top of page

Chapter Leadership

Marc Weagraff.jpg

Marc Weagraff

Chapter Director

Marc Weagraff is Associate Professor of Voice and Choral Studies at Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music. He holds the D.M.A. degree in voice performance from The University of Michigan; with M.M. and B.M. degrees in voice performance from The Cleveland Institute of Music. Dr. Weagraff has a firmly established reputation as a teacher of excellence. His students have performed with national and international opera programs (Sarasota, Hawaii Performing Arts, AIMS, FAVA, AVA Russian Intensive, others), in leading roles on Broadway (Mean Girls, Les Mis, Ghost, Bring it on!, Rock of Ages, others), in numerous national and international tours (Hamilton, American Idiot, Book of Mormon, West Side Story, Phantom of the Opera, others), on network television, and have been accepted to top-tier graduate programs in voice (Curtis, CCM, NEC, Eastman, Yale, others). Dr. Weagraff studied voice with Lorna Haywood and George Vassos and choral conducting under Theo Morrison. His opera credits include roles with Cleveland Opera Theater, The Utah Opera Company, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Cleveland Concert Opera, Michigan Opera Works, The University of Michigan, The University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society, and the Cleveland Institute of Music as well as numerous performances in musical theater programs. Several of his performances have been broadcast over WCLV (Cleveland) and KBYU (Provo, UT) radio. Equally at home with oratorio repertoire, he has performed as soloist with the internationally renowned University of Michigan Men's Glee Club, the Utah Symphony, Master Singers, Inc., and many regional choral organizations. He has been heard in recital throughout the region including various academic, church-sponsored, and social concert series venues. As a choral conductor, Dr. Weagraff has enjoyed over 30 years of experience on the podium in liturgical and collegiate settings. As Director of Music Ministries at St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills, OH., his choirs performed in Rome and Assisi, Italy including the world-wide telecast of the 2007 New Year’s Day Papal Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica and in concert at San Ignazio Church. They also performed throughout the greater Cleveland area including at The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist and the regional NPM convention. Dr. Weagraff recently returned to active music ministry and is the Co-Director of Music at Our Lady of Grace Parish in Hinckley, OH.

​

Ph.

email:

Gali-Bird, Melissa_edited.png

Melissa Gali-Bird

Member-at-Large

Melissa found her love of music at the age of 5, when she began studying piano with her mom and, eventually, with a friend of the family.  At the age of 10, she enrolled in the Cleveland Institute of Music Preparatory Department with her older sister.  There they studied piano with Miss Olga Radosavljevich and music theory with Marshall Griffith, Joe Ogrin, and Adeline Huss. Melissa continued her studies there through high school, joining the Young Artist program her senior year, and earned her Bachelor of Music degree from CIM in 1995.  She furthered her education in voice at Baldwin Wallace College and theology at St. Mary’s Seminary.  For the past 24 years, she has directed music ministries for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, and is currently the music director at Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Euclid, OH, where she plays the organ and piano, cantors, composes, coordinates a program of more than 100 people­– youth and adult, and partakes in a few ecumenical events throughout the year.  She lives across the street from her parents in Brook Park, with her husband Greg and their 3 children: Nolan, age 16, Nina, 13, and Anthony, 5.  

​

216-650-4341

melissa@olleuclid.org

jon.jpg

Jon Thibo

Treasurer

Jon Thibo began serving the church as an organist; cantor and choir member in 1977 at his home parish, St. Ann in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is now celebrating forty years of music ministry within the church. Jon is in his tenth year as Director of Music Ministry at St. Columbkille Church, Parma, Ohio. He has eight choirs there, plays organ, piano, cantors, directs from the keyboard and is a member of the Handbell Quartet there as well. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Music Education from the University of Indianapolis, Cum Laude, “With Distinction.” He studied voice under Elaine Norwood and Jena Adrianson, piano with Dr. Richard Ratliff and conducting with Dr. Paul Krasnovky and Dr. George Weimer. Jon was a choral director in high schools, middle school and elementary for sixteen years before finally taking up the role of full-time church Director of Music in 2002. Jon performed in The Stephen Foster Story, The Fantasticks, The Music Man, South Pacific, Cosi Fan Tutte, La Boheme, and The Marriage of Figaro, as well as many other school and community theater and opera productions. Jon is a member of the National Pastoral Musicians and DMMD Division of that professional organization as well as past member of ACDA and MENC.​

​

216-524-1987  ext. 27

j.thibo@cox.net

100_1341.jpg

Dan Bergen

Webmaster

Dan Bergen, MSEE Carnegie Mellon University, is a retired electrical engineer who enjoys developing web sites, preparing taxes for area immigrants and music of all styles.  An active member of NPM since the mid-1990s Dan has been cantor, choir member, guitar accompanist and Music Director in various area churches and has enjoyed teaching and developing musical appreciation and skills in others.   Serving the Cleveland Chapter of NPM is a labor of love and I look forward to an active chapter.  Dan and his wife, Marilyn, live in Painesville. 

​

440-639-9604

webmaster@clevelandnpm.org

bottom of page