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About the Directors
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Pianist
Ruthanne
Schempf
studied
piano with her mother until she entered
Michigan State
University
to study with
1962 Van Cliburn winner, Ralph Votapek.
There she completed bachelor degrees in piano and music
literature, and returned to New York
for graduate
study under Robert Goldsand and Constance Keene at the Manhattan School
of Music. She is the pianist
for the West Point Cadet Glee Club and is on the faculties of SUNY-New
Paltz and Marist
College
in
Poughkeepsie.
She teaches music history, theory and piano.
As a student of Marc Silverman, she completed a Doctor of Musical
Arts degree at the Manhattan School of Music in 1995.
Ms.
Schempf and Emily
Faxon (violin) play together frequently as serious concert performers.
They also appear together in other guises. Among these is the
group is Citylights, which was formed as an excuse to play beautiful
tunes from the great American heritage of popular music. She endeavors to devote all her spare time to performing solo and
chamber music and to drinking coffee! |
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Violinist
Emily Faxon
holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the
Juilliard
School.
She has been Assistant Concertmaster of the Hudson Valley
Philharmonic for longer than she ever dreamed possible, as
well as a long-time member of the
Poné Ensemble and the
Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Quartet. With her
pianist and partner-in-crime, Ruthanne Schempf, she is one
of the original founders of the Hudson Valley Society for
Music, a non-profit organization which produces the Potluck
Concerts series and the Hudson Valley BachFest. Ms.
Faxon is an amateur ballerina, a knitter, a dedicated
teacher, and a voracious reader of trash. She lives
with three unintentional cats in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New
York, a mere phone call away from her two delicious
granddaughters! |
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Laura
Ramsey Russell,
conductor and music director,
is conductor and co-founder of the Hudson Valley BachFest.
She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from
the
Hartt
School,
and a Masters of Fine Arts degree from SUNY Purchase. As
conductor for the BachFest she has conducted Bach’s B-Minor
Mass, Magnificat, Passion according to Saint Matthew, and
several cantatas and motets. She is choir director at Christ
Episcopal Church in
Poughkeepsie, and
she has been music director for many light opera and musical
theater shows produced by the Gilbert & Sullivan Musical
Theater Company at the Bardavon. Ms. Russell has directed choirs
and taught music at
Marist
College and
Dutchess
Community College
in the
Hudson
Valley, and at the
music conservatories of SUNY Purchase and the
Hartt
School. |
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Cellist Susan Seligman studied with Janos Starker at Indiana
University, and received her Master’s degree from Yale University
under the tutelage of Aldo Parisot.
She is Artist-in-Residence and Adjunct Lecturer at SUNY New
Paltz. As Principal Cellist
of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic since 1984, she has appeared as
soloist several times. In
addition to the HVP String Quartet, she performs with La Grand Écurie
(an historic instrument ensemble), Innisfree Piano Trio (ensemble in
residence at the Poughkeepsie
Day School), and the Poné
Ensemble for New Music. International
music festivals in
Brazil, France, Italy
and
Switzerland
have welcomed
her participation. Teaching
pupils, whether at
Vassar
College
or in
her private studio, completes her life in music.
She would like to spend all remaining time pulling weeds.
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Harpsichordist/pianist
Mary Jane Corry is Professor Emerita at the State University of New
York at New Paltz. She performs with chamber ensembles such as La Grande
Ecurie, the Caledonia Chamber Ensemble, and the Lyric Trio in the Hudson
Valley. She has also played with the Albany Symphony, the Woodstock
Chamber Orchestra, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, and many of the
choral groups in the Hudson Valley. She studied with Nadia Boulanger in
Paris, Frau Professor Hindemith in Munich, and Dr. Putnam Aldrich at
Stanford University, where she received her Ph.D. She has recorded
for Albany Records. |
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