an inspired visitor who used to come to drink and enjoy his father’s Home Made Wine.
Adam Shelton
Jim Tomlinson—Jim was program manager for a $1.5 billion joint military services program to computerize the development of weapons systems.
Jerry J. Villano—Jerry graduated from the University of Colorado in 1956, and has been a Tucson resident for 45 years. He is a retired private practice Physical Therapist entering his tenth year with Sons of Orpheus. He has been married 50 years to his wife Betty who is his everything and also his greatest fan.
Dick Wroldsen

Second Tenors

Jim Hogan—Section Leader
A native of Brooklyn, NY, Jim is the owner of the Hogan School of Real Estate. He received his B.S. degree in Geology from the City College of New York, plays the guitar and is a singer-songwriter. He has published two CDs of his music: Home in Arizona and Mid-Life Crisis.
Van G. Honeman—Van is in his tenth year as an Orphean where he has sung baritone for nine years and now enjoys singing second tenor. Van sang all through his school years and in numerous Lutheran Church choirs. He is in charge of the Sons of Orpheus’ riser trailer and banner. He is married to Jean and has a son, Grant, an optician in Texas, and a daughter, Michelle, a counselor in Tucson. When not working as an official court reporter in Superior Court, Van enjoys white water rafting, driving his Corvette, and international travel.
Allen Klus
Bob Kurtz—A graduate of Michigan State University with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, and having served 8 years, active and inactive, in the U.S. Army Reserves, Bob is now retired from his family sand, gravel, and ready-mixed concrete business. He and his wifesplit their year between Michigan and Green Valley. Since high school, Bob has been actively involved in church and community choirs, and has performed in a number of operettas.
Richard Miller—Richard grew up in Upstate New York and attended the University of Rochester and Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He worked at Westminster School in Simsbury, Conn., for 33 years, eventually becoming Assistant Headmaster. He retired to Tucson in June, 2000. Since that time he has become involved as a community volunteer for several organizations. At present he serves on several United Way Committees, as well as on the Advisory Board. He is also a Literacy Volunteer tutor. Richard and his wife Linda have two children, both of whom live in California.
Mike Negrete
Allen Petersen
Larry Ross
Larry Sayre—Larry has lived in Tucson since 1992. He is a psychologist in private practice. Before moving to Tucson, he served on active duty with the U.S. Air Force for over 26 years. He has sung in church and school choirs since childhood and currently sings with the Foothills PCA Choir and Arts Express Chorale.

Baritones

Phil Bodin
Mike Bradley
Chuck Dickson—Chuck moved to Tucson after taking early retirement from teaching history at a small college in Ohio. He is thoroughly enjoying Tucson. In addition to singing with Sons of Orpheus and Arizona Repertory Singers, he is an active member of Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. His hobbies include reading, weight-lifting, and swimming.
Leo DiCurti
Pete DiCurti—After spending his early years in South Jersey, Pete joined the Marine Corps in 1941 and served in the Pacific during WWII. After his discharge, he became a court reporter and became a reporter for the War Crimes Trials in Germany. Following the trials, he spent 17 years in Oregon before moving to Arizona as a free lance court reporter. Now retired, he lives happily with his wife Mary Pat and is glad to be singing with Orpheus again.
Art Dumes—Art is a native Tucsonan with interests in computers, magic, flying, and music.
Dave Eschhofen—Coming from a musical family in Ohio, Dave has lived in Tucson for 32 years. He is self-taught in photography and has been self-employed in transportation since 1985. He got turned on to singing through karaoke and became known as “Super Dave” in the early ’90s.
Jim Filipek—Jim has been singing in choruses for over 40 years, and has some conducting experience as well. He is married to Candice.
Cameron Fordyce—Cameron retired in 1994 from a career with the Federal Reserve Bank, and worked thereafter for five years at Northeastern University Graduate School of Business running a Master of Science in Finance program. He has been involved, off and on for the past 40 years, in singing choral, church and folk music. He and his wife moved from Massachusetts to Tucson in 2003. They have four children and five grandchildren. They have a summer home in Marion, Massachusetts.
Michael Fraser—Originally from British Columbia, Canada, Mike is a metallurgical engineer with a career in the international mining and metals business. His current business card says he specializes in smelling the roses (planted by others), singing the old songs, and spoiling the grandchildren.
David Harrington—David is a 20 year radio veteran at KUAT-FM and stations in Indiana and Texas. He has been a news reporter and copy editor at various Texas newspapers, 1984–1996, a past president of the Southeast Texas Youth Symphony, 1994–1995, and a board member of the Beaumont Symphony Orchestra, 1988–1989. He received a BS in Communication from Lamar University in 1982 and pursued graduate studies for a year at the University of Notre Dame. Hobbies include reading books, especially on Media and Sports. David sang for six years with the Beaumont Interfaith Choir, one year with Southeast Texas Kantorei, several years with the Tucson Masterworks Chorale, and four years with the University Community Chorus. In 1987, he sang in a select choir for Pope John Paul’s visit to San Antonio. He has been a member of Sons of Orpheus since 1996.
Ned Mackey—Section leader
Ned was an English and Humanities teacher at Rincon High School. He also taught at University High and at Tucson High School. He sang with the University of Oregon Singers in his college days, with the Bean Alley Boys during folk-craze days. He rides a bicycle with a group three or four days a week. He has published a book called Cat Tales and another is in the works. Ned is editor of the Voice of Orpheus, our periodic newsletter.
Rick Sack—A native Chicagoan, Rick is a Realtor specializing in land and lot sales with Long Realty. With a diverse music and theater background, he is currently an occasional cantorial soloist and choir member at a local synagogue. He and his wife Holly enjoy hiking, reading, tennis, and their Australian Shepherd, “SHAY.”
Raymond Tess—Ray studied organ with Camil Van Hulse, Andrew Buchhauser and Dr. Wilber Held. His grand uncle, Leo Sowerby, an internationally acclaimed organist/composer, was Dean of the American College of Organists at the National Cathedral, Washington, DC. Since 1994. Ray has been organist at First Christian Church, Tucson. A member of Orpheus member for 12 years, he has done arrangements for male choir for Orpheus. He operates Ray’s Word Works, a document preparation service, music arranging, transposition and printing for music majors, Orpheus and his church. He taught himself touch typing at a young age. His parents started him at piano early on. He states whenever he took a typing class, the instructor sat him “in a corner” during timed writings as he frustrated the rest of the class with his speed—thus earning him the nickname “Dexterous Digits.”
Vern Williamsen*—Vern is a retired Professor of Spanish Literature whose B.A. was in music theory. He taught public school music and Spanish for 17 years before changing careers. He has sung in choral groups consistently since elementary school days.

