Laura Barrus Leavitt, Principal Accompanist, has been accompanying soloists, ensembles and choirs since she was 12 years old and teaching piano since she was 16. While earning her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Pedagogy she studied piano with Richard Anderson and took accompanying classes from Reid Nibley, Irene Peery-Fox, Mack Wilberg, Jeffrey Shumway, and Paul Pollei. Laura accompanied the BYU Women’s Chorus and in many private studios including those of Darrell Stubbs, Rebecca Wilcox Wilberg, Ewan Mitton, Paul Abegg, and Anny Mooy. She is currently a Staff Accompanist at Utah Tech University. She loves the collaboration with other musicians that accompanying embodies. She is thrilled to be a part of the St. George Chamber Singers. Laura and her husband, Lemuel, are the parents of 15 children, 37 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren.
Gary Bogers Jr., Assistant Accompanist, is part of the adjunct piano faculty at Utah Tech University. He teaches private lessons in solo piano and coaches piano accompanying. Bogers earned his Bachelor of Arts in Music and MA from the University of Central Florida and worked there as graduate teaching associate from 2020 to 2022. Recent concert repertoire includes Piano Concerto No. 20 in D-minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Cello Sonata No. 1 by Ludwig van Beethoven, and Concerto Grosso No. 1 by Ernest Bloch. He has additionally performed in Acqui Terme, Italy, as a UCF student representative at the 2021 InterHarmony International Music Festival. Recent collaborations include accompanying a masterclass taught by violinist Gil Shaham and the 2022 National Young Composers Challenge Composium for UCF Celebrates the Arts. He also accompanied the 2023 Brimhall Cello Competition along with the 2023 and 2024 Southwest Symphony Young Artist Competition.
Regina Roper, Accompanist Emeritus, built her career in the Silicon Valley of Northern California before semi-retiring to Southwest Utah. Prior to moving to Ivins in 2015, she had spent the previous 36 years teaching, evaluating, accompanying, performing, and presenting pedagogy workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance and Music Theory, with graduate studies under the tutelage of harpsichord virtuoso, the late Fernando Valenti. As a graduate-assistant accompanist at San Jose State University in the 1970’s, she was engaged to play for the University Choir, the SJSU Choraliers (world-class a cappella singers), SJ Opera rehearsals, various studio vocal and instrumental lessons on campus, as well as the city of San Jose’s Children’s Musical Theater productions. In 1987 she had the good fortune to accompany a group of Suzuki-trained string students. As a result of this collaboration, Ms. Roper pursued training to become one of the earliest Suzuki piano instructors in the Bay Area and over the course of the next 28 years became one of the most respected and sought-after piano instructors in the Santa Clara valley.