2007-2008 Guest Conductors
James John
James John is Assistant Professor and Director of Choral Activities at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College-CUNY, where he conducts the Queens College Choir, Vocal Ensemble and Choral Society, teaches Graduate Choral Conducting, and serves as Advisor to the Graduate Program in Vocal Performance.
Recent performances with Queens College choral ensembles include an opera gala with soprano Erika Sunnegårdh of the Metropolitan Opera, Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, the American premiere of Mendelssohn’s Humboldt Cantata, and a wide spectrum of a cappella repertoire including a program of contemporary Scandinavian choral music, a world premiere by New York composer Sidney Boquiren, and Monteverdi’s Lagrime d'Amante al Sepolcro dell'Amata. In 2006 the Queens College Vocal Ensemble appeared at the American Choral Directors Association Eastern Division Convention in New York City as part of a conducting master class with Jerry Blackstone of the University of Michigan, and was one of four featured collegiate choirs in “An Evening of Choral Artistry” at Alice Tully Hall. The Vocal Ensemble recently received a grant to record the partsongs of Scottish composer Hamish MacCunn in June 2008.
For the past several years Dr. John has been a guest conductor at Avery Fisher Hall’s annual Messiah Sing-In, and as a choral clinician and adjudicator he appears regularly throughout New York and New England. While on sabbatical in 2005, Dr. John was Guest Lecturer in Conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany, and presented seminars on American choral music in Basel and Stockholm. He is currently working on a book for the Edwin Mellen Press on Brahms’s choral-orchestral work Nänie, to be published in 2008. It is based on his award-winning dissertation, which received the 2002 Julius Herford Prize for excellence in doctoral research from the American Choral Directors Association. His articles have appeared in Choral Journal, The American Choral Review, and the American Choral Foundation’s Research Memorandum Series. He currently holds the position of Repertoire and Standards Chair for College and University Choirs for the Eastern Division of the American Choral Directors Association.
Dr. John received his Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the Eastman School of Music where he was a student of William Weinert, and throughout his career he has had the opportunity to work with some of the most prominent conductors of our time, including Robert Shaw, Dale Warland, Robert Page, Paul Hillier, Helmut Rilling, Weston Noble, and James Jordan. Prior to his appointment at Queens College he held positions as Director of Choral Activities at Tufts University and Nassau Community College.
Donald McCullough
Donald McCullough is considered one of America’s preeminent choral conductors. Hailed by the Washington Post for his “dazzling expertise” on the podium, he is known for his fresh and vibrant interpretations of both choral standards and contemporary works.
As the Music Director of the Master Chorale of Washington for over a decade, the Master Chorale has become known for singing “with an innate sense of lyricism and musical poise” in performances that are “sensitive, scrupulous and heartfelt” (Washington Post). During his tenure, MCW has performed sixteen world premieres, commissioned a major choral work by Adolphus Hailstork, produced three nationally distributed CD's, and received several prestigious honors and awards including national recognition from Chorus America as the recipient of The Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence in North America.
He has led MCW on two international tours, the latest at the invitation of German and Polish consular officials who invited MCW to be a featured guest chorus during Europe’s commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII. On this tour, the Master Chorale performed the European premiere of McCullough’s poignant and deeply affecting Holocaust Cantata in Krakow’s St. Katharina Church, the memorial site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, the crypt of Dresden’s Frauenkirche, and St. Hedwig’s Cathedral to deeply moved and highly appreciative audiences in both countries. McCullough has also led the Master Chorale in performances at the National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) in such renowned music venues as Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, and historic Riverside Church.
With over 20 published choral works to his credit, McCullough has gained wide recognition as a composer. Most recently the Berkshire Choral Festival commissioned a setting of Psalm 150 for chorus and orchestra while inviting him to return to the BCF as a guest conductor to present several of his own choral works, including the world premiere of Psalm 150.
Since his arrival in Washington, DC in 1996, Donald McCullough has composed three extended works that have all realized Kennedy Center world premieres. After its initial performance at the Kennedy Center in 1998, his Holocaust Cantata—a work that immortalized tunes written by prisoners in concentration camps—was later featured in The New York Times, The Washington Times and on CNN. It has since received over 100 performances throughout the world to critical acclaim.
