The choir is the vision of Ann Y. Schmidt, who founded Capital Carillon in 1996 and served as the Artistic Director until fall 2006. She brings to the group more than 30 years of experience as a ringer, clinician and conductor and has conducted church music programs in New York, New Jersey, and Maryland.
Until January 2001 Ann was on the faculty of Holy Redeemer School in Kensington, Maryland, where she directed their choral and handbell programs and taught music to students from kindergarten through eighth grade. Her choirs performed for a variety of audiences, ranging from viewers of national public television to Pope John Paul II. Since January 2001, she has held the position of director of music for Gaithersburg Presbyterian Church, a job that involves responsibility for six vocal choirs and eight handbell choirs. Prior to this she was the director of music for Broadview Baptist Church in Temple Hills, Maryland.
Ann recently completed a four-year term on the national board of directors of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers and has served on the boards of Area II and Area III.
Rob Kobus is the previous Artistic Director, serving the organization from 2006 through 2017. He was a change ringer with the Washington National Cathedral, Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul. Washington.
Rob attended Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey as a Church Music Major and while in New Jersey was appointed as Director of Music, Trinity Church, Hackettstown. The choirs at Hackettstown consisted of nine handbell choirs, nine vocal choirs, and numerous children choirs.
Upon returning to the Washington, D.C. area, Rob was appointed as Interim Director of Handbells at Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church, Washington D.C., and was also appointed as the Area III Metro D.C. representative for the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers (AGEHR).
Rob is a member of the AGEHR, the American Guild of Organists, the Royal College of Church Music, and the North American Guild of Change Ringers.
He has performed with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, NSO National Symphony Orchestra, Riverside Church in New York City, and Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, also in New York City.