Conductor Roster and Bios

Philip Brunelle, music director, VocalEssence

Philip Brunelle, artistic director and founder of VocalEssence, is an internationally renowned conductor, choral scholar and performer. Believing that listeners and musicians alike must experience music of many genres and styles, he has worked enthusiastically-and tirelessly-to expand audiences for rarely heard works of the past and unique new music. His conducting engagements have taken him across the United States, South America and Europe including the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, the Berkshire Choral Festival and Oregon Bach Festival.

In 2002, Philip served as president of the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music, which took place in Minneapolis-St. Paul. He served on the Artistic Advisory Committee for the Eighth World Choral Symposium in Denmark 2008. In 2006, he served as artistic director and conductor of America Sings!, a concert held in Washington, DC to launch the NEA initiative, American Masterpieces: Choral Music. He chaired the program committee for the American Guild of Organists national convention in the Twin Cities in June 2008. He also serves on the boards of Chorus America, the International Federation for Choral Music and St. Olaf College.

Among his many awards are honorary doctorates from St. Olaf College, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. John's University and United Theological Seminary. In 2003, Chorus America honored Philip with its most prestigious award, the Michael Korn Founder's Award for Development of the Choral Art, and in 2005 he was chosen as the recipient of the A.P. Anderson Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts in Minnesota. In December 2005, Philip was invested as an Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition for his service as an "ambassador for the United Kingdom within the music world." American Composers Forum named Philip Brunelle "2007 Champion of New Music" for his support of contemporary music and the composers of today.

Simon Carrington, conductor, Yale Schola Cantorum and Institute of Sacred Music

Simon Carrington is Director of the Yale Schola Cantorum and professor of choral conducting at Yale University, where he has also led the introduction of a new graduate voice degree for singers specializing in oratorio, early music, art song, and chamber ensemble. From 2001 until his Yale appointment in 2003, he was director of choral activities at the New England Conservatory, and from 1994 to 2001 he held a similar position at the University of Kansas. Prior to coming to the United States, he was a creative force for twenty-five years with the internationally acclaimed British vocal ensemble The King’s Singers, which he co-founded at Cambridge University. He gave 3,000 performances at many of the world’s most prestigious festivals and concert halls, made more than seventy recordings, and appeared on countless television and radio programs including nine appearances on the Tonight Show with the late Johnny Carson! He maintains an active schedule as a freelance conductor and choral clinician, leading workshops and master classes round the world. He has conducted the Monteverdi Vespers in Barcelona, the Fauré Requiem in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, Beethoven's Meeresstille with the Texas All State Choir, Handel's Messiah in Dublin and the Rachmaninov Vespers in Victoria BC with singers from all over Canada. He is a regular guest conductor at the Monteverdi Choir Festival in Budapest and the Tokyo Cantat in Japan and leads annual workshops at the Chamber Choir Festival in Sarteano (Italy), and the Yale summer festival in Norfolk, Connecticut. He has taken Yale Schola Cantorum to perform at the two major choral conventions in the US where they received standing ovations and his recordings with the choir of baroque masterpieces by Bach, Biber and Bertali have received rave reviews. In 2008 he conducts Dvorak Te Deum and Prokofiev Alexander Nevski at the International Choir Festival in Szczecin, Poland, the Choir and Rebel Baroque Orchestra at Trinity Church Wall Street, the Desert Chorale in Santa Fe and returns as president of the international jury at the choral festival in Leipzig, Germany.



Frank Nemhauser, music director, Berkshire Choral Festival

Frank Nemhauser holds several prominent positions concurrently. He is Music Director of the Berkshire Choral Festival and also Music Director of the Westchester Choral Society, a position long held by Lyndon Woodside. Formerly Associate Dean of Mannes College the New School for Music, he is currently Director of Vocal Studies at Mannes.

Mr. Nemhauser has held the positions of Music Director of the Hartford Chorale, Chorus Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Associate Director of the Collegiate Chorale. He has been a guest conductor with the Houston Masterworks Chorus, The Dessoff Choirs, The Greenwich Choral Society, The Handel Choir of Baltimore. He has led workshops and clinics for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, The New Amsterdam Singers, The Augusta Choral Society, The Pennsylvania Music Educators Association and the Southwestern Virginia Spotlight on the Arts Festival.

He was last seen on the podium of the Berkshire Choral Festival, conducting the Festival Chorus and Orchestra in a performance of the Dvořák Stabat Mater. In other recent appearances at BCF, he has conducted the Mozart Requiem, Bach Magnificat, the Brahms Alto Rhapsody and Nänie, the Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms, the Fauré Requiem, the Lauridsen Lux Aeterna, the Britten cantatas St. Nicholas and Rejoice in the Lamb, the Rutter Gloria and Handel’s Solomon. In addition to conducting at the Festival’s home in the Berkshires, Mr. Nemhauser has led BCF performances in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Canterbury, England and Salzburg, Austria.

