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Dr. Joseph P. Nadeau
Artistic Director
This season marks Dr. Nadeau’s 14th year with Heartland Men’s Chorus. This is also
his 18th year as an active member of GALA Choruses Inc., an international association
of more than 190 gay and lesbian choral groups.
Joe began his work with Heartland Men's Chorus in the fall of 1998, after serving
as assistant director and interim artistic director of the Denver Gay Men's Chorus.
Joe received a master's degree in choral conducting from the University
of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of
Music, where he studied with Dr. Eph Ehly. Joe recently completed his Doctor of
Music Arts in Choral Conducting at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
Joe has directed many instrumental and vocal ensembles on the community level and
on regional/international tours of New England, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri,
Canada, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France. He has also served as clinician
and adjudicator for several regional and state music festivals.
Joe is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, the Music Educators
National Conference, the National Education Association, the Chorister's Guild,
and the National Association of Pastoral Musicians.
Rick Fisher
Executive Director
Rick Fisher has served as Executive Director of Heartland Men's Chorus since
1997. One of his notable accomplishments is surviving 4 years at the Philadelphia
College of Bible. Upon finding that their degree was useless in obtaining employment,
he decided to become a church musician.
He put himself through bachelor's and master's
programs in Church Music at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., by founding,
building and running a window-cleaning
service. After graduating in 1990, Rick began
a new career in church music and eventually sold the cleaning service.
In 1995,
his church position was abruptly terminated when Rick came out, revealing that he
was gay to his minister. Relocating (for love) to Kansas City, Missouri, Rick discovered
HMC and GALA choruses, and with them a job that brought together everything about
which he is passionate.
Cliff Schiappa
Development Director
A native of Long Island, N.Y., Cliff graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism with
every intention of getting back on the plane to return east to “civilization”. Having forgotten to get on
that plane, he moved to Kansas City and has lived here since 1980, becoming a huge fan of the city and
its people.
Cliff made a career change after 23 years as a photojournalist, editor and assistant bureau chief at
The Associated Press covering top stories around the world and seeing his photographs published in
thousands of newspapers. In 2008, he became the interim executive director of Literacy Kansas City,
a non-profit that teaches adults how to read, then joined the staff of the Heartland Men’s Chorus as
development director in October 2008.
His name and face may be familiar to HMC audience members as he started singing in 2002 and has served
as vice president, president and chairman of the board of directors. Cliff considers it a wonderful
opportunity to combine his passion for the Chorus with his career and is proud of the influence HMC has
on the community, region and nation through its musical message.
Lamar Sims
Accompanist
Born in Louisville, Kentucky and raised in Selma, Alabama, Lamar Sims holds B.M. and M.M. degrees in piano performance with an emphasis on vocal accompanying and
chamber music from University of Maryland College Park. He has extensive and varied experience as a performer, teacher, coach, and director in church, academic, concert,
and theatrical settings.
His teachers and coaches include Claudia Faulk, Roy McAllister, Santiago Rodriguez, Bela Nagy, Jorg Demus, Robert McCoy, members of the Guarneri
String Quartet, Leon Major, Alcine Wiltz, Richard Crittenden, Timothy Seelig, and Thilde Beuing. Organizations with which he has worked include Friday Morning Music Club, Paul Hill
Chorale, Cathedral Choral Society, Washington Opera, National Symphony Youth Fellowship Program, Master Chorale Chamber Singers, and Washington Bach Consort
(in the Washington, D.C. area) and Turtle Creek Chorale and the Women's Chorus of Dallas (in Dallas, Texas).
Currently living in Kansas City, Missouri, Lamar continues to be
active as a teacher and coach of voice and piano, accompanist for Heartland Men's Chorus, collaborative artist with a variety of performers and organizations throughout the area,
and adjunct instructor in the International Center for Music at Park University.
Rick McAdams
ASL Interpreter
Rick has been a certified sign language interpreter since 1983. As part of his professional
experience, Rick has been executive director of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Counseling Services
of Wichita, Ks., and an adjunct faculty member of the Sign Language Interpreter Training
Program at Maple Woods Community College. He also has a B.S. degree in psychology from
Kansas Newman College in Wichita. Rick is one of only a few individuals in Missouri with
expertise both in the field of deafness and substance abuse counseling.
As a freelance sign language interpreter, Rick has experience ranging from surgery to
the performing arts. He has interpreted music styles from rap to opera with performers
such as Romanovsky & Phillips, Fred Small, and The Fabulous Flirtations. He has
interpreted theatrical productions for the Unicorn, Coterie, Kansas City Repertory and
Folly theaters, and he coordinates interpreter services for the Renaissance Festival.
Since the holiday concert of 1995, Rick has been the principal interpreter for Heartland Men’s Chorus, and is grateful to the chorus for helping him brush up on his
Latin, French, Hebrew, Russian, and Swahili.
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