Conductor Roster and Bios

Craig Jessop, Music Director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

When Jessop became music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in October 1999, he stepped into a position tailor-made for him. Not only had he served as the Choir's associate director from 1995 to 1999, he had also been a member of the Choir for four years during college. Growing up, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was his musical inspiration.

Under his leadership, the Choir has continued to live up to its tradition of excellence and has explored new territory in the musical and performance realms. As the music director of not only the Choir, but also the Orchestra at Temple Square and the Temple Square Chorale, Jessop draws on the strengths of these three entities and combines them as appropriate to enhance the level of musical excellence in performance.
His vision is to bring the music of the Choir to everyone. He states: "My passion has always been music and the power of music—helping other people in lifting their spirits. And whenever we're on tour I see the emotion that the Choir can generate from the audience. It's a wonderful experience."
Jessop's love of music has been with him his entire life. From the time of his youth when he sang in church and in school, to his university studies at Utah State and BYU and his doctorate in musical arts at Stanford, singing and music were everything to him. When he completed his doctoral studies in conducting, he was recruited by the United States Air Force music programs to conduct their highly acclaimed professional vocal ensemble, The U.S. Singing Sergeants. He served as commander and conductor of the Band of the United States Air Forces in Europe and the Air Combat Heartland of America Band. Touring, recording and performing around the world and in all 50 states for presidents, kings, and heads of state prepared him well for his present job.

Singing with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers, which included performing with its composer-conductor in concerts throughout Europe and at Carnegie Hall, was an extraordinary experience and a tremendous honor for Jessop. He recalls: "One of my biggest musical inspirations has been Robert Shaw. I learned a great deal about choral music and life from him." In 1999, when Shaw died unexpectedly weeks before a scheduled performance and recording with the Choir, Jessop used that inspiration to complete the recording of Shaw's English adaptation of Johannes Brahms' A German Requiem with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Utah Symphony.

For Jessop, leading the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is also a great honor. He feels that the Choir has an incredible history and that every era has made its own contribution, constantly improving and polishing the Choir's reputation. His charge to lead the Choir to new artistic heights comes from Church President Gordon B. Hinckley who said, "The Mormon Tabernacle Choir must be the highest exponent of the choral art in the land, but it must always sing to the people." It is this counsel that has led the Choir to perform in a broad range of venues from Royal Albert Hall in London to a Utah Jazz basketball game in Salt Lake City's Delta Center to a memorial service for the victims of the tragic attacks on September 11, 2001—all while preserving the classic elegance that has made the Choir famous.

Craig and his wife, RaNae, have four children and four grandchildren.

Tom Hall, music director of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society

One of the most highly regarded performers in choral music today, Mr. Hall was appointed Music Director of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society in 1982. He has added more than 100 new works to the BCAS repertoire, including first performances of major works by Mozart, Haydn, Bach and Handel. While his thorough scholarship and historically informed approach have shed new light on many familiar works of the Baroque and Classic periods, he has also introduced many premieres of works by contemporary composers, choreographers, and poets. Mr. Hall has incorporated a number of innovative elements into Choral Arts concerts, including collaborations with many prominent artists and ensembles, such as the King's Singers, Chanticleer, Dave Brubeck, Robert Levin, James Morris, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, the Washington Chamber Symphony, and Peter Schickele.

In addition to his position with BCAS, Mr. Hall is also the Culture Editor for Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast on 88.1, WYPR radio. Tom interviews artists, performers, authors, and creative people from across the state of Maryland every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 9:00 AM.

Mr. Hall is active as a guest conductor in the United States and in Europe. He has appeared as a guest conductor with the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston's Symphony Hall, with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris in New York and Paris, New York's Musica Sacra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Mozart Chorus of Winston-Salem, and the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia. A frequent guest conductor with the Berkshire Choral Festival, he has appeared with the Festival Chorus and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and the Britten Sinfonia in Canterbury, England. He also appears regularly with the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, he has conducted the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra on the Distinguished Artists Series at the U.S. Naval Academy, and he conducted the Three Choirs Festival in Chicago, and the Midwest Choral Festival in Iowa. Mr. Hall has prepared choruses for Leonard Bernstein, Robert Shaw, Helmuth Rilling, Sergiu Comissiona, Thomas Dunn, and others, and he served for ten years as the Chorus Master of the Baltimore Opera Company.

Mr. Hall is also a well known teacher, lecturer, and writer. He is invited frequently to speak to professional and community organizations, including the American Choral Directors Association, Chorus America, the College Endowment Association, and the Ewald Symposium of Sweetbriar College. He has served as the President of Chorus America, the national association of professional and volunteer choruses, and he has appeared numerous times as a guest speaker at national conferences of that organization. His publications include articles in the Baltimore Sun, Historical Performance Magazine, the Choral Journal, the American Choral Review, Voice Magazine, the International Choral Bulletin, and the SIDIC Review, an international journal which promotes understanding between Jews and Christians. In addition, he has served as a panelist for the National Endowment of the Arts.

