Our Staff

Kristina Nakagawa (Artistic Director, RA Conductor)

Kristina is one of the founders of Resounding Achord Productions and has been the Artistic Director since its inception in 2012. As Artistic Director, Kristina sets the organization’s overall artistic vision and branding, both musically and visually. She collaborates with all levels of the organization’s membership to ensure that the artistic vision is executed appropriately. She strives to embody the mission, vision, and core values of the organization.

Kristina has been performing and directing in Silicon Valley since 2001. Besides serving as Artistic Director for Resounding Achord, Kristina is the Artistic Director of Vivace Youth Chorus of San José, and she previously worked at St. Francis Episcopal Church of Willow Glen, Hillbrook School in Los Gatos, Pinewood School in Los Altos Hills, Carden Hall School in Newport Beach, and she directed two choirs at UC Irvine. Her choirs consistently received superior rankings at California Music Educator’s festivals and Gold awards at Heritage Festivals in Anaheim. She has also worked as the musical director for several productions, including The Wedding Singer, Once on This Island, The Pajama Game, Working, and Once Upon a Mattress, among others.

Kristina sang and served as the Assistant Conductor for The Choral Project from 2005 to 2012 where she participated in many world premieres: “Keramos” by Stephen Schwartz, Divide Light by Leslie Dill and Richard Marriott at Montalvo Arts Center, and Choose Life by Mona Lyn Reese with the San Jose Chamber Orchestra. While Kristina sang with the choir, The Choral Project won the First Prize at the 2007 International Choral Festival in San Luis Obispo and was invited to participate in the 2011 International Concorso Corale in Tolosa, Spain. She can be heard on their recordings Winter, One is the All, Tell the World, and Yuletide.

As a soloist, Kristina has performed cabaret shows at Society Cabaret in San Francisco and San Jose, Theatre on San Pedro Square in San Jose, and also at Limelight Theatre in Gilroy. She was featured in the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus production of Enchantingly Wicked with Stephen Schwartz at Davies Symphony Hall, and has performed with Foothill Musical Theatre, South Bay Musical Theatre, and the Silicon Valley Gay Men’s Chorus.

Kristina graduated in 2001 with a degree in Vocal Performance from UC Irvine and finished a Master’s Degree in Choral Conducting from San José State University in 2005. While at SJSU, she was honored to study conducting with Dr. Charlene Archibeque and sang with the world-famous Choraliers. With Dr. “A” and the Choraliers, Kristina competed in the Spittal International Choral Festival in Austria and the Seghizzi Choral Competition in Gorizia, Italy.

Jan Clayton (Executive Director & Founding Member)

Jan runs the organization’s administrative function (operations) and helps set the long-range strategy for the organization. She provides the push for developing a corporate infrastructure that will support the organization as it grows and becomes more versatile. She also works to ensure that the organization follows nonprofit best practices. Jan was Resounding Achord’s initial Board of Directors Chairperson. When the initial Executive Director left the organization in 2014, Jan took over as acting Executive Director. In 2017, she relinquished the Board Chairmanship and became the official Executive Director.

Jan has been involved in singing organizations since the age of 8, usually involved in three or more choirs at a time, and has spent much of that time promoting the choral arts. Soon after she joined The Choral Project in 2006 as a singer, she became involved in the group’s management. She spent a year as Development Director, a year as Outreach Director, and then served as President of the Board for 2½ years. She worked with the organization to establish and grow its student outreach programs. She was also very involved in the organization’s fundraising activities.

Jan has a 30-year career in the high-tech industry, where she started as an Artificial Intelligence programmer. In 1990, she and a business partner created Expert Support, a documentation, training, and application-development consulting firm. As COO, Jan ran the firm’s day-to-day operations, hired most of the staff, and managed a large part of the business, which averaged about $2.5 million in annual income over her tenure. Jan has since retired from her COO job. She is now a part-time consultant and pistachio farmer.

Jan has a BA in Zoology from UC Santa Barbara, where she also almost finished a BA degree in Music — Vocal Performance. At Stanford University she earned two Master’s degrees, one in Biological Sciences and the other in Computer Science.

Andrea White (Administrative Coordinator)

Andrea White joined Resounding Achord in September 2014 as a singer. In 2020 she took on the role of Volunteer Coordinator and now serves the organization as our Administrative Coordinator. With a background in non-profit organizations and education, Andrea enjoys bringing her experience in communications, project management, and organizational leadership to support performing arts organizations.

Andrea’s nonprofit experience is significant. From 2015 to 2020, Andrea worked at The Tech Interactive (formerly the Tech Museum of Innovation), where she served in multiple roles. After successfully helping implement a new education partnership grant program, Andrea joined the Volunteer Services Department, coordinating volunteers, training, and recruitment. Following a department merger with Human Resources, Andrea became an HR Administration and Recruitment Supervisor. Andrea’s professional experience also includes providing administrative support for the Visual and Performing Arts Academy at La Mirada High School and nearly a decade working in training, development, project coordination, and accreditation management at Chapman University in Orange, CA.

Andrea earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Public Relations from California State University, Sacramento in 2001. In 2008, she received a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership and a Graduate Certificate in Non-Profit Leadership from Chapman University.
In addition to being a vocalist herself, Andrea and her husband Brian are the proud parents of two young singers. She enjoys the outdoors, reading, and making music with her friends and family.

Albert “Albee” Mabeza (Conductor, Pariter Vocal Ensemble)

For the last 6 years, Albee has taught at Woodside Priory School in Portola Valley, California where he teaches choir, guitar and is the 10th grade class moderator. He also serves as the performing arts department chair.

In the past, Albee has conducted and performed with multiple vocal ensembles across the Bay Area including the Fog City Singers, SJSU’s Pitch Please, and Voices in Harmony. His past music education experience includes working with both the Vivace Youth Chorus and the Alum Rock School District.

Albee also serves as the tenor-bass Repertoire and Resource Advisor for the California Choral Directors Association (CCDA). His passion for barbershop, folk songs, and tenor-bass repertoire are all topics in which he is well versed. He has written articles for the Cantate Magazine, which is a publication of (CCDA). He has also presented in reading sessions across California where he shared repertoire with hundreds of choral directors from across the state.

Supporting identity in the choral classroom is one of Albee’s passions that he works on in both his own classroom and with other music educators. As a past member of his school’s Professional Development Committee, he contributed a lot of his research and knowledge from past experience as the committee had focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Albee is also in development of a social media campaign that will help focus on how to help educators make an identity-conscious (sex, race, gender, class, and ability) music classroom.

Dario Watts-Johnson (Conductor, Chromatic Convergence)

Dario is the visionary behind Chromatic Convergence, our dynamic choral ensemble that specializes in Jazz and Pop music. Dario not only selects the choral repertoire for this ensemble, but arranges a significant portion of it.

In the last several years, Dario has also established himself as a versatile baritone with extensive performance experience across various Bay Area opera companies and musical theater organizations. In addition to his performance and conducting career, Dario loves to teach and has been teaching private voice and piano lessons to children and adults for several years. He is on the faculty of the Los Gatos School of Music and he is dedicated to imparting both his knowledge of and passion for music to his students. His goal is to create lasting and meaningful musical experiences for the youth of our community.

Dario holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from San Jose State University. While there he performed in a number of choral groups on campus including the Spartones and the San Jose State Choraliers.