Gary Toops, Artistic Director and Conductor, has been the Artistic Director of The Festival Singers since it was founded in 1982. He holds degrees in music from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. He is Professor of Music Emeritus at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, CA and Associate Organist for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Long Beach, CA. Gary has traveled extensively as an organ soloist in the United States and South Korea with his presentation of “Meet The King of Instruments,” a multimedia recital/demonstration of the pipe organ, and frequently appears as guest organist at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in San Diego’s Balboa Park (“the world’s largest outdoor organ”) where his programs include a mixture of classical and theatre styles of organ music. He made his Carnegie Hall debut as an organist along with The Festival Singers in 1996, and subsequently returned to Carnegie Hall to perform as organist under the direction of English composer John Rutter. Gary is listed in The International Who’s Who in Music and Who’s Who In American Keyboard Music, and is a member of the American Guild of Organists, the California Choral Conductors Guild, Chorus America, and a life member of the American Choral Directors Association.