Victor Valley College Music Faculty

Sonja Arcobello

Soprano Sonja Arcobello is a critically praised full lyric soprano, educator, and arts leader whose work spans opera, concert performance, and higher education. Recognized for her “powerful, sumptuous soprano with a nice ‘dark’ quality,” Mrs. Arcobello brings uncommon emotional intelligence, vocal authority, and stylistic depth to a wide-ranging repertoire that includes major works of the Italian, French, Russian, and contemporary operatic traditions.

Mrs. Arcobello’s recent operatic highlights include Tosca with Opera Vermont, a role that showcased her commanding dramatic presence and vocal intensity; Zemfira (Aleko) with Pacific Lyric Association, praised for its psychological nuance and expressive urgency; and the dual roles of Mother and Witch in Hänsel und Gretel with Lyric Opera of Orange County, where her performance balanced vocal weight, theatrical precision, and darkly vivid characterization. These performances affirm her reputation as an artist drawn to complex, emotionally charged roles that demand both vocal substance and interpretive depth.

Mrs. Arcobello’s professional training includes participation in prestigious young artist programs and festivals such as Opera North, Central City Opera’s Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program (Apprentice and Studio Artist), Crested Butte Music Festival, and Opernfest Prague. She holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a Performance Certificate from the Boston University Opera Institute, and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of California, Irvine.

An award-winning vocalist, Mrs. Arcobello has received top honors from major national competitions, including Third Place and Encouragement Awards from the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, Grand Prize in the Metropolitan International Music Festival Opera Division, multiple awards from the Giulio Gari Foundation, and repeated recognition as a Semi-Finalist in the Loren L. Zachary Society National Vocal Competition.

Email: Sonja.Arcobello@vvc.edu

In addition to her performing career, Mrs. Arcobello is an accomplished educator and academic leader, currently serving as a college professor teaching several classes as well as conducting the college choirs. Her pedagogy is informed by active professional experience and emphasizes vocal health, stylistic literacy, historical awareness, and expressive authenticity. Through her dual commitment to performance and education, Mrs. Arcobello brings a rare synthesis of artistic excellence, intellectual rigor, and leadership to every facet of her work.

Dr. Joshua Phillps

Dr. Joshua Phillips is an active freelance clarinetist and teacher throughout Southern California and is on faculty at Victor Valley College and Riverside City College, Coil School for the Performing Arts. Joshua recently won the position of Second Clarinet in the San Luis Obispo Symphony, joining the SLO Symphony in their 2023-2024 season. Joshua has toured and concertized in China, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and throughout North America with various chamber and orchestral ensembles as well as his group, Driftwood Trio. Joshua is a founding member and clarinetist of DriftWood Trio, an award winning contemporary trio d’anches since 2018. Joshua has been a member of the Orange County Clarinet Consort since 2014 and most recently has taken on the role as Executive and Artistic Director.

Originally from Lake Arrowhead, California, Joshua attended Riverside City College where he studied with Margaret Worsley. Joshua then transferred to California State University, Fullerton where he studied with Håkan Rosengren and received his Bachelor of Music cum laude in 2017 in clarinet performance. Joshua continued his education in New York at Stony Brook University, under the tutelage of Alan Kay, where he received his Master of Music degree in 2019 and Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2022.

For more info about Dr. Joshua Phillips, visit his website: https://jpclarinet.com/

Email: Joshua.Phillips@vvc.edu

Brigham Welch

Brigham Welch is a passionate music educator, performer, and recording artist. His musical journey propelled while attending Cal State University Long Beach, receiving a Bachelors of Arts degree in Music, and blossomed while attending The Boston Conservatory for his Graduate Degrees, receiving a Masters Degree in Viola Performance and a Graduate Diploma in Music Education (GDME). Brigham is an active musician, performing regularly with the Burbank Philharmonic, Orchestra Collective of Orange County and many other professional orchestras in Southern California. Brigham has many professional recordings that can be found on iTunes, Spotify, and Pandora that collectively have generated millions of streams. Brigham is honored to be hired as the new full-time music faculty member at VVC and is excited to work with Dr. Karen Miskell to build the music program and enhance the music culture of the High Desert community at large. For more info on Brigham Welch, visit http://hardeyandwelch.com

Email: Brigham.Welch@vvc.edu

Dr. Grace Woo Choi

Dr. Woo Grace Choi is a pianist, educator, and music scholar with extensive experience in piano performance, music theory, musicianship, and music history. She has been a member of the music faculty at Victor Valley College since 2016, where she teaches applied piano, elementary piano, music fundamentals, and music history, including the History of Jazz. She is passionate about helping students develop both strong musical skills and a deeper understanding and appreciation of music.

