Roster

Jeanine Dovell

The Holiday Singers

Jasper Hall, Jr.

Jasper Hall is a choir/praise team director and vocal ensemble leader when he is not busy as a Microsoft Escalation Support Manager.  A graduate of Winthrop College (now University), where he honed his singing and acting skills, Jasper can be found lending his robust baritone to a broad variety of genres, including musical theater, gospel, jazz, barbershop, contemporary Christian, and opera.  He has sung the National Anthem at professional sporting events and also enjoys singing for weddings, funerals, baptisms, and other life events.  A long-time church choir soloist and worship leader, Jasper has recently released his new CD, Standing In His Grace.  Jasper and his wife, Sandy, have three children.  For more about Jasper, go to www.jasperhall.com.

Kevin Jones

Tenor Kevin Jones has been working in the Charlotte area for the past seven years, with a music career spanning two decades.  Kevin received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Alabama State University, and since then has shared the stage with such great artists as B.B. King, The Commodores, Michael McDonald, Natalie Cole, Anita Baker, Ronnie Laws, Patti Austin, Al Green, and many others.  Kevin has also worked with some of the best musicians Charlotte has to offer, including Daryl Rice, Maria Howell, Ziad Rabie, Ron Brendle, Bill Hanna, Rodney Shelton, Gary Marcus, Rick Dior, and many more.  One of Kevin’s favorite holiday activities is vocalizing with The Holiday Singers.

Sandy Eldridge

Sandy Eldridge, mezzo soprano, teaches voice at her home and at the Charlotte Academy of Music in Matthews.   Although she has sung all her life, she didn’t let her life follow her passion until about 10 years ago.  Sandy went back to school and trained at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL.   With a degree in Vocal Performance, she immediately found roles in Community Theatre and established her teaching studio.  Very soon she won her first professional theater role as Ethel Tofflemier in Meridith Wilson’s  The Music Man, which was produced by a Central Florida dinner theater.  Various roles in professional childrens’ theater followed.  Enjoying all types of music, Sandy sang with the Orlando Opera, various classical groups, and earned her first “Dickens” costume with the Caroling Company in Orlando.  Since arriving in Charlotte she has rebuilt her private practice.  You might have seen her as the Fish Monger, Rose Seller and Old Lady in Theater Charlotte’s Oliver!  last September.

Soprano Mindy Damon, a Rock Hill, SC, native, received her degree in Voice Performance at Liberty University and her Master’s at Winthrop University. Upon graduation, she began her professional singing career at Walt Disney World, singing full-time for the “Voices of Liberty” at EPCOT Center. She has appeared on nationwide television in various roles in the genres of opera and musical theatre, and has taught voice on the collegiate level for ten years. For the last three years, Mindy has traveled as soloist with pastor Dr. David Jeremiah wherever he has spoken across the country, and has been featured on his broadcast “Turning Point.”  She, her husband, Doug, and their three (soon to be four) sons recently moved home to Charlotte where Doug teaches at Charlotte Christian School.  More about Mindy can be found on her website, www.mindydamon.org.

.

Mindy Damon         

Stephen Dovell-Sullivan

Stephen Dovell-Sullivan, bass, has been singing nearly all his life.  From his progression through the ranks of the Christ Church (Charlotte) choirs, including summer courses with the Royal School of Church Music, to Piedmont Middle School’s “Rabbi” in Fiddler on the Roof and “Curley” in Carousel, to multiple years in Butler High School’s (Matthews, NC) elite Chamber Choir, Stephen’s voice has provided an underpinning to each successful performance.  Along the way, he excelled in football and earned a Black Belt in martial arts.  He currently works in the service sector and plans to combine his love of athletics with a career in business.

Theresa Hopkins

Theresa Hopkins, mezzo-soprano, is a graduate of Greensboro College (NC) with a Bachelor of Music Education degree.  She studied voice and piano while at Greensboro, with a concentration primarily on organ.  Since moving to Charlotte, Theresa’s vocal experience has been widespread.  She holds the position of alto section leader with the Christ Church (Charlotte, NC) Choir, where she has been a member since 1976.  She also sang with Charlotte’s Oratorio Singers for four years, and was a member of the early music group Lauda Musicam.  Theresa has been singing both alto and soprano with The Holiday Singers for nine years.  She is currently Principal at Butler High School (Matthews, NC).  Theresa and her husband, Bob, have two grown children.

