Talented Leadership

PC: Chris Jones

Susan Hermance-Fedak

ARTISTIC & FOUNDING DIRECTOR

Grew up in Schenectady and is now recognized as one of the Capital Region’s leading choral conductors, singers, and teachers. She holds a degree in Vocal Performance from Hope College: her voice teachers have included her father Myron Hermance, Carroll Lehman, Gene Marie Callahan, and Teresa Kubiak of the Metropolitan Opera. A highly accomplished mezzo-soprano, she has performed as an oratorio soloist with numerous choirs and orchestras throughout the Northeast, and has participated in the premiere performances of a number of significant new works. For ten years Ms. Fedak was a member of the adjunct music faculty at the College of St. Rose, and now teaches voice at Schenectady County Community College while maintaining a private voice studio in her home. Since 1990 she has been Associate Minister of Music and Arts at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Capitol Hill in Albany, where she directs the church’s vocal and handbell choirs and leads music in the church school. Ms. Fedak is a member of the American Choral Directors Association and is also Treasurer of the Eastern New York chapter of NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing). She has served as director of the RPI Concert Choir, the Festival Celebration Choir, and the Burnt Hills Oratorio Society, and now conducts both the Saratoga Children’s Chorus and the Hudson-Mohawk Chorale, which recently returned from its highly successful inaugural concert tour of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

Alfred Fedak

COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE & ACCOMPANIST

Holds degrees in Organ Performance and Music History from Hope College and Montclair State University, and has done additional study at Westminster Choir College, Eastman School of Music, and in Austria and England. A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, he also holds the AGO’s Choirmaster Certificate, and since 1986 has been a member of the Guild’s national Board of Examiners. Widely known as a composer of church music, he has over 200 choral and organ works in print, and his numerous hymn tunes appear in hymnals throughout the English-speaking world and Asia. The winner of many awards in both performance and composition, he has performed and lectured widely throughout the US and abroad, and recently served on the editorial board which produced the new Presbyterian Hymnal Glory to God, serving as chair of its music subcommittee. Locally, in addition to his work as accompanist for the Hudson-Mohawk Chorale, he serves as Minister of Music and Arts at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Albany, organist/choir director at Albany’s Congregation Beth Emeth, Chapel Organist at Emma Willard School in Troy, and as harpsichordist/organist with the Capitol Chamber Artists. He has performed with nearly every classical music ensemble in the Capital Region, and is a member of the adjunct music faculty of Schenectady County Community College. Visit Mr. Fedak's website http://alfredfedak.com