Dr. Choi began her musical studies in South Korea and earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance and Voice and a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from Kyung-Hee University in Seoul. After moving to the United States, she continued her studies at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, earning a second Master of Music degree in Piano Performance and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance, with additional concentrations in Organ Performance, Orchestration, and Music Analysis.

As a performer, Dr. Choi has presented numerous solo piano and chamber music recitals in both Korea and the United States. Her performance experience includes solo and collaborative repertoire for piano, voice, clarinet, and other instrumental ensembles. She has also performed organ recitals and participated in opera productions as a vocal coach, including productions of *La Bohème*, *Le Nozze di Figaro*, and *L’elisir d’amore*. She continues to perform regularly and has been featured in Victor Valley College Music Department recitals.

Dr. Choi has extensive experience teaching music to students at both the high school and college levels. Before joining Victor Valley College, she taught piano, music theory, and musicianship at Encore High School for the Arts for more than 16 years. She currently teaches advanced piano at Granite Hills High School in Apple Valley in addition to her work at VVC. Her teaching philosophy combines strong technical and theoretical foundations with creativity, musical expression, and individualized instruction. She believes that students become stronger musicians when they understand not only how to perform music, but also how music is constructed, interpreted, and connected to its historical and cultural context.

Email: Woo.Choi@vvc.edu

Erika Collazos

Erika Collazos is a musicologist and an instructor for the music department at Victor Valley College (VVC). Her musical journey sparked when attending VVC as a student, where hard work and diligence propelled her to receive two Associate of Arts Degrees, one in Fine Arts and the other in the Liberal Arts, and Erika takes much pride to be among the graduating class of 2009, receiving high honors. With two degrees and momentum on her side, Erika decided to take her passion for knowledge and music and embark on a new journey at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). While at UCR she immersed herself in understanding diversity and how music enriched and shaped different cultures. Courses that expanded Erika’s worldview are “Rock and Roll History,” “Homosexuality in Music,” “Opera,” “Music from the Andes,” and “Counterpoint.” In addition to these history courses, Erika’s musical knowledge expanded while learning unconventional instruments to our American experience, indeed, performing and studying the “Javanese Gamelan,” as well as in an ensemble setting. Erika not only has experience with the Indonesian Javanese Gamelan but also follows a traditional route in vocal performance and has participated in the Chamber singers, Choral society and the UCR Orchestra, as well as, extensive training in form and analysis. In 2013, she was awarded a Bachelor’s of Arts with a major in Music, graduating with the highest of honors (Summa Cum Laude). Erika’s honors thesis “The Invisible Rapper” can be found in the library at UCR. Shifting her focus on graduate school, Erika attended Claremont Graduate University and received her master’s degree in 2015 in the field of musicology. She is working towards her Ph.D. and is expected to start her dissertation in 2021. She returned to her Alma Mater in 2016, where Erika seeks to inspire students to all the wonders of music and help them understand the beauty of diversity through music. She is committed to the students at VVC by teaching Music (100), 101, 102, 104, 105, and advisor to the music club.

Email: Erika.Collazos@vvc.edu

Brian Geary

Brian Geary is a performer and educator based in Southern California. He received a Bachelors of Art in Music, graduating summa cum laude, from SUNY Buffalo State and a Masters in Music Performance from California State University Fullerton. During his time at CSUF, he worked closely with Dr. Martha Masters and Grammy-winning guitarist Andrew York. As a performer, he has engaged audiences across the US and Europe in both solo and ensemble settings and has been a featured artist for the Vietnamese American Classical Guitar Society, Stan’s Music, and the Crystal Cove Conservancy. In addition to his solo performances, Mr. Geary has also been a part of a few different New Music ensembles on both the East and West Coasts. He currently performs in a guitar duo with Brian Cross. As an active member of the classical guitar community at large, Mr. Geary served as the Convention Manager for the Guitar Foundation of America’s Annual Convention from 2018-2023. As a music educator, Mr. Geary received a teaching credential from CSUF in 2020 and is the music director at Adelanto High School where he teaches guitar ensembles, marching band, and music history classes. Outside of his musical life, Mr. Geary is an active outdoors enthusiast and distance runner; completing his first ultra-marathon in the summer of 2022.

