Online Lessons

Dr. Carla Ponti is an accomplished vocalist, educator, and music scholar based in Northern Virginia. She holds a Ph.D. in Music from the University of California, San Diego, and a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance from San Diego State University, combining rigorous academic grounding with decades of active stage and liturgical experience.
A classical soprano by training, Dr. Ponti sang for five seasons with the San Diego Opera Chorus and spent over 20 years serving as a professional soloist and section leader across Southern California. She remains deeply connected to sacred music, serving as a dedicated choir member at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Annandale, VA, where she chants the full Latin propers and sings sacred polyphony for the Mass every Sunday.
Dr. Ponti has been dedicated to higher education as a music educator since 2005. Her college teaching record spans both classroom and online instruction across diverse institutions, including the San Diego Community College District, National University, and Champlain College Online. In addition to music courses, her broad instructional background includes teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). She currently serves on the faculty at Montgomery College in Maryland, where she teaches sight singing.
Alongside her college teaching, Dr. Ponti serves as a Vocal Coach and Development Assistant for Canticle.org, offering online vocal instruction and supporting organizational growth. She continues to share her passion for vocal technique, sight-reading, and sacred choral repertoire throughout the Greater Washington, D.C. region.

Mary Ann Carr Wilson holds a B.M. and an M.M. from San Diego State University. Her post-graduate work has centered in the areas of vocal pedagogy and study with Gregorian chant masters in the United States, The Netherlands, Poland, and France. Her deepest gratitude goes to William Mahrt as her primary mentor, and she was blessed to learn from him and work alongside him from 2009 until 2024.

Having served nine years as Music Director at St. Anne Catholic Church in San Diego, Mary Ann led adult and youth choirs that specialized in Gregorian chant and renaissance polyphony, and offered classes for the musicians in the San Diego Diocese. In 2010, she developed the Chant Camp program, a week-long immersion in the liturgical catechesis and the study of chant, tailored to young people and adapted for Catholic schools as well.  The Chant Camp program garnered national support, and it combined fun and faith formation at parishes and schools throughout the U.S.

Mary Ann also offers training courses for music teachers, choir directors, and cantors to be able to lead their own camps and/or implement more sacred music into existing programs, most notably during the annual Canticle Chant Conference in San Diego, commonly held in mid-July. As of 2024, she has led over fifty-five workshops and courses across the country with children and teens, adults, families, seminarians, and college students.

Believing that Gregorian chant uniquely fosters a sense of peace and joy that connects the whole person to God, Mary Ann makes it her mission to train others in this form of sung prayer so it may be brought to as many people as possible. To this end, she founded the apostolate, Canticle, which received nonprofit 501(c)3 status in 2020. Mary Ann has also been delighted to serve on the faculty and board of the Church Musician Association of America, and as a consultant with the Benedict XVI Institute.​​