A San Francisco native, Margaret Nomura Clark joined the Children’s Chorus of Washington as Artistic Director in August 2016. Under her leadership, CCW has partnered with many arts organizations in DC and beyond including: Dance Institute of Washington, Washington Performing Arts, Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival, GenOUT, Washington Master Chorale, Strathmore Children’s Chorus, The Washington Chorus, US Army Band Pershing’s Own, Duke Ellington High School, Sticks+Bars, Roanoke Valley Children’s Chorus, Shenandoah Valley Children’s Chorus, Boston Children’s Chorus, and Princeton Girlchoir. She has been fortunate to work under the baton of NSO’s conductor Gianandrea Noseda, and additional conductors JoAnn Falleta, Christopher Bell, and Julian Wachner. Under her direction, CCW has performed at The Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, The White House, the Supreme Court, the Washington Nationals, the opening of the District Wharf, and in South Africa in celebration of Nelson Mandela’s centenary.

From 1997-2015 Mrs. Clark was the Associate Artistic Director of the San Francisco Boys Chorus from 1997-2015, directing the Intermediate chorus and supervising all tiers of the SFBC Training Chorus School. Together with Artistic Director Ian Robertson, Mrs. Clark worked closely with the Grammy Award winning San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Opera,  the San Francisco Ballet, and conducted the chorus at the Grand Teton Music Festival. A highlight of her career was an invitation with the San Francisco Boys Chorus to sing at the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009. In addition to her work at SFBC, Mrs. Clark was on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory Pre-college Program, and she established an award winning chorus during her tenure at the Hamlin School for Girls.Dr. Helms previously conducted church, community, and collegiate ensembles in Pennsylvania for six years, where he served as director of choral activities and liturgical music at DeSales University and as director of music and the arts at Doylestown Presbyterian Church. In 2021, he received the Outstanding Young Conductor Award from the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Choral Directors Association in recognition of his work in the state. Dr. Helms is also a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he earned a Master of Music degree in choral conducting, and of Furman University, where he graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music in church music. He has studied conducting with Jason Max Ferdinand, Edward Maclary, David Neely, William Weinert, Brad Lubman, and Hugh Ferguson Floyd.