About the Directors

	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!

	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!

	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.

	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.

	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.