As a singer, Mr. Nemhauser has appeared throughout the United States and Europe, appearing with The New York City Opera National Company, The Ensemble for Early Music, Chanticleer and has performed at numerous festivals, including Tanglewood, Edinburgh, Aspen and Spoleto.

Dale Warland, artistic director, Dale Warland Singers

DALE WARLAND, celebrated American musician, has made an indelible impression on the landscape of contemporary choral music both nationally and internationally. During his time with the Dale Warland Singers, he shaped a vocal ensemble known for its exquisite sound, technical finesse, and stylistic range. From that platform, Warland not only mastered the traditional repertoire, but also commissioned 270 new choral works.

The music world has responded by bestowing its highest honors on Warland, including the 2006 Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia's Individual Leadership in Choral Music Award, the Champion of New Music Award from the American Composers Forum (2005), Honorary Doctorates from Macalester College and the University of Minnesota (2004). a Distinguished Master Artist Award from the University of South Florida (2004), a Grammy nomination of Walden Pond for best choral performance (2003), the prestigious ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) Victor Herbert Award (2003) in recognition of Warland's artistic contributions, the Sally Irvine Ordway Award for Vision (2003), and a special award from Chorus America and ASCAP for Warland's "pioneering vision, leadership and commitment to commissioning and performing new choral works at the highest level of artistry" (2002). Other awards and recognition include the 2001 Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal; the 2001 McKnight Distinguished Artist Award in recognition of his lifetime achievements as a choral conductor and his continued contribution to the arts in Minnesota; and the 1995 Michael Korn Founder's Award, the highest honor for a choral conductor in the United States, previously awarded to Robert Shaw, Margaret Hillis, and Roger Wagner, among others.

Warland's appearances as a guest conductor have taken him to the podiums of the Swedish Radio Choir, Danish Radio Choir, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble, the Utah Chamber Artists, Vocal Arts Ensemble, Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, Rochester Choral Arts and Israel's Cameran Singers, to name a few. Warland has also rehearsed and prepared choirs for performances of major works in collaboration with notable conductors and composers including Robert Shaw, Edo de Waart, Leonard Slatkin, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Sir Neville Marriner, Kryzstof Penderecki, Roger Norrington, James Conlon, Hugh Wolff, and Bobby McFerrin.

Warland is committed to sharing his knowledge about the choral arts and has served on the jury for the Eric Ericson Award (an international choral conducting competition held in Sweden); was a faculty member for the All-Japan Chorus League National Competition in Fukuoka, Japan; has lectured on American music at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki; served on the artistic staff of the Tolosa Choral Festival in Spain; acted as co-chair of both the choral and recording panels of the National Endowment for the Arts; and completed a 19 year tenure as Director of Choral Music at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Since the closing of the Dale Warland Singers organization in June 2005, Warland remains active as guest conductor, composer, teacher, and producer of choral programs for public radio. Recordings of Dale and the Dale Warland Singers are available through www.gothicrecords.com.



Gary Thor Wedow, conductor & Baroque specialist

Conductor Gary Thor Wedow has established an enviable reputation with opera companies, festivals and choral organizations throughout North America. In January of 2008 he led the Seattle Symphony in a Baroque program of Rameau, Handel and Marcello to rave reviews and enthusiastic audience response. Following his recent RINALDO for the Berkshire Opera, the Boston Globe’s Richard Dyer wrote: “The opera was delightfully played by a first-rate chamber orchestra under the direction Gary Thor Wedow. Years in opera houses have taught him how to make this music theatrical – and how to accommodate singers while challenging them. His work was knowledgeable, vital and full of the smell of candlelight and greasepaint.” During the 2008-2009 season, he will be at Indiana University as a visiting faculty member conducting Rossini’s PETITE MESSE SOLONNELLE and Handel’s GIULIO CESARE. Works by J. C. Bach, Haydn and Gossec are on his programme for Orchestra London Ontario. Later in the season he premiers Paul Richards and Wendy Steiner’s THE LOATHLY LADY in Philadelphia and returns to the Berkshire Choral Society for Bach’s MATTHÄUS PASSION. In 2007-2008, he was in Seattle for IPHIGENIE EN TAURIDE, debuted at Florida Grand Opera leading GIULIO CESARE and was in New York for a production of DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE at the Juilliard School and in San Francisco for the Merola program’s production of DON GIOVANNI.

