About Us

Our Approach

Voices Rock welcomes everyone, whether you’re a seasoned singer or have never performed in your life and finally want to take the leap.

Rehearsal cycles run for ten weeks and culminate in a performance at the end of the session.

Voices Rock has several Denver locations to choose from! Check out our Join Now page for locations, dates, and times.

Can’t attend every rehearsal? No problem! We provide Drop Box recordings for you to listen to at your convenience. Once you are a member and the session begins, you will receive access to our Member portal where you will find everything you need for fun and successful session!

The goal of Voices Rock is to build community, and we provide several social opportunities outside of rehearsal for our fantastic members to get to know each other. We also strive to help our community through charity and several outreach performances each year. 

Reasons to Join

  • You love to sing!
  • It’s yoga for the brain
  • You get to meet new people
  • You’ll learn more about music
  • We create and build community
  • We get to do something meaningful together
  • Everyone has a voice and a right to sing!
  • Music is good for the soul.
  • It’s so much fun!

Want to experience Voices Rock?

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Before You Come:

  • Stay up-to-date with our email communications
  • Listen to the recordings of our current songs on Dropbox!
  • Leave all your cares at the door and get ready to sing your heart out!

What To Bring:

  • Feel free to bring you beverage of choice and share if you wish! 
  • Help the planet – bring a reusable cup!
  • A pencil and/or highlighter
  • You might want a binder or folder to keep your music organized

Meet The Team

Jill Teas

Co-Founder & Musical Director

Musical and Creative Director Jill has taught choral and general music for twenty six years in Atlanta and Denver where she has directed multiple award-winning choirs. In Denver, Jill taught music at Stanley British Primary school for eleven years where she directed 150 children in her 3-4-5 choir as well as vocal ensembles in the middle school. She has co-directed multiple musical theatre productions at Stanley as well as the Kent Denver summer arts program. She brings tremendous energy and enthusiasm to all of her musical direction and performances. Jill spent two years with the international performing group, Up With People, including a year as the vocal coach on their staff. Jill has been singing professionally in Athens and Atlanta, Georgia and throughout Denver for the past twenty-six years. As the co-founder and musical director of Voices Rock, Jill has built and led our 200 plus member choir and directs the Voices Rock Flagship choir in Park Hill and our smaller performance group, the Supplementals. With performances from Red Rocks to Ted Talks, she has established herself as one of the premier choir directors in the area. Jill maintains a private voice studio for singers of all ages. She holds a degree in music education/voice concentration from the University of Georgia.

Betsy Leighton

Co-Founder, Strategic and Creative Director

Betsy has worked in the film and television industry for the last twenty-five years. Betsy brings a wealth of organizational knowledge and passion to all of her creative pursuits. Currently a partner at Unreal Media, she has spent most of her career at Starz, Ovation, Animal Planet, and High Noon Entertainment. In 2005 she founded Challenge Denver, a nonprofit dedicated to forging connection between youth and their communities. She currently chairs the board of SeriesFest. Betsy has published a YA novel for Dutton and is finishing her first adult novel, My Life on the Stage. She holds an undergraduate degree from Barnard College, a Master’s in Social Work from Hunter College, and an MFA in Screenwriting & Television from Stephens College. Betsy fell in love with choir while living in London and singing with local choirs.

Anna Kaye

Executive Director

Anna Kaye is a car and shower singer and has a long history of bringing people, resources, and ideas together. Originally from NYC, Anna holds a B.A. from Brandeis University and a Master of Social Work from Columbia University. Anna’s career began at the NYC Division of AIDS services (DAS) at the inception of the AIDS epidemic where she worked with people living with HIV and AIDS, helping them connect to available housing, social and financial services. Seeing hundreds of parents leaving children behind following their deaths, Anna assisted with the opening of The Family Center in NYC where she served as the Director of Development raising funds to assist parents with AIDS and cancer living below the poverty line with the process of creating legalized custody plans. Anna served as the founding executive director of The Reading Education Foundation and has held executive positions in development at the Ad Council, the American Foundation for AIDS Research and United Way. Anna has been singing with Voices Rock for five years and can’t remember a single day since she walked into the first rehearsal that Voices Rock hasn’t been on her mind and in her heart!

