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About the Directors
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Pianist
Ruthanne
Schempf is an active chamber and solo
musician and has performed throughout the United States.
She is on the faculties of SUNY-New Paltz and Interlochen
Arts Camp, and is a member of the Poné Ensemble for New
Music. She has also taught at Marist College and was the
pianist for the Cadet Glee Club at West Point. She earned
undergraduate degrees from Michigan State University and a
D.M.A. from the Manhattan School of Music. Her teachers
include Ralph Votapek, Robert Goldsand, Constance Keene, and
Marc Silverman. She is also a co-founder of the non-profit
Hudson Valley Society for Music which produces Potluck
Concerts and an annual Hudson Valley BachFest. Her solo
piano recording, An American Mirage: Exotic Piano Images,
was released in March of 2009 on the MSR Classics label.
This recording features works by American composers of the
late 19th century and early 20th
century. Selected as “CD of the week” on July 4, 2009 by
radio station KBAQ of Phoenix, Arizona, this recording has
also been heard on Wisconsin Public Radio. James Manheim of
allmusic.com said, “Schempf is technically solid…she has a
very nice singing tone… A strong recital recommended to
those interested in American concert music.” |
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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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