Staff
Paul Caldwell
Artistic Director: Windy City Performing Arts
Paul Caldwell is Artistic Director of the Youth Choral Theater of Chicago, a community-based after-school program enrolling 200 young people in Chicago's northern suburbs. Additionally, he is Artistic Director for the ¡Canta! Costa Rica festival in San Jose and Resident Conductor for the Sing A Mile High choral festival in Denver. His innovative leadership garnered national recognition in 2006 when the Youth Choral Theater was awarded the Chorus America/ASCAP prize for Adventurous Programming.
Paul composes and arranges music collaboratively with Sean Ivory. The choral works of Caldwell and Ivory (including Go Where I Send Thee, Hope for Resolution, John the Revelator and Ain’t No Grave Can Hold My Body Down) have been telecast on PBS and A&E and performed at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Sydney Opera House, and throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. Legendary guitarist Steve Vai recently collaborated with Caldwell and Ivory to create a choral-rock fusion song, Book of the Seven Seals. The work appears on Vai’s latest CD, The Story of Light.
Paul is scheduled to make his Carnegie Hall conducting debut later this year, leading concerts comprised entirely of music he composed.
Paul is a member of the Board of Directors of Chorus America, the US/Canadian service organization for independent choruses. His work on behalf of the choral field was honored at the National Performing Arts Conference in 2008, where he received the Michael J. Korn Founders Award for Philanthropic Contribution to the Arts.
Madelyn Tan-Cohen
Accompanist: Windy City Gay Chorus and Aria
Originally from Malaysia, Madelyn Tan began her musical studies at the age of 5 when she was enrolled in the Junior Music Course at the Yamaha Music School. After graduating from JMC, she was accepted into the Junior Special Advanced Course where she continued to develop her piano performance, improvisation and composition skills. By the age of 13, Madelyn completed the 8th grade examination by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and passed the Associate Trinity College of London (ATCL) diploma the following year.
Madelyn was accepted to attend the Interlochen Arts Academy (MI) at the age of 15, majoring in Piano Performance and studying under Benjamin Yu. After high school she attended the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL on a music and academic scholarship where she majored in Keyboard Performance, studying under Ivan Davis.
During her years as an undergraduate student, she discovered her passion of accompanying soloists and choirs. After receiving her Bachelors in Music in 1998, Madelyn received a graduate fellowship in Chamber Music and Accompanying and graduated in 2000. During her years at UM, she studied with Ivan Davis, Dr. Paul Posnak and Dr. Jo-Michael Scheibe.
Prior to moving to Chicago, Madelyn was the Principal Accompanist for the Ft. Lauderdale Gay Men’s Chorus and the MCC Sunshine Cathedral for 6 years. In her free time, Madelyn works as a Project Manager at the Ravinia Festival’s Education and Community Partnerships Department.