Mr. Hall served on the faculty of the Chorus America/Chicago Symphony Association Choral-Orchestral Conducting Workshop and Masterclass, he developed the popular “Scripture and Song” series at Baltimore’s Beth Am Synagogue with the biblical scholar Noam Zion, and he was an Artist in Residence at Indiana University. He hosts a monthly radio program, Choral Arts Classics, and he appears frequently on Baltimore public radio’s Face the Music, and the Marc Steiner Show. He has been the Director of Choral Activities at Goucher College for 21 years, and he has lectured and taught courses at the Peabody Conservatory, the University of Baltimore, Towson University, and the Johns Hopkins University. He appears each year as the moderator of the Rosenberg Distinguished Artist Recital Series at Goucher College, and he has given pre-concert lectures for, among others, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra.

Mr. Hall produced Let Freedom Ring!, a highly successful recording for Gothic Records featuring the Washington Men’s Camerata, as well the soundtracks for Legends on the Learning Channel, and several nationally broadcast television and radio commercials. He has also appeared as a voice-over artist in several radio and television ads.

Mr. Hall lives in Baltimore with his wife, Linell Smith, and their daughter, Miranda Rose Hall.



Kent Tritle, music director of the Oratorio Society of New York and Sacred Music in a Sacred Space

Kent Tritle is one of America’s leading choral conductors and organists. He is founder and Music Director of Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, the acclaimed concert series now in its nineteenth season at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City. In more than 120 concerts he has conducted the Choir and Orchestra of St. Ignatius Loyola in a broad repertoire of sacred works, from Renaissance masses and oratorio masterworks to important premieres by notable living composers.

As Director of Music Ministries at St. Ignatius Loyola, Mr. Tritle oversees a program that annually produces more than 400 services with music. Since his appointment there in 1989, he has led the church’s professional choir to critical acclaim and developed the 50-voice volunteer Parish Community Choir. He was artistic consultant on the design and installation of the church’s four-manual, 68-stop mechanical action organ, which was dedicated in 1993. This instrument again drew national attention in July 2007 in a program of organ concertos for the American Guild of Organists conducted by Mr. Tritle, with corresponding critical success. Mr. Tritle holds graduate and undergraduate degrees from The Juilliard School in organ performance and choral conducting and has been on the Juilliard faculty since 1996, currently directing a graduate practicum on oratorio in collaboration with the school’s Vocal Arts Department. He has been a featured personality on ABC World News Tonight, National Public Radio, and Minnesota Public Radio, as well as in The New York Times and numerous other radio and print outlets, and is sought after as a master clinician giving workshops on conducting and repertoire.

In January 2006, Mr. Tritle was appointed Music Director for the Oratorio Society of New York, New York City’s second oldest cultural institution. Subsequent concerts at Carnegie Hall with OSNY have garnered critical acclaim from The New York Times. He most recently conducted OSNY at the new Music Palace in Budapest, Hungary, in a performance of Honegger’s Le Rois David. From 1996-2004, Mr. Tritle was Music Director of the Emmy-nominated Dessoff Choirs, winners of the ASCAP/Chorus America award for adventurous programming of contemporary music. Under his direction the Dessoff Choirs performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra, and Czech Philharmonic, as well as in many performances of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, including a nationally telecast “Live from Lincoln Center” concert of Mozart’s Requiem. Mr. Tritle has prepared choruses for conductors Christoph von Dohnányi, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Robert Spano, Gerard Schwarz, Vladimir Spivakov, Nicholas McGegan, Leon Botstein, and Dennis Russell Davies. Among the soloists with whom he has collaborated are singers Renée Fleming, Jessye Norman, Hei-Kyung Hong, Marilyn Horne, Susanne Mentzer, Susan Graham, and Sherrill Milnes; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; pianist André Previn; and actor Tony Randall.

Kent Tritle is also Organist of the New York Philharmonic. With the Philharmonic he has recorded Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Britten’s War Requiem and Henze’s Symphony No. 9, all conducted by Kurt Masur, as well as the Grammy-nominated Sweeney Todd conducted by Andrew Litton. He is featured on the DVD “The Organistas” and “Creating the Stradivarius of Organs,” and has recorded more than a dozen CDs on the Telarc, AMDG, Epiphany, Gothic, VAI and MSR Classics labels. His most recent CD with the Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola, Wondrous Love, has been heralded by the American Record Guide, The Choral Journal, and The American Organist magazines. For Universal Classics, he produced Glorious Pipes, a compendium of great organ music.