Following the success of Holocaust Cantata, he composed and performed the premiere of his first extended Christmas work with the Master Chorale of Washington—Canite Tuba: A Christmas Triptych—in December 2001 in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall to enthusiastic reviews and in 2003 he unveiled Let My People Go: A Spiritual Journey along the Underground Railroad in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, a 65 minute work that explores the coded language hidden within slave spirituals that helped them escape slavery. Since its premiere, Let My People Go! has had several repeat performances by other choruses including four performances as part of the Inaugural of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Strongly committed to developing the vocal talent of young singers, McCullough initiated the All-City Honors Chorus in 1997, which MCW sponsors in partnership with The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts and the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). Under his leadership the All-City Honors Chorus has evolved into a vital educational outreach program for the under-served children of the District’s public schools that each year culminates in a thrilling concert performance in the prestigious Kennedy Center Concert Hall.
Donald McCullough holds bachelor degrees in both organ and vocal performance from Stetson University and master degrees in both sacred music and vocal performance from Southern Methodist University. He came to Washington, DC in 1996 from Norfolk, Virginia, where he had founded two organizations that continue to thrive today—the Virginia Symphony Chorus and the Virginia Chorale, which continues to be that state’s only fully professional choral ensemble. He serves on the board of directors of Chorus America, the national service organization for choruses in the United States and Canada, and regularly appears as a guest conductor and clinician.
James Weaver
Singer and conductor James Weaver enjoys an active international career. Since finishing his studies with Max van Egmond at Amsterdam's Sweelinck Conservatory, Mr. Weaver has been a frequent performer with many of the finest orchestras and chamber ensembles in North America and Europe.
Mr. Weaver’s conducting experience began when he was invited to serve as the conductor of the Seattle Deutsches Gesangverein. A co-founder and director of the William & Mary Early Music Enesmble, he has conducted vocal and instrumental ensemble performances featured at the Longy International Baroque Institute, the Early Music Athenaeum at Rutgers University, the San Francisco Early Music Society Summer Workshops, as well as at numerous choral workshops and masterclasses around the country.
As a singer Mr. Weaver has sung with such diverse groups as Collegium Vocale Ghent, The Academy of the Begienhoff, the Dutch experimental theater group GRIF, Ensemble Courant, the Orpheus Band, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Dryden Ensemble, Santa Fe Pro Musica, the Seattle and Portland Baroque Orchestras, the Baltimore Consort, Newberry Consort, Columbus Consort, Ricercar Consort, and Eighth Blackbird. An acclaimed Bach specialist, he works regularly with Joshua Rifkin and The Bach Ensemble, Jeffrey Thomas and the American Bach Soloists, Kenneth Slowik and the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the San Francisco Bach Choir, Bethlehem Bach Choir, and the Washington Bach Consort.
A sought-after interpreter of lieder, Mr. Weaver has collaborated with pianists Dalton Baldwin, Kenneth Slowik, and Joanne Kong, most recently in recitals of the great Schumann songcycles, Dichterliebe, Op. 48 and the Liederkreis, Op. 39, the Schubert songcycles Schwanengesang and Die schöne Müllerin, as well as lieder by Brahms, Beethoven and Ravel.
He has made numerous recordings with the American Bach Soloists on Koch International and can also be heard on the Dorian, Smithsonian, Channel Classics, Ricercar, Newport Classics, and Loft labels.
A native of Detroit, Mr. Weaver is currently a member of the vocal faculty at the University of Richmond, and resides in Williamsburg, where he has been Music Director at Williamsburg Presbyterian Church since1988.
Chuck Woodward
Maestro Woodward is known in the Hampton Roads community both as a choral conductor and pianist. Mr. Woodward is the Music Director of Ohef Sholom Temple where, in 2007, he celebrates his twenty-fifth anniversary. He is also the Music Director of Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, Norfolk, where he conducts the church's annual Christmas presentation of the Festival Nine Lessons and Carols. He has also served as choral director at the Governor's School for the Arts.
As a pianist, Charles Woodward is a frequent collaborator in both vocal and instrumental chamber concerts. He has performed with the Virginia Arts Festival, Virginia Symphony, Virginia Chorale, Art Song of Williamsburg, Norfolk Chamber Consort and at The Phillips Collection (Washington, DC), Jordan Hall (Boston), Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and in Germany and Italy. His performances have been heard on NPR's Performance Today.
A graduate of Northwestern University, Charles Woodward has served on the adjunct music faculties of The College of William and Mary, Old Dominion University and Christopher Newport University.