Our Team
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Susan Klebanow, conductor and artistic director
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Allen Bailey, accompanist







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Lorena Guillén

Susan Klebanow is the Zachary Smith Term Distinguished Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she conducts the Carolina Choir and Chamber Singers and teaches courses in conducting. She is a recipient of UNC’s Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and a Chapman Family Teaching Award from UNC’s Institute of the Arts and Humanities. 

In addition to conducting the standard choral repertoire with her UNC ensembles, Klebanow has commissioned and conducted many new works; also devoted to period instrument performance, she has regularly conducted the UNC historical performance ensembles. Klebanow has prepared choirs to sing with renowned conductors Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dennis Russell Davies, Grant Llewellyn, and Murry Sidlin, among others, and has collaborated in performance with pianist Pedja Muzijevich, the Martha Graham Dance Company, and slam poet/hip hop artist Saul Williams.

Susan Klebanow is in high demand as a guest conductor and clinician and has led choral festivals and workshops throughout the U.S. and in Mexico, China, and Italy. Active as a vocalist, pianist, and harpsichordist, Klebanow has performed extensively with contemporary music and early music groups based in Boston, North Carolina, and Mexico. She currently sings and plays harpsichord with Ensemble Matiz based in Chapel Hill, NC and serves as Chazzan for the High Holiday services at the Chapel Hill Kehillah and Congregation Etz Chayim.

A native of Danbury, Connecticut, Klebanow holds degrees from Brandeis University and the New England Conservatory of Music. Before joining the UNC faculty, she held faculty positions at Brandeis University and the New England Conservatory Extension Division, and taught junior high and high school in the Boston area and in Los Angeles.

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Allen Bailey received a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1987. As a student of Dr. George Kiorpes, he was awarded the Dean’s Scholarship and won the University’s Concerto Competition in 1985. His professional career as a soloist and accompanist has spanned the state, during which he has worked with churches, soloists, large ensembles, professional and amateur, scholarly and civic. Affiliated groups include the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Duke University, NC State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Meredith College, Peace College, NC public schools, Duke String School, Chapel Hill School of Musical Arts, Durham Chorale, NC Master Chorale, Concert Singers of Cary, Wake Forest United Methodist Church, and the NC Symphony.

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Lorena Guillén, Music Director Emerita

We pay special tribute to our beloved Music Director Emerita, Lorena Guillen, who led the TJC from 2011 through her retirement in the spring of 2024, bringing us to a new level of excellence and diversity of music, including tangos from her native Argentina. A highlight of her tenure includes a 2015 trip to Argentina, where we sang concerts with local choirs in a variety of venues and got to experience some of the treasures of her country.