John Alexander, music director of the Pacific Chorale

Artistic Director since 1972, John Alexander is considered one of America's finest choral conductors. His inspired leadership both on the podium and as an advocate for the advancement of the arts has generated international respect and acclaim throughout his career.

His long and distinguished career has encompassed conducting hundreds of choral and orchestral performances in 27 countries around the globe. Alexander is not only recognized for his exceptional talent in bringing the masterworks to life, but is also eminent as a strong proponent of contemporary American music. He regularly programs works by American composers, and has presented many premieres of their works. In the 2006-2007 season Pacific Chorale premiered commissions by acclaimed composers Jake Heggie and Morten Lauridsen. Previous premieres have included performances of works by John Adams, Dominick Argento, Eric Whitacre, Howard Hanson, Stephen Paulus, Frank Ticheli and James Hopkins.

Alexander is renowned for his superb preparation of choruses for performances with the world's leading ensembles and conductors. Preeminent artists on the world stage regularly request his efforts to prepare choruses for important works. Conductors with whom he has worked include Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Leonard Slatkin, Carl St. Clair, Lukas Foss, Keith Lockhart, John Mauceri, Marin Alsop, Gerard Schwarz and Max Rudolf.

Alexander is also a prominent ambassador for the preservation and advancement of the arts. He is a board member and former president of Chorus America. Alexander also has served on artistic review panels for national, state-wide and local arts organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

He retired in spring 2006 from his position of Director of Choral Studies at California State University, Fullerton, having been awarded the honor of Professor Emeritus. From 1970 to 1996, he held the position of Director of Choral Studies at California State University, Northridge. Alexander continues his involvement in the pre-professional training of choral conductors. He is in demand as a teacher, clinician, and adjudicator in choral festivals, seminars and workshops across the United States. In 2003, Chorus America honored him with the establishment of the "John Alexander Conducting Faculty Chair" for their national conducting workshops.
Alexander is also a composer of numerous works and serves as the editor of the John Alexander Choral Series with Hinshaw Music. His numerous tributes and awards include: The Helena Modjeska Cultural Legacy Award (2003), presented in honor of his lifetime achievement as an artistic visionary in the development of the arts in Orange County; the "Outstanding Individual Artist" Award (2000) from Arts Orange County; the "Gershwin Award" (1990), presented by the county of Los Angeles in recognition of his cultural leadership in that city; and the "Outstanding Professor" Award (1976) from California State University, Northridge. Most recently, in 2006, Alexander was given the "Distinguished Faculty Member" award from Cal State Fullerton.

Joseph Cullen, director of the London Symphony Orchestra Chorus and the Huddersfield Choral Society

Joseph Cullen was appointed Director of the London Symphony Chorus in September 2001. This season his engagements with them will include visits to European festivals and concerts in the UK with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Philharmonia. Together they will perform a wide range of repertoire including works by Mahler, Beethoven and Vaughan-Williams. Future plans include a return visit to the USA and a recording of Mahler 8 with Sir Simon Rattle.

Joseph's innovative approach to choral training has established him as one of the foremost choral conductors in England. He has been Chorus Master of the Huddersfield Choral Society since August 1999, and has conducted and trained them for concerts and broadcasts on BBC Radios 2, 3 and 4 in a wide range of sacred and secular music.

Joseph has also held the positions of Chorus Director of the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and Director of the Britten-Pears Chamber Choir in Snape. He has appeared as a guest chorus master and conductor with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, Philharmonia Chorus and BBC Singers.

Recent work includes a BBC Prom featuring the world premiere of Sally Beamish's Knotgrass Elegy with the BBC Symphony Chorus and, with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, CD recordings of American Jewish music as part of a massive project by the Milken Archive, John Tavener's Fall and Resurrection with the City of London Sinfonia under Richard Hickox at the Royal Festival Hall, and a concert of a cappella works by English composers in London in March 2001.

Joseph was born in Glasgow, where he studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He was Organ Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, and other previous appointments include Assistant Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral from 1994 to 1997 where he featured in the recordings, tours and broadcasts of the Cathedral's internationally renowned choir.

Jon Washburn , conductor and artistic director of the Vancouver Chamber Choir

Jon Washburn is the Conductor and Artistic Director of Canada's outstanding professional vocal ensemble, the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Well known internationally for his mastery of choral technique and interpretation, Washburn travels widely as guest conductor, lecturer, clinician, and master teacher. In addition to Canada and the United States, he has performed in Russia, Finland, Estonia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico, and Brazil.

