Board and Staff

Faith DeBow

As Emerging Artist Coordinator and pianist for the Victoria Bach Festival, Faith DeBow leads the application process, recitals, and community outreach concerts of the Festival’s Emerging Artists.

Faith enjoys a vibrant and eclectic performance and teaching career based in the Central Texas region. She joined the music faculty at Texas State University in 2001, where she teaches class piano and accompanying, and is a staff accompanist at Trinity University. She has been the pianist for choral ensemble Conspirare since 2005, and often plays orchestral keyboard with the Austin Symphony Orchestra.

Faith has had the privilege of performing in over a dozen states and eight countries, including Iceland, France, and Denmark. She has recorded for Harmonia Mundi and PBS with Conspirare (including the Pablo Neruda: The Poet Sings release in which she and Michelle Schumann played 4-hands piano), and for Albany Records with tuba player Tim Buzbee. Faith enjoys bringing new music to life, and has worked with many composers. She holds a master’s degree in accompanying and chamber music from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied under the Brooks Smith Fellowship, and a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Butler University.

Craig Hella Johnson, Conductor Emeritus

Craig Hella Johnson, Photo Credit: Cassandra Weyendt

Craig Hella Johnson served as conductor and Artistic Director of the Victoria Bach Festival from 1992 to 2015. He brought critical acclaim to the Festival with inspiring performances of such masterworks as Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem, J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor, Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Roberto Sierra’s Missa Latina. Of the 2000 performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Michael Greenberg of the San Antonio Express-News wrote “A full 24 hours after it was over, it was still with me – a fleet, magisterial account of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, conducted with total authority and sweeping sense of line by Craig Hella Johnson.”

Hella Johnson is the founder and Artistic Director of the GRAMMY®-winning choral ensemble Conspirare, based in Austin, TX. Since 1991, he has assembled some of the finest singers in the country to develop a world-class, award-winning ensemble committed to creating dynamic choral art. Johnson’s work with Conspirare is featured in over 30 recordings, including The Hope of Loving and House of Belonging.

Beloved for crafting thought-provoking musical journeys that create deep connections between performers and listeners, Hella Johnson is also Artistic Partner at the Oregon Bach Festival. Hella Johnson is an Artist in Residence at Texas State University, earning the 2022 Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarly/Creative Activities.

Hella Johnson’s concert-length composition Considering Matthew Shepard was premiered and recorded by Conspirare and continues to have broad national and international reach, having been performed by more than 60 choirs worldwide.

Hella Johnson’s accomplishments have been recognized with numerous awards and honors. Notably among them, he and Conspirare won a 2015 GRAMMY® for Best Choral Performance for The Sacred Spirit of Russia (Harmonia Mundi). In April 2013, Johnson was designated the Texas State Musician for 2013 by the Texas Legislature, following recommendation by the Texas Commission on the Arts. Additional honors include Chorus America’s Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Professional Choral, Texas State Musician, the Matthew Shepard Foundation’s Dennis Dougherty Award for Community Leadership and most recently, Wartburg College’s 2023 Graven Award

Johnson was Music Director of Cincinnati’s Vocal Arts Ensemble. He was Artistic Director of San Francisco-based Chanticleer from 1998-1999 and has served as guest conductor with ensembles including the Taipei Male Choir, the Berkshire Choral Festival, the Austin Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Santa Fe Symphony, and Chicago’s Music of the Baroque.