Elena Gyoerkoe

Soprano Elena Gyoerkoe is new to the Charlotte area.  She was born and raised in Boston, MA before moving to Miami, FL in her teens.  She discovered her voice at age 20 when she was offered a full scholarship to Miami Dade College if she would join the elite Caravan Singers who traveled to Walt Disney World annually for the theme park’s Magic Music Days.  For the next few years she performed lead and other roles in musicals and sang with various choirs and singing groups.  After attaining her degree in Business and Vocal Performance, Elena moved to Southern California where she started an all-female a capella doo-wop group.  Her group performed at such venues as The Harvest Festival and IKEA’s grand opening in Los Angeles as well as other private and corporate events.  She later returned to South Florida where she met her husband.  Their second son was recently born this past July, so Elena is looking forward to singing outside of the nursery once again!

      Caroling in the Carolinas

Holiday Singers Manager/Booking Coordinator & soprano, Jeanine Dovell, has been singing professionally since her teenage years, when she was featured soloist with Capella Cordina, a Yale-based early music group.  Her Capella recordings can be heard on the Lyrichord label.  A longtime early music specialist, she was for many years a member of The Jongleurs, a nationally touring Ann Arbor-based ensemble.  While in Michigan she coached the student early music group at the National Music Camp at Interlochen and adjudicated the All-State Chorus.  She has been a member of the Detroit Symphony Chorale and Charlotte's Oratorio Singers Chorale.  In demand as a church soloist, she has held positions at several Episcopal churches in MI, NC, and CT, where she was also a cantorial soloist for several years.  Currently, Jeanine works for ALRY Publications, a woodwind sheet music publisher.  She is married and has one child.

Grace Morris

Grace Morris, alto, has been the Lower School music teacher at Providence Day School (Charlotte, NC) for the last ten years.  She earned her undergraduate music degree from Appalachian State University, her Master’s from Northern Arizona University, and her Doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  During her career she has taught at the elementary, secondary, and university levels.  But through it all she has been exercising her love of singing in church, community, and university groups.  She is currently a member of the Christ Church (Charlotte) choir, and has been with The Holiday Singers for five years.

Linda Mayo

Linda Mayo found her choral music passion in high school in Charlotte.  Since then, she has sung in church choirs in the area as both section leader and soloist, including a year-long engagement singing show tunes at an area restaurant.  Linda attributes most of her music education to Worship and Music conferences in Montreat, NC, which she attended for nine years.  She is a member of Choristers Guild, Ethos Chamber Ensemble, and has sung with the Charlotte Choral Society and Nova Voce.  Having directed children’s choirs in churches for eleven years, Linda currently directs two children’s choirs, plays handbells, and sings in a church choir as well as working full-time at Ballantyne Resort.  Linda has sung with The Holiday Singers for six years.

Bill Peterson

A native of New Jersey, bass William (Bill) Peterson's first musical interest began in grade school with the guitar.  His interest in singing began in Charleston, SC after he graduated from the Citadel in 1969.  While studying voice privately, Bill sang with the Charleston Opera Company, the Charleston Renaissance Ensemble, and church choirs.  After relocating to Charlotte, NC in 1982, he joined the Charlotte Oratorio Singers and its Chamber Ensemble and became a bass section leader with the Myers Park Presbyterian Church choir, a position he still holds today.  Later Bill sang with the Charlotte Choral Society and its Chamber Chorus, which became the Festival Singers.  As an invited soloist with two combined church choirs from South Carolina, Bill sang in Austria and Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1996; with the Festival Singers, he concertized in England in 1997.  He sang with the Charlotte Cantata Singers in 2001 and is a charter member of Singers of Renaissance, formed in 2002.  Charlotteans may also remember Bill as part of the Candlelight Singers, a quartet which performed at the Lamplighter Restaurant for 13 years during the week of Christmas.  Bill is a licensed hearing aid dispenser in North Carolina and a past board member of NC Hearing Care Professionals.  He has been a member of The Holiday Singers since its Charlotte debut in 1996.  Bill and his wife, Penny Bovender, share a love of music together and enjoy life with Mister Tux, their cat.