Rio Rancho – Aaron Howe has been selected as executive director of the Rio Rancho Creative Crossroads arts group.

The nonprofit is the umbrella organization for the Rio Rancho Youth Chorus (RRYC) and the Rio Rancho Players (RRP).

Howe served as the founding artistic director of the RRYC since 2013.

When the RRCC was founded in 2013, it supported only one arts program – the Rio Rancho Youth Chorus, and that chorus started with only nine singing members.

Since that time, the RRYC has grown to over 30 singing youth, and the RRCC has taken on two more entities: the Squeaky Shoe Project and The Rio Rancho Players (a community theater group). And with an additional chorus on the horizon to add, the RRCC Board decided to hire someone to help direct the workflow of these programs, to support their needs and to provide them the resources and guidance so that they might continue to grow and succeed in their artistic ventures.

Howe is also the current artistic director of the New Mexico Gay Men’s Chorus (since 2010) and artistic director of The Zia Singers in Santa Fe (since 2016).

He is also the chorus caster for Opera Southwest (since 2018). Howe brings many years of experience working with the arts in the community, including serving on the board of directors for Musical Theatre Southwest and teaching voice at the Albuquerque Academy Summer Program.

“Aaron was the natural choice for our first executive director. He has first-hand knowledge of our company and our programs, and he is deeply connected to the arts community all over Albuquerque and Rio Rancho. said Neal Shotwell, RRCC board president.