Our Staff
Our Director
Cathy Bleecker
Directing Westside Singers since end of Spring 2022.
Cathy has a Bachelor's degree in Music from University of Redlands, Master's degree Conducting from Western Michigan University, and has done Doctoral work in Choral Music and Conducting at UMKC Conservatory of Music.
She has years of experience as Assistant Professor of Music at Pacific Lutheran University, a music teacher K-12, private lessons teacher for piano and voice, and was the Music Director of "Something Rotten" at California State University in winter 2023.
You can contact her at director@westsidesingers.org
Our Accompanist
Madison Berry-Sellers
Accompanying Westside Singers since ___
Maddie has a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Oregon State University, where she also worked as a student accompanist. She works at All Classical Music and teaches private lessons.
She has been playing piano since she was five years old, frequently playing keyboards/piano for church and school since middle school. Maddie's forte is choral accompaniment, although she also performs early music, contemporary music, musical theatre, and does instrumental and vocal accompaniment.
You can contact her at maddieberry@me.com
Our Percussionist
Delaney Jai
Performing with Westside Singers since ___, Marketing Director since Fall 2023.
Delaney has a Percussion Performance and Music Business degree from Adams State University and a Masters in Percussion Performance from Southern Oregon University.
As an aspiring percussionist and singer/songwriter, they have performed with many ensembles including percussion ensembles, jazz ensembles, concert choirs, wind ensembles, ‘7543 Panhandlers Steel Band, Marival Road Steel Pan Ensemble, Central American Marimba Band, The Alpine Backbeats Drumline and Samba Band, and Left Edge Percussion.
They were featured as a percussion and vocal soloist on an Adams State University Percussion Concert titled Composition XX. Delaney has a passion for equity in music, and in the summer of 2018 was a guest speaker on the podcast, Tacet Thoughts in regards to their on-campus presentation entitled “The Stage Gap: Perceptions of the Female Percussionist in a Male Dominated Industry.”
You can contact them at delaney.armstrong23@gmail.com
Our Keyboardist
Howard Sonstegard
Performing with Westside Singers since ___
Howard has a Bachelor's of Music from California Lutheran College (Cal Lutheran) while working as assistant conductor, and a Master's degree in Instrumental Conducting though he also worked with choirs.
He has had experience working for over 20 years as a music teacher in the school, teaching band, marching band, choir, and strings. He became the church organist for Our Savior's Lutheran Church in East Palo Alto at 13 years old. Later in life, he was the music director for 25 years at Ascension Lutheran Church in California.
He's also the loving husband of one of our choir members, Vicki Sonstegard. Vicki is the reason why Howard first got involved with Westside!
You can contact him at ___
Our Assistant Director
Jen McMillen
Singing with Westside since Fall 2022, assistant directing since Fall 2023.
Jen has a Bachelor's of Music from Northern Illinois University where she studied music education, and a Master's in Teaching K-8 from Western Governor's University.
She started directing community choirs and teaching music in elementary school in 2015. Jen has taught private music lessons for voice, beginner piano, and beginner guitar for over a decade. She worked as one of the conductors of Blueprint Arts Ensembles in Portland, working with two choirs that specialized in pop and rock music.
Jen got her start in music from her grandma, Martha McMillen, who has been a music teacher and director of many choirs. When Martha went in for surgery, Jen briefly took over rehearsals and performances for the Silvertones (senior citizen community choir in Wheaton, IL).
You can contact her at westsidesingerspdx@gmail.com