Basses

Ron Bailey—Ron is a retired engineer for Bendix Commercial Vehicle systems in Elyria, Ohio. He spent 38 years with various divisions of Bendix in South Bend, Indiana, Troy, New York, Elyria, Ohio and Seoul, Korea. Ron and his wife are snowbirds from October through April and both enjoy playing golf in the beautiful Tucson weather. Ron spent the past 16 years singing with The Singers’ Club of Cleveland. He also enjoys woodworking and motorcycles.
Iván Berger—Iván is a native of Colombia, South America from Hungarian parents who were both in theater in Hungary. Since his teen age years, Iván has been in various choirs, in a traveling quartet, was a member of the “Company of Young Canadians,” has been an actor both on stage and in movies, and has been a member of our choir since February of 1999. He also is the group’s percussionist. Iván has a Masters degree in Spanish from the University of Arizona. Iván is staff interpreter at Juvenile Court-Superior Court of Maricopa County. He has helped coordinate our trips to Europe, Ireland, the UK and Mexico and acted as our interpreter in Hungary and in Mexico.
Michael Bezusko—Michael is a faculty member of the Mathematics Department at Pima Community College where he teaches math and physics as a second career. He has been a process engineer in the electronics industry for over 20 years. He has sung in many different venues for over 45 years.
John Fountain—John is a retired astronomer from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona. He is currently doing research in archaeoastronomy. He was a member of the Tucson Boys Chorus very long ago. Do not even think about calling him in the morning.
Jeffrey Handt—Jeffrey is a Commissioner on the Tucson Commission on Disability Issues. He is medically retired and collects business cards. In addition to Sons of Orpheus, he sings with Holy Cross Lutheran Church Choir, Sonoran Desert Singers, and Reach the World.
Frank Hartline—A new member of the Orpheus Bass Section, Frank recently retired from Raytheon Missile Systems, where he was a senior business development manager for precision-guided and directed energy weapon systems. He and wife Cherie moved to Tucson nine years ago from Dallas, where he worked for Texas Instruments after a 30 year Army career. Degrees include a BS in Engineering from the US Military Academy and an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School, UPA. Frank sings with the Catalina Foothills Church choir and for the Arts Express Christmas and Fourth of July Concerts, and performed at the Tucson Folk Festival with the 3 Wheel Buggy Gospel Trio. He has sung with barbershop choruses in Tampa (Sunshine Chorus) and New Jersey (Morris Music Men).
George Ledbetter
Jack Pinnas—Jack is a retired allergist who was invited to come to Arizona in 1973 to start an allergy clinic and research program at the U of A. He graduated from Rutgers University and the University of Chicago and was Clinical Professor of Medicine and Director of the Allergy and Asthma Center of Arizona. He is married to Ellen and they have four children. He also enjoys photography, singing with his synagogue choir and visiting his seven out-of-state grandchildren.
Gary Smyth—Section leader
Dave Weaver
Thomas Wentzel—Webmaster. Tom grew up in Maine, where he sang in the Bates College Choir for four years. In Tucson in the late 80s, he sang motets, madrigals, carols, and shape-note music with the eight-member Furry Day Singers. He joined the Sons of Orpheus in January 2002 and enjoys their varied repertoire. With a Ph.D. in Physics, Tom works as a scientific programmer for the National Solar Observatory. He has been married to Cindy Meier since 1987. He currently divides his free time between Sons of Orpheus, for which he is Webmaster, newsletter caricaturist, and arranger, and The Rogue Theatre (co-founded by Cindy Meier), for which he is Webmaster, layout artist, treasurer, and business manager.
Woon-Yin Wong
David Yetman—David Yetman is a research social scientist at the Southwest Center, University of Arizona. He is also host of the PBS program, The Desert Speaks and is a former Pima County Supervisor. He has sung in choirs and choruses for many years and is reputed to be obnoxiously tuneful around his office.

Our others

Sue Lane—Accompanist. Sue Lane accompanies Orpheus at various venues around town, and occasionally plays duets with Brent during concerts and tours. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, and always involved with music, she was a church organist at age 12 and throughout her teen years. Serious piano study did not begin, however, until later in life, after marriage (husband Ken) and children (two sons, now grown). She graduated from the U of A with a degree in Piano Performance, and spent several years accompanying at the U of A, and for Ballet Arizona, as well as for Orpheus and others.

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visitors since February 10, 2007