Aoede Consort: Biographies

	Dan Foster (Artistic Director) was trained in Sacred Music at Westminster Choir College as a singer, pianist, organist, and conductor. His teachers included Joan Lippincott (organ), Joseph Flummerfelt and James Jordan (conducting), Thomas Faracco and Marvin Keenze (voice performance/pedagogy), and Dalton Baldwin, Glenn Parker, and J.J. Penna (accompanying). He studied the training of young singers at the American Boychoir School. As a tenor, Mr. Foster sang for three years in the Spoleto Festival International appearing in Der Rosenkavalier (Richard Strauss), The Excursions of Mr. Brocek (Leos Janacek), and Falstaff (Verdi) and has returned for the past two years as the organist and pianist with the Antioch Chamber Ensemble. He has sung for two years at the Pitten Festival, Austria, appearing in The Mikado (Gilbert and Sullivan), and La Traviata (Verdi). He has also toured Taiwan, Korea, France, Holland, and Italy. He has performed and recorded extensively with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, performing many concerts including all the Bach master works, Ein Deutches Requiem (Johannes Brahms), Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher (Arthur Honegger), and War Requiem (Benjamin Britten). He has also recorded with the renowned early music ensemble Fuma Sacre. Major works conducted include Vivaldi's Gloria, Bach’s Cantata 140 “Wachet auf”, Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, Fauré’s Requiem and Messe Basse, the premier of Timothy Luby's Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, and the premiers of Magnificat and Te Deum by Larry G. Nuckolls.

	Paul D'Arcy (Executive Director) has sung professionally throughout the northeast for the past ten years. A former student of Carol Lynn Youtz, Sharon Stohrer, and John Malthaus, Paul presently studies with Susan Harwood at The College of St. Rose where he is completing a degree in Music Education. Paul has held the positions of chorister, soloist and section leader at The Cathedral of All Saints Choir of Men & Boys in Albany, St. Paul’s Choir in Troy, and Temple Gates of Heaven and The St. Cecilia Choir at St. George’s, both in Schenectady. Paul’s solo work includes Bach’s Cantata 140 “Wachet Auf”, Caldara’s Stabat Mater, Gounod’s Missa Solemnis and Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass. Paul has performed in numerous operas including Purcell’s Dido and Æneas, King Arthur and Thomas Arne’s King Alfred. Paul has performed in many music festivals, including the Williamstown Early Music Festival, St. Paul’s Bach Festival and the Saratoga Baroque Festival. He has appeared as soloist and chorus member in Albany Pro Musica, Cobleskill Vocal Ensemble, New York Catholic Chorale and The Cornell University Glee Club. Paul has contracted many a small vocal ensemble for funerals, weddings and other occasions.

	Molly Ambler Spooner (soprano) is a native of Delmar and recently returned to the Albany area to teach music at Voorheesville Jr./Sr. High School. Molly graduated from the University of Michigan School of Music with a degree in voice performance with teacher certification. During her time in Michigan, she had the opportunity to work with esteemed choral director Jerry Blackstone and with prominent coach Martin Katz both in class and on the stage as the Dewfairy in Hänsel und Gretel. Other roles include the Baby Vixen in The Cunning Little Vixen, and the Lay Sister in Suor Angelica. Professionally, Molly performed with the Michigan Opera Theatre in Detroit as one of the ten silly sisters in Pirates of Penzance. Locally, Molly has performed with Park Playhouse and Schenectady Light Opera Theatre, and is currently the staging director at Voorheesville High School. She sings in various local choruses and has been a featured soloist with Albany Pro Musica and the New York Catholic Chorale. Most recently, she was the winner of the Joy B. Misenheimer Award, given by the Capital District Mendelssohn Club for a singer with outstanding vocal potential. She is honored to study voice with Anne Turner.

	Allison Mondel (soprano) is a graduate of the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA where she received her Master of Music in Early Music Vocal Performance. There she appeared in Charpentier’s Actéon, Lully’s Le bourgeois gentilhomme and Peri’s Euridice. In the fall of 2004 she sang the role of La Messaggiera in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with the Harvard Early Music Society. She also appeared in the Boston Early Music Festival’s production of Lully’s Thesée and Rameau’s La Guirlande, presented at Jordan Hall and Tanglewood. Beyond the early opera stage, Allison specializes in research, notation, and performance of medieval music and has done extensive scholarly work on the Montpellier and Las Huelgas manuscripts and the chants of Hildegard von Bingen. She has appeared in the Boston Early Music Festival with the medieval ensemble Trillium, as well as with the Ars Nova Singers (based in Boulder, CO) in The Passion of St. Ursula, an original passion play based on the martyrdom of St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins featuring chants of Hildegard von Bingen. This past year, Allison co-founded Williamstown Early Music, a concert series based in Northern Berkshire County. Her upcoming projects include a lute song recital and performances with Seven Times Salt, a Boston-based English consort band.

