Ashley Brooks Wise is a GRAMMY®-nominated musician, entrepreneur, content creator, award winning musician, collaborative artist and community leader. Ashley and her creative family share inspiration, education and fun through music and videos on their family’s YouTube Channel “The Wise Channel.” The Wises are a part of the GRAMMY®-Nominated Album, “All One Tribe”. 

Ashley is a native of Jackson, Tennessee. She earned a B.M. in Piano Performance from Middle Tennessee State University and an M.M. in Piano Pedagogy from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. 

Since moving to Columbus in 2005, Ashley has been active in the music community as an educator, mentor and is the owner of Wise Notes Studios where she teaches private piano lessons. She serves as an accompanist for a variety of instrumental and vocal music programs including secondary, collegiate, community and professional artists throughout the Greater Columbus area. She has served as a group piano class instructor at Denison University, as a staff member of the Community Suzuki Program also at Denison University, and as an accompanist for Opera Columbus-Voice of Freedom and Capriccio Columbus. Wise continues to play for a variety of musical events while keeping the flute & voice as her secondary instruments. 

Ashley maintains multiple professional memberships as she serves as a committee member and board member for a variety of organizations throughout the community such as VP of Teacher Activities for the Central East Ohio Music Teachers Association and currently serves as VP of State Conferences for the Ohio Music Teachers Association. She is an ad-hoc committee member of the Olentangy Education Foundation. She and her husband are co-founders of the non-profit organization, Parent Diversity Network, Inc., which is a network of families, educators and community members who support the sense of belonging for all in school and throughout the community, 

Ashley loves being a mom, entertaining, meeting new people, and gardening. She is happily married to her gifted music director/songwriter husband, Ceylon, and is the mother of two wonderful boys.

Carol Jeckavitch, a native of Johnstown, PA, has sung with Capriccio Columbus since 2013 and became its music librarian in 2014.

Carol is a retired music educator, directing choral activities at Salem High School, in Salem, Ohio for 30 years before retiring to Columbus with husband and fellow Capriccio member, Jeff, to be nearer to their children and grandchildren.

Ellen Moore Griffin has been a member of Capriccio Columbus since 2009, serving as board secretary before assuming her current role as Managing Director, overseeing all administrative aspects of managing the chorus, including internal and external communications, scheduling, grant writing, program design and layout, and website management.

Mrs. Griffin, a Columbus native and graduate of Groveport-Madison High School, holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Ohio University.  She has extensive administrative management experience in the arts (Players Theatre Columbus) and government (Governor Celeste’s office and the Ohio Building Authority).  In 1992, she was hired as the assistant director of Community Crime Patrol, a local, non-profit, crime prevention organization based in the University District, and assumed the executive director position in 2001.

Most recently, Collin Richardson served as University Organist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Music at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia where he taught organ, piano, music theory, piano methods and accompanied the university choral ensembles. A native of Cincinnati, Mr. Richardson earned the Bachelor of Arts Degree in music at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Collin continued his music studies in earning the Master of Music Degree in Organ Performance from Emory University and the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Organ Performance with additional studies in piano pedagogy from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.  He currently serves as director of choral activities at Linden-McKinley High School in Columbus.

Karrie Horton has earned a reputation as an extremely versatile vocal performer, conductor and educator. She has served as director of vocal music at New Albany High School for the past 22 years and musical theater vocal coach at St. Charles Preparatory School since 1991.

Horton is familiar to many in Columbus as soprano soloist at St. Joseph Cathedral, former director of Worthington Songsters, and lead singer for Buckeye Brass, a jazz band. She has performed with Opera Columbus, backed up Celine Dion and Gladys Knight and sung commercial jingles.

A member of the Ohio Music Education Association and the Ohio Choral Directors Association, Horton earned her master’s degree from VanderCook College of Music and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Ohio State University. She has continued with graduate work in Theatre Education at Akron University.

Larry Griffin is well known and widely respected among Central Ohio’s music educators and conductors. From 1991 until his retirement in 2013, he was director of choral music at Worthington Kilbourne High School. He formerly led the St Charles Preparatory School’s men’s ensemble and the Mansfield Symphony Chorus. He currently teaches voice privately in his home studio and serves as music director for Opera Columbus’ “The Journey”.

A past president of the Ohio Music Education Association, Griffin has served in many OMEA events as an adjudicator, director of honors choir festivals and clinician. In 2005, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra presented him with the Secondary School Music Educator Award.

From 2001 to 2003, Griffin directed Vaud-Villities. He has served a number of Greater Columbus churches as a choral director and soloist.

Griffin holds a Master of Music degree from The Ohio State University, where he studied conducting with Hilary Apfelstadt. He received his Bachelor of Music Education degree from Eastern Kentucky University, and has done graduate work at Ohio State and Wright State University.

Evan T. McIntyre holds a Master of Music in Music Education from Capital University, and his Bachelor of Music Education and Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education from Otterbein University. He has his Kodály Certification from the Kodály Institute at Capital University and his Orff-Schulwerk Levels 1 and 2 from Baldwin Wallace University. He is currently working on his Doctorate of Philosophy in Music Education at The Ohio State University. McIntyre currently teaches general music at McVay Elementary School in the Westerville City Schools, where he was named 2014-2015 Educator of the Year, and serves as the children’s music director at New Albany United Methodist Church.

Kristen Jarzecki is in her 21st year of teaching elementary music education.  Kristen teaches K-5 general music and choir at Evening Street Elementary in Worthington City Schools. Mrs. Jarzecki received her bachelor’s degree in music education from Otterbein University and her master’s degree in music education from Capital University. She mentors student teachers and students in music methods classes from The Ohio State University, Otterbein University, and Muskingum University. Mrs. Jarzecki also sings locally in community theatre, concerts, weddings, and churches.

In 2019, Mrs. Jarzecki was the guest clinician for the Craven County Schools Children’s Honor’s Choir of 150 singers in New Bern, North Carolina.  Some of her ideas are published in a book called, “Puttin’ on the Kidz” by Michael and Jill Gallina. Her favorite part about being a music teacher is teaching the joy of singing and music making.

Alyson Bates founded Capriccio Youth Choirs in 2010 alongside the late Jane Griffin. As the Founding Artistic Director, Mrs. Bates fosters CYC with the mission that all young people can sing and all are welcome to be a part of a music family. She strives to continually improve on creating an environment of acceptance and artistry for developing singers.

Mrs. Bates holds a master’s degree in Education Administration from Ashland University and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Otterbein University. Her extensive experience with youth choirs ranges from teaching vocal and instrumental music in the public school setting (Switzerland of Ohio Local, Groveport Madison Local, and Worthington City school districts) to serving as a staff member of Kinderchor of Ohio and Con Brio Children and Youth Choirs. Mrs. Bates also serves as the Treble Festival Chair for the Ohio Choral Directors Association Board and is an active member of the Ohio Music Education Association and the Ohio Choral Directors Association. She is currently also the vocal director for Worthington Kilbourne High School musicals as well as a clinician for choral ensembles, mentor to future music educators, and a collaborative musician in her community.