Dr. James Allen, Voice Faculty

Dr. James Allen, from Savannah, Georgia, is a tenor who studies with Dominic Armstrong. During his doctoral studies at the University of South Carolina, James was the Graduate Assistant for both the Director of Opera Studies and the Instructor of Musical Theatre, and he taught Class Voice to Instrumental Music Education majors. He received his Bachelor of Music from Georgia Southern University where he studied under Dr. Arikka Gregory and a Master of Music from the University of South Carolina. His dissertation is titled “A Performance and Pedagogical Guide to the William Butler Yeats Songs by Ben Moore.”

James has been seen on stage in roles such as Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Pâris (La Belle Hélène), Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Sam Kaplan (Street Scene), Orfeo (L’Orfeo), and Dr. Neville Craven (The Secret Garden). He has been a Young Artist with the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory and Musiktheater Bavaria, a Vocal Fellow with the Spoleto Festival USA, and attended the Castleton Immersion Program as both a singer and a collaborative pianist. This summer, James returned to the Spoleto Festival USA to perform in Thaïs by Jules Massenet and Bach’s Mass in B-Minor. James also traveled to Spoleto, Italy, to participate in the Spoleto Vocal Arts Workshop led by international opera singers Jeremy Carpenter and Matthew Rose.

James has been a classical pianist for 17 years studying under Mrs. Suzanne Woodrum in Savannah and Dr. David Murray while at Georgia Southern University. He has been the Répétiteur for singers preparing roles in Carmen and La Sonnambula for performances at the Atlanta Opera and The Opera People in Singapore. Recently, James performed Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe alongside his voice teacher, Dominic Armstrong, at the Castleton Festival.

James is an avid choral singer having sung in the Georgia Southern Chorale under Dr. Shannon Jeffreys, the Spoleto Festival USA Vocal Fellow Chorus under Dr. Joe Miller, and Limited Time Only, the University of South Carolina Alumni choir, under Dr. Alicia Walker. He is currently a Cathedral Singer at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia, South Carolina. This fall, he will join 11 other singers for the VOCES8 US Scholars program – a professional development program for the nation’s best up-and-coming choral singers led by the Grammy award-winning ensemble, VOCES8. James is also on the rosters of the professional choirs Servire and the Vocal Arts Ensemble: Cincinnati.

Jim Gatch, Guitar Faculty

Jim Gatch is the Director of Choirs for Swansea High School. A native of South Carolina, Jim is a professional singer and guitarist, and frequently performs throughout the southeastern United States. He is a graduate from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Music Education and a Master’s in Choral Conducting. He has taught 4th-12th grade music and choir in Colorado, Wisconsin, and South Carolina.

Molly Thomas, Piano Faculty

Molly Thomas began studying piano at the age of seven and has been passionate ever since. She is native of Birmingham, Alabama and is a doctoral candidate in Piano Pedagogy at the University of South Carolina. She received her Masters of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Northern Iowa and her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from the University of Montevallo.

Molly is an active researcher and writer. Her article, titled “Teaching Students with Autism: A Young Teacher’s Perspective,” is published in the Summer 2021 volume of Iowa Music Teachers’ Association magazine. Her other previous research includes the class dynamics of nineteenth-century women composers and working with students in underprivileged communities. She has served as president of the University of South Carolina’s Music Teachers’ National Association chapter and currently focuses her dissertation research on ADHD and piano study.

Hannah McKenzie, Voice Faculty

Music educator and vocalist, Hannah B. McKenzie earned two Bachelor of Music degrees in music education and vocal performance from the University of Tennessee. She came to Columbia in 2019 to receive her Master of Music in choral conducting from the University of South Carolina under the direction of Dr. Alicia Walker, and began teaching at Dreher High School in 2021 while finishing her graduate school coursework. In addition to directing the Dreher High School Concert Choir and Show Choir, she also served the Dreher Drama and Band departments as a vocal coach. She has taught middle school chorus, rehearsed and performed collegiate ensembles, worked with middle and high school choruses across TN and SC, and served as the middle school clinician for the 2019 SCISA Middle School Honor Choir. Additionally, she is a soloist in her church Adult Choir where she also directs a children’s choir. She began her own music studio and taught private voice lessons for nine years. Hannah’s students have participated in district, state, region, and even national level honor choirs at Carnegie Hall. Under his direction, her students performed in collaborative concerts with the Palmetto Mastersingers and the USC Choirs of Carolina. As a soloist, Hannah has competed and placed in state and regional vocal competitions, including regional and national rounds of the National Association of Teachers of Singing competition. She is an active member of the American Choral Directors Association and the National Association for Music Educators, and she sings in the Columbia-based chamber choir Limited Time Only. When she’s not busy performing or directing, Hannah loves nothing more than hanging out outside with her husband, Hunter, and their firecracker toddler, Lydia.