Email: Brian.Geary@vvc.edu

Dr. Linda Minasian

Dr. Minasian has received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California; Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles; and Artist Diploma from the Musikhochschule in Munich, Germany; majoring in piano performance in all three institutions with minor degrees in Electro-Acoustic Music and Theory/Schenkerian Analysis. Her deep gratitude goes to her distinguished mentors: Aube Tzerko, Joanna Harris, and Nancy Bricard, who introduced her to the pedagogical techniques, American music literature, and French piano literature respectively.

Dr. Minasian is currently active as a solo performer and chamber musician. She works on an extensive new repertoire each year and has given concerts in Japan, Europe, and throughout the United States. She enjoys sharing the music from the stage with her audience, as well as in classroom with her students. A passionate educator, she maintains a busy private teaching studio and has been on faculty at Victor Valley College for several year. Each year, Dr. Minasian represents Victor Valley College by her solo performance at the MACCC - Music Association of California Community Colleges - conference.

Dr. Minasian’s post-graduate scholarly activities include peer reviewed publications: Biological Principles of Education - Handedness in Piano playing, which studies specific learning approaches of left-handed piano students, Regionalism in Spanish Piano Music, and lectures: Pianistic Hand Injuries - Causes and Cures, and Nationalism in Piano Music of the 20th Century; among others

Email: Linda.Minasian@vvc.edu

Aaron Moreno

Aaron Moreno serves as percussion instructor and adjunct professor as Victor Valley College. He is proud to say that his music education begin in the High Desert within K-12 public schools. His higher education includes an Associate's degree in Fine Arts (Victor Valley College), a Bachelor's degree in Music Education with emphasis in percussion (California State University, Fullerton), and a Master's degree in Music Education (Azusa Pacific University). Mr. Moreno's thesis research focuses on the effects that early music experiences have on the development of music aptitude in children. Aside from working at VVC, Mr. Moreno is in his 8th year as an elementary music teacher for Hesperia Unified School District where he works to start young musicians on their first instruments and guides them to produce their first sounds and reading their first notes. One of his proudest moments is seeing a student he taught in his first year as an elementary teacher walk through the doors of VVC as a college musician. Finally, on his spare time, you might see him running around town/campus training for a marathon.

Email: Aaron.Moreno@vvc.edu

Sean Portanova

Biography yet to come

Email: Sean.Portanova@vvc.edu

Daniel Ramon

"The appropriately pure, clean and true baroque tenor voice of Daniel Ramon." The Press-Enterprise - Riverside "Daniel Ramon set a fine example with the opening Recitative and Aria, 'Every Valley Shall be Exalted'. His lyric, almost ethereal, tenor caressed the ear." The sun - San Bernardino

Professor Daniel Ramon is a classically trained tenor and professional vocalist recognized for his versatile and expressive voice. His vocal artistry encompasses a wide range of styles, from a clear, straight-toned quality to a rich and colorful operatic sound, allowing him to bring depth, flexibility, and musicality to a diverse repertoire. Professor Ramon is an active professional singer in Southern California. He has held roster positions with the Pacific Chorale and the Long Beach Camerata Singers and currently performs with the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Throughout his career, he has worked with distinguished conductors including Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Eckart Preu, and John Alexander. His concert repertoire includes major masterworks such as Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”), Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. As an operatic performer, Professor Ramon has appeared in a variety of leading and supporting roles. He recently performed the role of Gabriel von Eisenstein in Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus, the Schoolmaster in Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. His additional operatic credits include Pedrito in Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s Monkey See, Monkey Do and the leading tenor role in Rodriguez’s Tango, a 25-minute, one-act opera for solo tenor and chamber ensemble. Next January 2027, Professor Ramon will appear with the Southland Symphony in the role of Nanki-Poo in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado.

Professor Ramon is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree at Claremont Graduate University. He holds a Master of Music in Voice Performance from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach, and earned his Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from California State University, San Bernardino. In addition to his professional performing career, Professor Ramon is an active music educator and member of the voice faculty at Victor Valley College, Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, and California State University, San Bernardino. He is passionate about mentoring the next generation of musicians and singers and is proud to work with the talented students and faculty at Victor Valley College each semester.