Marla McClure

Choir Director @ Highlands

Marla McClure is a choir director, voice teacher, actor, singer, and ballroom dance instructor. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, she spent the last 12 years in New York City, where she taught high school music and co-directed a community rock choir, Unsettled Scores. An avid musical theater lover, Marla has performed in numerous shows, including Gypsy, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Last 5 Years, and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. She has an Advanced Certificate in Music Education from Brooklyn College and a BA in Psychology from Pomona College.

Choir has been one of the great loves of Marla’s life… it was the place where she really found her artistic voice and her sense of community in NYC. Since moving to Denver, she’s been so grateful to find a new choir family in Voices Rock! And she’s hoping to foster that same sense of community with her singers in the Highlands area.

Brian Shimamoto

Choir Director @ Central Park

Brian caught the musical bug at age 10 when he was cast in the title role of a local community theatre production of “Oliver!” and music has been a part of his life ever since. His musical roots were always closely tied to the communities he’s been part of from local children’s theatre to high school chorus and show choir. In college, he was introduced to contemporary a cappella ensembles and he and some friends formed the Deltones, a University of Delaware co-ed a cappella group founded on the idea of “friends first, singers second.” That philosophy paid off and the group recently celebrated 35 years on campus and competed on NBC’s “The Sing Off” going up against Denver’s own “Urban Method” and a little 5-member group known as “Pentatonix.” After college, Brian travelled with Up With People where he first met Voices Rock director, Jill Teas and served as her vocal intern while on the road. He went on to work as a vocal director and show manager, traveling throughout the United States and Europe for five years.

Brian and his family have called Colorado home since 2007 and he is excited to help bring the Voice Rock community to his Central Park neighborhood,

Brennen Blotner

Choir Director @ Cap Hill

Brennen Blotner is a music teacher, director, and composer who is passionate about helping others find and grow their love for music. Originally from Johns Creek, Georgia, he pursued a degree in music education at Florida State University before teaching in Orlando Public Schools. Brennen has worked with various ensembles, ranging from marching bands, to musical pit orchestras, to a cappella groups. His most memorable ensemble experiences include singing alongside Pentatonix at the Hollywood Bowl, being under the direction of Eric Whitacre with the National Honor Choir, and performing with the Disney Candlelight Orchestra in Orlando.

When he’s not singing, at the piano, or playing flute, you can usually find Brennen behind the microphone recording audiobooks, tutoring math, or most likely, relaxing with a cup of coffee. Though music is his first love, Brennen is also an avid learner of foreign languages, has an interest in all things math, and has never met a dog he didn’t like.

Andy Ard

Band Leader

Andy Ard is a Denver singer-songwriter and the band leader of Voices Rock choir. He also performs with choir director Jill Teas as an acoustic duo. Andy grew up playing guitar, has played in numerous bands, knows a startling number of cover songs, been part of the accompaniment for local musicals, and composed the music for the 2003 virtual tour of the White House for the White House Historical Association. He writes and produces original recordings and enjoys collaborating with other artists. A career highlight was performing with Voices Rock at Red Rocks Amphitheater in 2018 and 2021.

Edwina Lucero

Choir Director @ Lakewood

Edwina grew up in Colorado, singing in choirs at church and school, from the Meistersingers at Cherry Creek HS to church choirs and groups through college. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Education from CU Boulder and spent 20 years teaching and leading in public schools, as well as adjunct at a community college. She has directed a wide variety of styles of choirs, and musicals. The best moments of her teaching career were spent in Northwest Denver with her students building a choir program that was inclusive and prioritized a sense of belonging, welcoming any level, at all times. Edwina believes in the ability of every person to use their voice to express and connect to their self and others, that music-making is ingrained in our heartbeat and how we interact with the world, and her greatest joy in life is helping others discover this for themselves. Edwina and her husband and kids live in Lakewood, and she works with her husband as Director of Operations at his nonprofit, Colorado Treks. She’s excited to make music with Voices Rock!