TEXAS GIRLS' CHOIR - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Accompanist
Alissa Layne Trent began taking piano Lessons at age 9, and was playing full time for her church in Milton, Florida, by the young age of 14. While in middle school, she added the job of accompanying her school choir. Adding Education to her skillset in 1987, Layne received Piano Performance & Music Education degrees from Mobile College.
By the next year, she had found her way here to Texas, quickly becoming the accompanist for our Texas Girls' Choir. Eleven years later she enhanced her Education credentials with a Master's Degree from Texas Wesleyan University.
Advancing to Assistant Director in 2003, and then in 2015 accepting the challenge of leading our choir program as Executive Director, Layne also remains a full-time Music Teacher in Fort Worth ISD. Believing with all her heart that music is indeed "the speech of angels," she considers herself very blessed to make music with all the "angels" of the Texas Girls' Choir.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Staff and Tour Director
Debi Weir was one of the choir's original 16 members in 1962, and sang with the choir for almost a decade. After graduating from Texas Wesleyan University, she became a teacher, and helped Shirley Carter with the choir in her spare time. In 1980, she came back to the choir full time as the administrative assistant, a role she had for 22 years before becoming the Executive Director.
She lived and breathed our mission of "Developing little girls' lives through excellence of music."
Holly Owen also serves as head choir director at Springtown High School. Previously, Holly worked at Texas Woman's University where she directed choirs and taught voice classes. She graduated from TWU with her Master of Arts in Music Education in 2017 and from Southern Methodist University with a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education with a Voice Concentration in 2012. Holly has also taught choir in Dallas and Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School Districts. In addition to being a TGC Alumna, Holly has been a member of the TGC Music Staff since 2010.
Job Titles:
- Social Committee Chairman
Shirley Thompson Carter was born in Fort Worth on May 6, 1935. She earned a music degree from Texas Christian University and also studied at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Woman's University. She was a former teacher and a professional singer. She was a director at the YWCA when she started the choir in 1962.