Meet the Team
Jacoby Hickerson
PresidentJacoby Hickerson is a founding member, bass, and Board President of the Laguna Beach Chamber Singers, where he has helped guide the organization’s growth. For Jacoby, choral music is both an artistic pursuit and a way of building community.
Growing up in a rural community outside Yosemite, Jacoby had few opportunities to pursue music. He started with piano, later picked up clarinet, and eventually found his way into singing. In high school, he volunteered to accompany the choir on piano. When the group needed more low voices, he joined them as a singer. That experience sparked his lasting interest in choral music and eventually led him to help found the Laguna Beach Chamber Singers.
As Board President, Jacoby is focused on building a sustainable organization while expanding LBCS’s reach throughout Southern California. Under his leadership, the organization is pursuing new educational and mentorship opportunities for emerging choral conductors, deeper partnerships with schools and community organizations, broader and more diverse programming, and greater accessibility for audiences and participants. These efforts reflect his belief that artistic excellence and access to the arts can strengthen one another.
Outside of LBCS, Jacoby is a Software Engineer at Panasonic Avionics, bringing more than two decades of technology and problem-solving experience to his arts leadership work.
Ryan Brown
Artistic DirectorDr. Ryan R. Brown is a conductor, baritone, and educator who serves as Artistic Director of the Laguna Beach Chamber Singers and Director of Choral Activities at Chapman University. His work centers on expressive communication, vocal artistry, collaboration, and creating rehearsal environments that are both artistically rigorous and deeply human.
Brown’s formative training at Westminster Choir College helped shape his approach to ensemble singing and conducting. There, he developed a strong foundation in vocal technique, diction, chamber ensemble artistry, and collaborative performance while singing with ensembles including the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra. These experiences reinforced his belief in chamber singing as a powerful tool for developing musical flexibility, sensitivity, and communication.
As an educator, Brown is especially passionate about mentoring conductors, music educators, and emerging artist-teachers. His teaching emphasizes the connection between gesture, vocal modeling, and clear language, an approach he is developing into a publication titled Show it, Sing it, Say it. He has previously held appointments at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music, Lone Star College–University Park, California School of the Arts–San Gabriel Valley, and the National Children’s Chorus.
As a lyric baritone, Brown has appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and New Haven Symphony Orchestra and has performed with ensembles including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Houston Chamber Choir, Red Shift, and CONCORA. He earned his MM and DMA degrees in Choral Conducting from UCLA and also serves as a Teaching Artist with the VOCES8 Foundation, supporting music education and collaboration with young musicians around the world.
Jacoby Hickerson
PresidentJacoby Hickerson is a founding member, bass, and Board President of the Laguna Beach Chamber Singers, where he has helped guide the organization’s growth. For Jacoby, choral music is both an artistic pursuit and a way of building community.
Growing up in a rural community outside Yosemite, Jacoby had few opportunities to pursue music. He started with piano, later picked up clarinet, and eventually found his way into singing. In high school, he volunteered to accompany the choir on piano. When the group needed more low voices, he joined them as a singer. That experience sparked his lasting interest in choral music and eventually led him to help found the Laguna Beach Chamber Singers.
As Board President, Jacoby is focused on building a sustainable organization while expanding LBCS’s reach throughout Southern California. Under his leadership, the organization is pursuing new educational and mentorship opportunities for emerging choral conductors, deeper partnerships with schools and community organizations, broader and more diverse programming, and greater accessibility for audiences and participants. These efforts reflect his belief that artistic excellence and access to the arts can strengthen one another.
Outside of LBCS, Jacoby is a Software Engineer at Panasonic Avionics, bringing more than two decades of technology and problem-solving experience to his arts leadership work.