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About the Directors


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.”
   
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.