Arlene Sagan

Arlene Sagan, BCCO music director.

Arlene Sagan has been Music Director of BCCO since the retirement of the chorus's founder, Eugene Jones in 1988. She is an honors graduate from the University of California and holds an MA degree in education and musicology from California State University East Bay.

For over 30 years Arlene has been conducting choral and instrumental groups throughout California, from the 12-member Point Richmond Singers to the 180-plus-member BCCO. She has appeared on radio and TV nationally and has conducted many major works ranging from Charpentier's Messe de Minuit to Bach's Mass in B Minor to Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3. In the sumer of 1997 and 1998 she was invited to participate in an international choral music festival, "Music of Our Time, held in France and directed by John Poole, conductor emeritus of the BBC singers.

Arlene also directs the Berkeley Community Chamber Singers, the outreach arm of BCCO. This small group of singers performs for hospitals, retirement and nursing homes, art galleries, and civic events such as the Solano Stroll.

Read "letters to the editors" in Berkeley Daily Planet from Dec. 21, 2007