Executive Board
Emery Edwards
PRESIDENT/ WEBMASTER
Emery Edwards currently serves as Director of the Albuquerque Girl Choir. A New Mexico Level III Educator, she has spent more than 14 years teaching and making music with students across the state at every level, including elementary general music, secondary choir, piano, and guitar — and even one memorable year teaching second grade general education.
Emery earned her Bachelor of Choral Music Education from Eastern New Mexico University and her Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction in Mathematics from University of Texas at Arlington. She began singing at age 11 and has since performed throughout New Mexico, Texas, and Europe.
An active leader in music education, Emery has guest conducted choirs and adjudicated festivals throughout New Mexico. She is an active member of the National Association for Music Education and the American Choral Directors Association. Emery is passionate about continuing to build meaningful musical experiences for young singers in New Mexico.
Paul Hallsted
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Paul Hallsted currently serves as the Fine Arts Content Specialist for Las Cruces Public Schools in Las Cruces. With more than four decades of experience as a music educator, he has taught students at all levels, from preschool through university. Since 1990, he has been a regular instructor in Orff Schulwerk certification courses across the United States, supporting the professional development of music educators nationwide.
Mr. Hallsted is an active choral clinician and conductor, frequently leading elementary and middle school honor choirs throughout the country. He has also presented clinics and workshops both nationally and internationally, including in Wuhan.
His professional service includes serving as Executive Director of the American Choral Directors Association New Mexico, Past President of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association New Mexico, a member of the National Board of Trustees for the American Orff-Schulwerk Association, and two terms as General Music Vice President for the New Mexico Music Educators Association.
Christopher Yee
PRESIDENT-ELECT
Christopher Yee is Director of Choirs at Zia Middle School in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Over the past eleven years, he has directed various kinds of ensembles in both public and private school settings. He has also had the opportunity to work with various choirs and musical groups during his time as a full-time church music director at First Evangelical Free Church in Las Cruces. While living in Santa Fe, he was artistic director of the Santa Fe Men's Camerata, a professional men's chorus. His choirs and students have regularly received superior ratings at local MEA events and participate in ACDA state-wide honors ensembles. He received his Bachelor's degree in Music Education with an emphasis in Choral Arts from Eastern New Mexico University. Recently, his choir was featured on stage with the British American rock band, Foreigner, bringing international attention to the importance of music in our schools. He loves good food and friends and spending time with his wife and two children.
Ken Miller
PAST PRESIDENT
Ken Miller retired from teaching in May 2019. Prior to retirement, Ken taught fifteen years as Chair of Fine and Performing Arts and Director of Choirs at Carlsbad HS. The CHS Troubadours, under his direction, were known for the integrity and vitality of their singing. They were a consistent top-placed choir at the NMAA State Choir Contests where they were Back-to-Back NM State Champions in 2012 & 2013. In 2019, Ken served as Acting Director of Choral Activities at Eastern New Mexico University. In addition to his teaching at ENMU, Ken is Instructor in Music at NMSU-Carlsbad.
Ken has built award-winning choirs in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Germany where Ken and Lisa taught music at The International School of Düsseldorf, Germany. While living in Germany, Ken sang with the Düsseldorf Symphony Chorus and in a semi-professional chamber choir which recorded and toured extensively in what was then East Germany behind the Iron Curtain. As a singer in Germany, Ken sang under the batons of Kristof Penderecki, Olivier Messian, Leonard Bernstein, Bernard Haitink, Helmuth Rilling, and Bernard Klee, among the most notable.
Ken studied at Hardin-Simmons University and received his Master of Music in Choral Conducting from The University of Texas at Austin. Ken has completed post-graduate study in choral conducting at Westminster Choir College under Robert Shaw, Howard Swan, Weston Noble, and Joseph Flummerfelt. He also studied conducting under Prof. Dr. Hartmut Schmidt at the Robert Schumann Hochschüle für Musik in Düsseldorf. Ken and Lisa have four sons. Three are in university and their caboose attends Carlsbad High School. Lisa continues teaching elementary music in Carlsbad.
Garrett Keith
TREASURER
Kimberly Wolfenberger-Nakamoto
SECRETARY