About Us

Soprano

Mexican soprano Dr. Jessica Rosas Posada is a distinguished performer, educator, and leading specialist in Latin American Art song. Currently an Assistant Professor of Voice at Angelo State University, her operatic credits include leading roles such as Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Norina (Don Pasquale), Hanna Glawari (The Merry Widow), and Gretel (Hansel and Gretel). On the concert stage, she has performed an extensive oratorio repertoire, including solo highlights in Orff’s Carmina Burana, Handel’s Messiah, and the Requiems of Mozart, Fauré, and Rutter. A member of Pasión Professional Chorus, she also serves as the president of the Ibero-American Chapter of NATS. Her excellence has been recognized with prestigious NATS accolades, including multiple division wins, an Aspiring Artist Summer Program Grant, and the Waldman Award for Best Performance of Spanish Song. Posada holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas and Master of Music degree from Texas Tech University.

Soprano

Brittany Fouché Strine joined the faculty of Texas Tech University as Assistant Professor of Voice in 2025. She has appeared in operas with the Jacksonville Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Saratoga, St. Petersburg Opera, and First Coast Opera, and recent performances have featured premieres and new works for wind band and soprano by John Mackey and Holly Harrison. A passionate pedagogue, Brittany was a 2024 NATS Intern, and her research focuses on increasing knowledge of voice damage and recuperation so that singers and teachers can find practical solutions to often-overlooked issues in the voice studio.

Soprano

Mary Martin happily joins the West Texas Choral Artists for her first concert. She recently joined the School of Music faculty at Texas Tech. Originally from Michigan, her recent operatic roles include Musetta (La bohème), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Governess (The Turn of the Screw), Alice (Falstaff), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), and Antonia (The Tales of Hoffmann). Mary has performed with South Bend Lyric Opera, Central City Opera, Detroit Opera, Brevard Music Center, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Battle Creek Symphony, Livingston Symphony Orchestra, Saginaw Chorale Society, Midland Symphony Orchestra, and New York Opera Exchange. Mary annually directs with Detroit Opera, and recently directed Gianni Schicchi and The Little Prince at DePauw University. Mary earned her BM and MM degrees in voice from the University of Michigan and her Doctor of Music from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where she studied with Carol Vaness.

Mezzo - Soprano

Mezzo-soprano Dr. Marie Bird is known for her energized teaching, performing, mindfulness research, and student outreach throughout the New Mexico and West Texas regions. She currently serves as both Vocal Area Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Voice at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico. As a performer, Dr. Bird has collaborated with such companies as the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, Texas Tech Opera Theatre, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Taos Opera Institute, Amarillo Opera, Red River Lyric Opera, Seagle Music Festival, and Italy’s Orvieto Musica Festival. Dr. Bird and her students maintain active performance schedules in which they perform opera, cabaret, art song, musical theater, jazz, and popular music. Dr. Bird and many of her students are also active members of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). Through NATS, Dr. Bird has shared her mindfulness for musicians research with audiences across the United States. Dr. Bird holds degrees in vocal performance from Texas Tech University (DMA), the University of Alabama (MM), and Florida State University (BM).

Soprano

Lindsey Spitsberg is in her 20th year of teaching music in Lubbock ISD. She was a choral director for 17 years and is currently in her third year as the Director of Piano Studies at Talkington School for Young Women Leaders. She obtained her Bachelor of Music Education degree in Voice at Texas Tech University in 2007. In 2022, she earned her Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting, also from TTU. Throughout the years, she has sung in many ensembles, including Canticum Novum and select graduate conducting recital choirs. Lindsey is an active clinician and adjudicator in Texas and New Mexico. Lindsey enjoys singing in ensembles alongside musicians who share her love of making music together. Her husband, Matt, is also participating in WTCA. Together, they have twin 13-year-old boys, Luke and Everett, who are also accomplished musicians.