Washburn's early musical experience was wide-ranging and eclectic. As a teenager, he was a jazz bass player and band leader. At university, he became heavily involved in musical theater, specifically acting, singing, conducting, and stage directing. He earned a choral conducting degree at the University of Illinois and proceeded to pursue musicological studies at Northwestern and the University of British Columbia.
Washburn quickly became involved in Baroque and Renaissance music as a busy professional viola da gamba and violone player with ensembles such as Hortulani Musicae, the Cecilian Ensemble, L'Age d'Or Baroque Orchestra, and the Spokane Bach Festival Orchestra. He was one of the founders of the Vancouver Society for Early Music (now Early Music Vancouver). As a conductor of Baroque repertory, he has led over 300 performances of more than 80 large works by composers such as Bach, Buxtehude, Carissimi, Charpentier, Handel, Monteverdi, Pachelbel, Pergolesi, Purcell, Scarlatti, Schutz, Telemann, and Vivaldi, as well as numerous smaller works.

Most of Jon Washburn's achievements have been in the field of choral music. Foremost is the founding of the Vancouver Chamber Choir in 1971, for which, since its inception, he has provided its conducting and artistic direction. He was also artistic director for six years of the Phoenix Bach Choir, an American professional ensemble, and associated with several amateur ensembles, including Vancouver's Bach Choir and Willan Choir, Victoria's Amity Singers, and the early Jon Washburn Singers.

With his many choirs, Jon Washburn has consistently championed new choral repertoire: he has commissioned and premiered nearly 200 new works by Canadian, American, and European composers during his career. Washburn has conducted over 2,300 performances of 306 pieces by 105 Canadian composers with the Vancouver Chamber Choir alone, for which he received the Friends of Canadian Music Award from the Canadian League of Composers and the Canadian Music Centre. As an active composer, arranger, and editor, he has had many compositions published, performed, and recorded around the world, including Rise! Shine!, a Grouse Records CD of his choral works sung by the Vancouver Chamber Choir.

Each year Jon Washburn conducts approximately 50 concerts, broadcasts, and CD performances of twenty separate repertoires, in addition to many workshops for choral conductors, composers, students, and singers. He has appeared as guest conductor with groups such as the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (Tallinn), and prepared choruses for the Royal Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic, and the Boston Pops Orchestra.

In 2001, Mr. Washburn was named a Member of the Order of Canada (the nation's highest civilian honour) and, in 2002, he received Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee Medal in recognition of his lifetime contribution to Canadian choral art. He received a Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors in the spring of 1996 and the Louis Botto Award from Chorus America in June 2000. The latter award was presented to Mr. Washburn in recognition of his innovative and entrepreneurial spirit in the development "of a professional choral ensemble of exceptional quality." In June 1998, he and the VCC were awarded the Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence. Most recently, Mr. Washburn was awarded the Friends of Canadian Music Award (2000) by the Canadian Music Centre and the Canadian League of Composers in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Canadian composers' music.

Heinz Ferlesch, artistic director of the Wiener Singakademie, Vienna, Austria

While still enrolled in high school, Heinz Ferlesch attended the Brucknerkonservatorium in Linz. After graduation, he studied music pedagogy at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and philosophy, psychology and pedagogy at the University of Vienna. During his training he specialized in choir directing and conducting.

In 1993, he founded the choir "Ad Libitum" in his home town of St. Valentin. In 1997 he founded the ladies' chamber choir "Chorus Discantus" in Vienna. This choir specializes in original compositions for female voices and won second place in the International Schubert Choir Competition in Vienna in 2001 under his direction.

In fall 1997, Heinz Ferlesch became assistant to the then artistic director of the Wiener Singakademie, Herbert Böck, whom he succeeded at the beginning of the 1998/99 musical season.

As a conductor, Heinz Ferlesch worked with orchestras such as the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria, the Sinfonietta Baden and the Bartholdy-Collegium Graz. Through regular performance of pieces for choir and orchestra, he established a close working relationship with the Ensemble Sonare Linz. In 2002, together with the oboist Andreas Helm, Heinz Ferlesch founded the Ensemble Barucco, an orchestra playing on period instruments.

In addition, Mr. Ferlesch is a founding member of the Vokalakademie Niederösterreich and the initiator of the Vokalwoche Melk, since 1999 an annual summer workshop for choir, chamber choir and soloists, with an emphasis on baroque music. From 2000 to 2005, he was the musical director of the Jugendsingwoche Großrußbach. He is co-founder and coordinator of the Chorszene Niederösterreich and lecturer at vocal courses.

Since fall 2002, Heinz Ferlesch has been teaching the subject "vocal ensemble" at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

In the course of his musical career thus far, Heinz Ferlesch has worked with such famous conductors as Georges Prêtre, Franz Welser-Möst, Kent Nagano, Adam Fischer, Bertrand de Billy, Ton Koopman, and Helmuth Rilling, and with renowned orchestras such as the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Vienna Symphony, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Zürich Opera House Orchestra. Heinz Ferlesch has been performing regularly in the Wiener Konzerthaus since 1997.