Email: Daniel.Ramon@vvc.edu

Ray Rust

Mr. Rust has been teaching music for almost 20 years, both in public schools and at VVC. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Music with an emphasis in Education, and his teaching credential from Cal State Fullerton. He also has a MS Ed. degree in Integrating Technology in the Classroom from Walden University, and is currently working on an Ed. D. degree in Educational Technology. Mr. Rust joined the music staff at VVC in 2016 as applied brass faculty. He also plays in several music groups, both here at the college and down the hill.

In his spare time, Mr. Rust likes to travel around the country visiting Major League Baseball stadiums. He also likes to travel to other countries, which have included Australia, Canada, Mexico, England, France, Italy, and Greece.

Email: Raymond.Rust@vvc.edu

David Snedegar

David Snedegar has been teaching at VVC since 2014. He grew up in the High Desert and was part of the marching band and choirs at Victor Valley High School. He also attended VVC and sang with the College Singers under the direction of Dr. Tom Miller. David has two bachelor’s degrees from Cal State, Fullerton: Music Education (Choral Emphasis) and Music Composition. While there, he was privileged to sing with the University Singers under the direction of John Alexander. As a member of the choir, he got to perform with professional orchestras, including the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the Boston Pops Orchestra. He has a master’s degree from Brigham Young University in Music Composition, and he is one dissertation away from obtaining his PhD from the University of Utah in Music Composition. He was an elementary school teacher for 5 years and has served as a choir director and children’s song leader at his church. He loves to listen to a variety of styles of music; however, you will mostly find him rocking out to symphonic metal.

Email: David.Snedegar@vvc.edu

Barbara Sternfeld

Mrs. Sternfeld received her B.A. from Cal Poly Pomona in Education, M.A. from CSULA in Musicology and has taught violin and viola for over 40 years. Her students have participated in the High Desert Symphony, Claremont Young Musicians Orchestra, Intermezzo Strings, Southern California Youth Symphony, and the National Disney Young Musicians Orchestra. Her most advanced students teaching at the university level and performing with the L.A. Philharmonic Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. She was the founder of the Cal Poly Pomona Music Conservatory, Victor Valley College String Choir, Preludium Strings, Symphony Orchestra, and concertmaster of the High Desert Symphony. Her career highlights include performing with the national award winning Cal Poly Los Broncos Mariachi (where she met her husbandJ ) and their work with the world renowned Mariachi Vargas Tecalitlan, performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and movie and soundtrack orchestra for Elvis and the Beauty Queen.

Sternfeld is currently enjoying her 22nd year of teaching at VVC as an adjunct faculty member and teaches classes in music appreciation, fundamentals, and applied strings. Upon her retirement from conducting and responsibilities as string coordinator she now enjoys her first passion - performing with the VVC Symphony Orchestra and spending time with her kids and grandchildren.

Email: Barbara.Sternfeld@vvc.edu

Richard Sumner

Rich has been teaching guitar since around 1977. He then became a guitar teacher at Tom’s Music in Victorville, CA when he finished high school in 1979. It was also then that he came to VVC as a student and studied extensively under Dr. Tom Miller. After studying there he went to Musician’s Institute in Hollywood, CA in 1985-1986. There he studied guitar at the Guitar Institute of Technology at MI and studied under many of the top studio and jazz musicians of that time. Among the many great teachers there were Joe Diorio, Joe Pass, Ron Eschete, Tommy Tedesco (of the Wrecking Crew), Robben Ford, Lester Wise, Jeff Berlin, Frank Gambale, Scott Henderson and many more. We were frequented by so many other top musicians when they were in town, such as Larry Carlton, Jaco Pastorius, Allen Holdsworth and Al Dimeola just to name a few. These musicians are on more records than we can even begin to name. There Rich graduated with honors in the top 5% of this class.

After returning to the high desert, Dr. Miller encouraged Rich in 1989 to become the guitar instructor at VVC and he has been there teaching guitar, music fundamentals and leading two performing groups, the Guitar Ensemble and more recently the Jazz Rock Combo.

Rich has been a working musician since his teenage years and has performed in Jazz, Rock, Blues, Classical, Worship, Latin, Brazilian, Dance, Country and Reggae music styles. He has recorded with his jazz band ZZAJ as well as with other artists. He has a passion for teaching music and has helped many students reach toward their goals.

Among his other passions, he is an avid woodworker, even helping students build their own guitar, and he and his wife are hiking enthusiasts.

Email: Richard.Sumner@vvc.edu

18422 Bear Valley Road in Victorville, California, 92395 - Insta: @vvc.music.program - Youtube: @VVCMusicProgram

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