Mary Bonhag,
soprano
(Northfield)
Mary Bonhag made her Carnegie
Hall solo debut in 2009 singing in David T. Little’s
new chamber opera Dog Days and in 2007, she
created the role of “Eve” for the Pine Mountain
Music Festival premiere of The Diaries of Adam
and Eve, a new chamber opera by Evan Premo. Mary
has performed as part of the Fontana Chamber Arts
Festival of Kalamazoo, MI, the Maui Classical Music
Festival, Strings in the Mountains, Cactus Pear
Music Festival, the Lancaster Music Festival,
SongFest as a Stern Fellow and with the American
Symphony Orchestra. She has also been featured on
the NPR shows Performance Today and From
the Top. After studying at the University of
Michigan, she earned her Master’s degree at Dawn
Upshaw’s graduate vocal program at Bard College,
winning concerto competitions at both institutions.
She lives in the woods of Vermont. |
|
Charlie Briggs, tenor (Moretown) |
Eric K. Brooks,
baritone
(Waterbury Center)
Eric K Brooks is a native
of Montpelier. A founding member of Counterpoint,
Eric has performed with many other groups, including
the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Oriana Singers,
Voces Dulcissimis and the Burlington Choral Society.
Eric has recently been a featured soloist with the
New York Choral Society at Carnegie Hall under the
direction of Robert DeCormier. Eric also plays
clarinet in the Vermont Symphonic Winds and the
Waterbury Community Band. |
Neil Cerutti,
tenor
(Northfield)
Neil Cerutti is a Vermont
native, born and raised in Berlin, Vermont. He has
performed extensively in community theater
productions in the area, most often with The Barre
Players and at The Unadilla Theater. Neil sang in an
award-winning Barbershop Quartet called CVQ, and
also as a member of Vermont's premiere men's
barbershop chorus, The Green Mountain Chorus. Neil
currently studies voice with the wonderful Mary
Bonhag. Neil is in his 17th year as a financial aid
administrator at Norwich University. He lives with his wife, pianist Alison Bruce Cerutti, and two daughters, Emma and Anna. |
Melissa Chesnut-Tangerman,
alto
(Middletown Springs)
Melissa
Chesnut-Tangerman, a founding member of
Counterpoint, is choral teacher, Perspectives
teacher and Chair of the Arts Department at the
independent Long Trail School in Dorset; she has
taught there since 2002. Her musical training is
largely from the well-funded arts program at Horace
Greeley High School in Chappaqua, NY, and with Dr.
Lee Spear at Hamilton College. Melissa served as
organizer, President of the Board of Trustees, and
volunteer coordinator for SolarFest (a non-profit
devoted to renewable energy education through the
arts) from 1995-2010. Aside from the innumerable
joys and opportunities that working with Robert De
Cormier and Counterpoint has given her, an apex of
her musical experience was appearing on a Prairie
Home Companion as a celestial Siren with fellow
singers Marybeth McCaffrey and Roger Grow in 2001.
Melissa trusts in music to help heal the world. |
Stephen Falbel,
bass
(Montpelier)
Stephen Falbel has been active
as a singer since high school and has performed with
a wide range of choruses, from the 120-voice
Tanglewood Festival Chorus to the Alba Quintet. He
studied voice for many years in the Boston area and
performed with professional ensembles such as the
Boston Camerata and the Handel & Haydn Society. His
solo work includes opera and oratorio, with recent
performances in the Mozart Requiem with the VYO,
Handel's Messiah with the Vermont Philharmonic,
Bach's Cantata 131 with the Pro Musica Consort of
Woodstock, Bach's St. John Passion with the Oriana
Singers, and the role of Colonel in Gilbert and
Sullivan's Patience with Echo Valley Community Arts. |
Amy Frostman,
soprano
(South Burlington)
Amy Frostman grew up in
Moretown, where she attended Harwood Union High
School. While there, she performed in numerous
school musicals. Her roles included The Baker’s Wife
in Sondheim’s Into the Woods and Maria in
West Side Story. She participated in the Vermont
All-State, New England, and All-Eastern Choral
Festivals. Amy studied voice with Jill Levis. In
1999, she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in
Music Education from the Cincinnati
College-Conservatory of Music. During her tenure
there, Amy studied with John Leman, Gary Kendall,
and George Gibson. Her solo performances include
works of Purcell, Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Rossini,
Schumann, Faure, Rorem, and Rutter. Amy currently
teaches general music at Orchard Elementary School
in South Burlington. In addition to Counterpoint,
she has sung with numerous local groups, including
In Accord, Melisma, Oriana, Simple Gifts, and VSO
Chorus. Amy has recently appeared as a featured
soloist with the Hinesburg Artist Series, the
Rutland Area Chorus, the Vermont Mozart Festival
Orchestra, and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Amy
lives with her husband, Dan
and their sons, Samuel and Maximus. |
Roger Grow,
tenor
(Waterbury)
Roger Grow is a singer, composer,
conductor, and instrumentalist who currently teaches
choral and general music at Crossett Brook Middle
School in Duxbury, Vermont. He has been a soloist at
Carnegie Hall, as well as the Flynn Theatre with the
VSO. His composition "Atom Spin", was performed by
the 75th Vermont All-State Chorus, and he can be
heard on several recordings on the Arabesque label