The 2006-2007 season was highlighted by GIULIO CESARE for Seattle Opera and LA FINTA GIARDINIERA for the Juilliard School. He returned to Chautauqua for a production of L’ELISIR D’AMORE in July of ’07 and at New York City Opera, he conducted CARMEN. Maestro Wedow’s long association with the NYCO has also included LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Handel’s XERXES and Gilbert and Sullivan’s PATIENCE.

His 2005-2006 season called for PIRATES OF PENZANCE at Glimmerglass Opera, MESSIAH with the Edmonton Symphony and XERXES for the Pittsburgh Opera. Other recent Handel performances include XERXES for Wolf Trap Opera, ALCINA and ARIODANTE for Toronto’s Opera in Concert and the CORONATION ANTHEMS for the Berkshire Choral Festival where he also has conducted Bach’s MASS IN B MINOR and an opera concert featuring selections from AIDA, IRIS and WILLIAM TELL. Further recent assignments have included LA BOHÈME at Chautauqua Opera, LA CALISTO at the San Francisco Opera Center, concerts at the New National Theater in Tokyo, the North American premiere of Sartorio’s GIULIO CESARE IN EGITTO with the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto and L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA for the Pittsburgh Opera Center. As head of the Canadian Opera Company’s prestigious Ensemble Studio he conducted Cavalli’s LA CALISTO and GIASONE and the world premiere of Gary Kulesha’s RED EMMA.

He is a frequent collaborator of countertenor Lawrence Lipnik with whom he has prepared several performing editions of Baroque operas and was for many years Associate Conductor of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society. As a pianist, Wedow studied with Jorge Bolet. He is currently on the Julliard School Faculty.

Montreal, Canada

Julian Wachner, music director, The Washington Chorus

Born California, conductor-composer Julian Wachner began his musical education at age 4 with cello and piano lessons and studied improvisation, composition, organ and theory under Gerre Hancock while a boy chorister at the St. Thomas Choir School in New York City. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University’s School for the Arts.

In 1990, at the age of twenty, he was appointed University Organist and Music Director of Boston University’s Marsh Chapel with subsequent appointments to the faculty of the BU School of Theology and School for the Arts. He quickly became one of Boston’s most prominent musicians, constantly heralded in the press for the excellence and variety of his work. In 2001, following a decade of extraordinary conducting activity and compositional output in New England, Wachner was appointed to the faculty of the Schulich School of Music at McGill University.

Today, he is one of the most active and versatile artists of his generation having appeared with Glimmerglass Opera (Orphée), Toronto Operetta Company (Candide), Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Music Academy of the West, The Boston Pops, Calgary Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society, Pacific Symphony, The Metropolis Orchestra (Chicago), Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, L’Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, L’Orchestre Symphonique de l’Île, Tanglewood Young Artists’ Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony, New Haven Symphony, the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music, and the Boston Bach Ensemble. Upcoming conducting engagements for the 2007-2008 season include orchestral engagements with the Sioux City Symphony, Portland Symphony, Honolulu Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony, and twice on the Kennedy Center Series of the Washington Chorus and Orchestra.

In the field of opera he has conducted Così fan tutte, Albert Herring, Christopher Sly, Turn of the Screw, Candide, Dido and Aeneus, Bastien und Bastienne, L’Enfant et les sortilèges, Gianni Schicchi, Vanessa, La Vie Parisienne and the world premiere of his own opera, Evangeline Revisited with Opera McGill. In Boston, Wachner conducted Orfeo ed Eurydice, La finta giardiniera, (Boston Conservatory), The Mikado and The Gondoliers (Opera Boston), and Albert Herring with the Red House Opera Group.

Active also as a composer, Wachner's original music has been described as “jazzy, energetic, and ingenious.” Recent commissions include the Boston Landmarks Orchestra (The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, 2004 and Lifting the Curse, 2006), l'Orchestre Métropolitain (Triptych for Organ and Large Orchestra), Cornell University's Glee Club (4 Scenes from the Rubayat), and his first opera, Evangeline Revisited, for Opera McGill in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. His complete catalogue of music is published exclusively by E. C. Schirmer.

Several commercial recordings have been released in the last few years including The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Senator Ted Kennedy, narrator), Lifting the Curse (Landmarks Orchestra with NPR’s Bill Littlefield, narrator), Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Boston Bach Ensemble, Britten's The Company of Heaven with the Back Bay Chorale and Orchestra, Coro Allegro's Somewhere I Have Never Traveled featuring Wachner's choral song-cycle Sometimes I Feel Alive, The Boston Sinfonietta's Julian Wachner: Chamber Music, and the Boston Bach Ensemble's Julian Wachner: Sacred Music. His Triptych for Organ and Large Orchestra, premiered to great acclaim in 2006, will be released by ATMA Classique with the Metropolitan Orchestra of Greater Montreal in 2008.