Mezzo - Soprano

Alice Anne Light is a mezzo-soprano whose work bridges classical tradition, contemporary music, and interdisciplinary performance. Praised for a voice of warmth, agility, and emotional clarity, she appears as both a soloist and collaborator in projects that place musical excellence in conversation with curiosity, connection, and care. Her performances span opera, concert repertoire, and new works, with a particular commitment to living composers and repertoire that invites reflection and dialogue. Light is known for thoughtful musicianship and a grounded, communicative presence that draws audiences in. In addition to her performance career, she is an educator and advocate for inclusive, artist-centered practices that support sustainable creative lives. She currently serves as Associate Professor of Voice and Associate Director for Student Affairs at the Texas Tech School of Music. 

Tenor

Mark Huffines is a senior in Music Education and Vocal Performance at Texas Tech University from Abilene, Texas. He is a long time member of the University Choir, where he serves as president, and has been involved with many other ensembles including the West Texas Children's Choir, the Lubbock Chorale, Amarillo Opera, the First United Methodist Church Chancel Choir, and the Genesis Children's Choir at First United Methodist Church, where he serves as an assistant director.

Artistic Director /Tenor

Brad Light is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Texas Permian Basin, founder and Artistic Director of the West Texas Choral Artists, and Conductor of the West Texas Symphony Chamber Chorale. In addition to his conducting work, Dr. Light is an active professional singer, appearing on recordings and with respected ensembles including Kantorei of Kansas City, Te Deum Antiqua, and Trinity Chamber Ensemble. He holds degrees from Harding University (B.A.), the University of Mississippi (M.M.E.), and Texas Tech University (D.M.A.).

Baritone

Matthew Spitsberg, baritone, is a 2007 graduate of Texas Tech University, where he earned a Bachelor of Music Education in voice and studied with Prof. Karl Dent, Dr. Pamela Elrod, and Dr. John Dickson. His choral life has included singing with the Texas Tech University Choir, Lubbock's 'Canticum Novum', and the Lubbock Chorale, as well as teaching choral music in Lubbock ISD. He also served for eight years as Director of Worship Arts at Westminster Presbyterian Church and currently serves as Senior Minister of Raintree Christian Church. For Matthew, music has remained a constant thread through vocation, faith, friendship, and family, even and especially during seasons away from regular ensemble singing. He is especially glad to return to the choral community through West Texas Choral Artists alongside his wife, Lindsey, whom he first met while they were both music students at Texas Tech.

Bass

Bass Curtis Streetman strives to perform a rich and excitingly varied repertoire. Mr. Streetman performs music that runs the gamut from the Baroque through masterpieces of twentieth and twenty-first century composers, and has presented this repertoire in some of the world’s major concert halls and opera houses. Performances include Le Nozze di Figaro (Figaro), Die Zauberflötte (Zarastro), La Boheme (Colline), Don Giovanni (Leporello), Rigoletto (Sparafucile) as well as bass leads in many Verdi, Handel and Rossini Operas. Operatic performances also include appearances at The Salzburg Festival, as well as in opera houses in Vienna, Bilbau, Dortmund, and Victoria, Canada, Geneva, Basel, and at The Theatre Champs-Elyseée in Paris. A frequent performer at Lincoln Center, his most recent appeance was as the title role in Lalo's Le Rois D'Ys with the American Symphony Orchestra. Often associated with The Historically Informed Performance Pracice Movement, he was featured as Christus in Sir Jonathan MIllers' dramatic staging of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, presented at The Brookyn Academy of Music. Recording include Handel's Riccardo Primo on Harmonia Mundi and Monteverdi's L'Orfeo on Avvis, led by Andrew Parrott

Baritone

Christopher Vaught hails from San Angelo, Texas where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Angelo State University. He also holds a Master of Music Degree in Vocal Performance from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio where he studied with Andreas Poulimenos. Mr. Vaught’s performance experience includes leading roles in The Marriage of Figaro, Albert Herring, Merry Wives of Windsor, Gianni Schicchi, La Bohème, Don Giovanni, and Lucia di Lammermoor. He and his wife Tammy moved to Midland from Detroit, Michigan in 2011. Chris performed with the Michigan Opera Theater Chorus from 2001-2011 and has sung roles in MOT’s productions of Cyrano, Margaret Garner, Il Trovatore, Otello, Don Pasquale, La Bohème, and La Traviata. Local performances include Javert in Les Miserables, and the Sacristan in Midland Opera Theater’s production of Tosca.