with Mr. De Cormier, including all of the
Counterpoint recordings, including Shalom
which features four of his arrangements. He has
played bass, keyboards, and drums for various jazz,
rock, and classical groups in Vermont, and lives with his wife, Cairn. |
Marybeth McCaffrey,
soprano
(Lincoln)
Marybeth McCaffrey's passion for
singing was nurtured by her grandmother, parents,
public school music educators, and late husband,
Mark Reese. She studied with Ellen Hargis and Drew
Minter. Marybeth was artistic director of Celestial
Sirens. Formerly a licensed attorney and certified
music therapist, she presently works with the State of Vermont
as Director of Disability and Aging Services. She
makes her home in Lincoln with Ross Hart. |
|
Caleb Pillsbury, baritone (Hinesburg) |
|
Bethany Plissey,
soprano
(Stowe) |
Linda Radtke,
alto
(Middlesex)
Linda Radtke, alto, has appeared
as a soloist with the Vermont Philharmonic, the
Vermont Symphony, Oriana Singers, the Burlington
Choral Society and the Vermont Mozart Festival, and
has performed most of the alto leads in Gilbert and
Sullivan operas. Favorite theatrical credits are
The Sound of Music (Mother Abbess, Maria),
Man of La Mancha (Dulcinea/Aldonza), Camelot
(Guinevere) Barber of Seville (Berta) and,
with the Hanover Opera Workshop, the title role in
Carmen. She has sung in of all of Robert De
Cormier's recording projects in Vermont, beginning
with The Jolly Beggars in 1998 and seven CDs
with Counterpoint, of which she is a founding
member. The Vermont Humanities Council sponsors her
programs, Vermont History through Song, and the
Vermont Civil War Songbook, which have taken her to
much of the state as part of the Speakers' Bureau. A
recording, Vermont History through Popular Song,
was released in 2009. |
Cathy Stadecker,
soprano (Burlington)
Soprano Cathleen Ellis Stadecker, recently moved to
Vermont from the San Francisco Bay Area. She loves
singing early music and has had the chance to
perform with several fine ensembles while living in
Boston, New York and San Francisco, including
Pomerium, New York Collegium, Vox Vocal Ensemble,
Tiffany Consort, Choir of the Church of the Advent,
Philharmonia Baroque Chorale, and American Bach
Soloists. Cathleen received her BA degree cum laude
from Columbia University with a double major in
English and Music, and then completed an M.Phil
degree in Renaissance Literature at Cambridge
University, where she was a choral scholar with the
Trinity College Chapel Choir. She also holds a JD
from Columbia Law School and currently practices at
Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC, where she specializes in
trademark and copyright law. Cathleen lives with her
husband, Gabriel, and their daughters, Ella and
Sophie. |
Neil Wacek,
baritone
(Shelburne)
Neil Wacek holds a Bachelor of
Arts (Computer Science) from the University of
Vermont. Recent vocal performances include soloist
with the Burlington Choral Society in the Maurice
Duruflé Requiem, Benjamin Britten’s
Rejoice in the Lamb and George Friedrich
Handel’s The Messiah. Other notable
engagements include chorus roles in the Opera
Company of Middlebury production of Puccini’s La
Boheme, the Green Mountain Opera Festival
production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and
soloist in the Green Mountain Mahler Festival Haiti
Benefit presentation of the Johannes Brahms
Requiem. Also an accomplished trumpet player,
Neil is a long standing member of The Green Mountain
Brass Band, Inseldudler German band and Co-director
of the University of Vermont Pep Band. When not
engaged in musical endeavors, Neil exerts his
creative talents as the Online Communication &
Agency Interface Specialist at the Union Mutual of
Vermont Companies in Montpelier. He resides with his wife Victoria. |
Lindsey Warren,
alto
(Norwich)
Lindsey Warren enjoys conducting,
performing and teaching voice and piano to students
of all ages. She received a M.M. from McGill
University in Montreal and a B.M. from Furman
University in Greenville, S.C., both in vocal
performance. She has also attended Oberlin
Conservatory's Baroque Performance Institute. Ms.
Warren's conducting has taken her on tour across
North America, Russia, Estonia and Finland. Since
moving to Vermont, she has had the pleasure of
conducting The Randolph Singers, The Roving
Revelers, as well as working with the Christmas
Revels chorus in 2009. Currently, Lindsey conducts
Zephyrus, a 20-voiced a capella ensemble as well as
the United Church of Strafford Choir. In addition to
conducting, Lindsey is an active teacher and
performer. She taught classes for McGill
University's Music Theory department for several
years. After she moved to Vermont, she taught voice
at Johnson State College until her move to the Upper
Valley put her too far away to commute. Currently
she has private studios in Norwich and Sharon
teaching voice, piano and theory lessons. Some of
her performing roles have included Cherubino in
Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, and the Narrator
in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat. She has been both also
and soprano soloist for numerous cantatas and
oratorios, such Bach's Magnificat and Schubert's
Mass in G. In December 2009, she was the featured
soloist in the Christmas Revels' Scottish production
in Hanover, N.H. |
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