He is Risen!

What is now the Nashville Community Choir was founded by Norman and Marilyn Tolk—
Norman, a Professor of Physics at Vanderbilt University and Marilyn (1936-2022), a Julliard/Columbia-trained pianist, organist, composer, arranger, and teacher.

Upon moving to Nashville in 1985, they continued a tradition they had established previously in New Jersey of mounting annual performances of Handel’s Messiah with choir, soloists and orchestra.
In 2011, the choir was officially chartered in the state of Tennessee and began organizing additional seasonally-themed concerts.
In 2021, the Tolks invited Michael and Pamela Runyan to replace them as music leaders of the choir in a year’s time. During the transition time, Michael helped the choir develop a more formal non-profit structure to ensure orderly replacements of music and board leadership well into the future.
Effective in 2023, Norman Tolk was designated by the board Co-founder and Conductor Emeritus.

Michael Runyan has been making music as a composer, arranger, performer, and conductor for many years. He was born in San Diego and raised in Denver, where he began piano studies at age six and played trumpet and horn in school.
Michael began composing and arranging in high school and studied composition at Brigham Young University and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, ultimately receiving a Doctor of Musical Arts degree. He has created hundreds of orchestral, choral, church, and teaching compositions and arrangements, many in collaboration with his wife Pamela.
During college, Michael freelanced as an arranger, music copyist, gigging pianist, synthesizer programmer, and studio musician. In 1986, he joined the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, to head their music preparation operation, and was an integral part of many pops and theatrical productions for almost 30 years. During this time, he also had an active career as a harmonica soloist, specializing in classical and theme-based performances with orchestras.
Michael’s conducting experience includes church choirs, school show choirs, and professional orchestras, to which he brings his meticulous attention to detail, preparation, style, and theatricality.
Michael and Pamela moved to Nashville in 2018. They are the parents of four children.

Norman Tolk was born in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and was surrounded by music literally from birth.
He began piano studies at an early age as directed by his mother, a pianist. In high school, he played clarinet and saxophone. Stimulated somewhat by a visit to his high school by Duke
Ellington and his Orchestra, he helped form a “Big Band” orchestra that primarily played the music of Glenn Miller and toured southern Idaho.

After high school, Norman moved from Idaho to the East Coast to round out his education. There, he earned his AB degree in physics from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a PhD degree in atomic physics from Columbia University in New York City. During this period, he met Marilyn Neubauer, who became his wife after a short courtship. Marilyn graduated from the Juilliard School of Music with a performance degree and a BA from Columbia University in education studies. From then on, Marilyn and Norman operated as a team in all ways, including, of course, their mutual music interests. As a part of this, Norman began cello lessons, and both became members of a local church choir that performed Handel’s Messiah annually during the Christmas season. This was the beginning of their mutual love of the Handel work.
Following postdoctoral work at Columbia, Norman joined Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, where he conducted experimental research on directed-energy photon and particle beams.
Here, Norman and Marilyn began to produce annual performances of Handel’s Messiah featuring a number of well-known soloists — including Arial Bybee, a mezzo soprano from the Metropolitan Opera. In 1984, Norman and Marilyn, along with their five children, moved to the Nashville, Tennessee, area — where Norman joined Vanderbilt University as a full Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Soon after their arrival, they jointly founded what is now the Nashville Community Choir, which features a full yearly schedule of inspirational themed concerts, including annual performances of Handel’s Messiah with choir, soloists, and orchestra.

Pamela Runyan was born and raised in Spokane, Washington. She started piano lessons at age six and began composing soon thereafter. Pamela played in dance bands through high school and college and studied piano and music composition at Brigham Young University, receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree.
Pamela has decades of experience as a piano and organ accompanist and pedagogue. She collaborates with her husband Michael composing choral anthems, showchoir arrangements, and
orchestral works. Between them, they have over 100 publications and have had many performances in North America and Europe. Pamela is also a certified water aerobics instructor and personal trainer.

Katie Holder has a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and is a piano teacher and accompanist. She has been playing piano since age six and has been singing in choirs since she was nine. Katie and her calico cat, Lucy, are from Anaheim, California, where they attempted to live at Disneyland for many years. Both currently reside in Greenbrier, Tennessee, and greatly enjoy bird watching.

Mike Eason has enjoyed singing as a member of the Nashville Community Choir for several years. He serves on the choir's board as Production and Facilities Chair and also serves as a Tenor Section leader. He has been a featured soloist in most of the choir's self-produced concerts, but feels more comfortable giving God all the glory than drawing any attention to himself.

Kaylee Gibbs is one of the youngest members of the Nashville Community Choir. She is the second oldest of six homeschooled kids. This is her first season with the choir. Although she has never sung with a choir before, music runs in the family. Almost every member of her family has played the piano, and she has taken piano lessons since she was five years old. Kaylee is excited to be with this choir singing with her grandfather and older sister.

Keoni joined the Nashville Community Choir at twelve years old and now, five years later, her love for all-things-music only continues to grow. Throughout her life, she has held lead roles in multiple musicals and plays, while enjoying other community and high school activities including band playing the alto saxophone. She loves how the Nashville Community Choir performs music that reaches the hearts of everyone who comes to listen.

Celeste Robins is a sixth grader at Central Magnet School.  Being very active in the arts and sciences she started her choir journey singing in the Messiah December 2023. This Easter she debuts in her first experience as a highlighted vocalist. Being self- motivated, she started teaching herself electric guitar and then graduated to bass guitar earlier in 2023.  In October 2022 she earned her black belt in Wado Ru karate.