	Mary Abba-Gleason (mezzo-soprano) teaches chorus, voice, music theory and select vocal ensembles at Clayton A. Bouton High School in Voorheesville, NY. She received her BM in Music Education from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. At the Crane School she completed a performance certification in voice and studied with Barbara Clark and Catherine Sevenigny. She has had the great privilege to sing under the direction Andre Thomas and tour Europe in conjunction with the Ottawa Choral Society. She was the alto soloist in the Crane Chorus and Symphony Orchestra’s staged production of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion. She was also alto soloist in the Potsdam Community Choir performances of Vivaldi’s Gloria and Handel’s Messiah. Ms. Abba-Gleason holds an MA in Educational Administration from the University at Albany. She currently studies voice with Anne Turner and sings with the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Choir of Troy, NY. In addition to her teaching assignments, Ms. Abba Gleason is the musical director of the Voorheesville Dionysians. Past productions include Les Miserables, Jeckle and Hyde, Into the Woods, Beauty and the Beast, and Once Upon A Mattress.

	Kelly Bird (mezzo-soprano) is on the faculty of the Music Industry Program at The College of St. Rose in Albany, NY where she gives private instruction in vocal training, songwriting and production, and oversees the program's “open jam” style Repertoire Class. She has worked with internationally renowned recording artists including Happy Rhodes, Ben Okafor, Jamie Edwards (formerly of Our Lady Peace), Boston-based Upper Crust, and Irish tenor Robert White, including performances at The Bottom Line (NYC), The Mann Music Center and the Tin Angel (both in Philadelphia). She can be heard regularly as alto soloist with the Westminster Presbyterian Church Choir under the direction of noted organist, composer and director Alfred V. Fedak. She is also a frequent guest soloist and cantor with various Capital District choral groups, most recently including the New York Catholic Chorale and Festival Choir.

	Kara Cornell (mezzo-soprano) is a native of Long Island. She attended Carnegie Mellon University for her bachelors in vocal performance and then Stony Brook University for her masters degree in opera performance. Kara’s voice was described as “lyric and flexible, and soared through her top register beautifully” by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, after she soloed in the world premiere of Sacred Songs and Interludes by Nancy Galbriath in 2006, commissioned by the Pittsburgh Camerata. Kara has sung many other premiere works, including fully staged operas and arts songs dedicated to her. In New York Kara has sung with The Northport Opera Company, Pacific Opera and was the alto soloist in Judas Maccabaeus with The Brooklyn Philharmonic. Kara has been a repeated guest artist with The Stony Brook Opera, singing in The Turn of the Screw, Don Quichotte and Le nozze di Figaro. Kara also performs in musicals, and has portrayed such roles as Mother Abbess and Eliza Doolittle. Kara’s career has taken her to different parts of the country, and in Europe. This year Kara sang the alto solos in Messiah with The US Naval Academy Choir in Maryland and, in past years, has soloed with The Aspen Opera Theater Center, The Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, The Bay View Music Festival and The Opera Theater of Lucca, Italy. This summer, Kara was a winner in the Five Towns Music Scholarship Competition, sang the role of Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice) with The California Music Festival and Mercedes (Carmen) with The Brooklyn Conservatory Festival.

	Robert Mack (tenor)

	Jim Crum (bass-baritone) has been an active choral singer in Cobleskill and the Capital District for over 30 years. He attended Fredonia State majoring in voice for several years and subsequently graduated from Paul Smiths College of the Adirondacks where he majored in Forestry and Surveying. He has continued his love of choral music and is active in many choral organizations and a frequent soloist. He is noted for his musical discernment and interpretation. Jim was a founding member of Cobleskill Chamber Singers and Cobleskill Vocal Ensemble. He has been a member of Albany Pro Musica for 12 years and serves on the APM Board of Directors. He also sings with the Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys at the Episcopal Cathedral of All Saints in Albany for major feast days and choral concerts and is a charter member of Aoede Consort. Jim is a Vice President at Lancaster Development, Inc. in Richmondville and serves in many community and church related positions. He lives in Cobleskill and is married to Joanne Darcy Crum. They have one daughter, Darcy, a second year graduate student in vocal performance at Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

	Richard Giarusso (baritone) is a doctoral student in historical musicology at Harvard University where he is writing a dissertation on the role of the slow movement within instrumental music of the late nineteenth century. He holds a BA in music and English from Williams College and an AM in musicology from Harvard. At Williams, he worked closely with Kenneth C. Roberts and studied voice with Keith Kibler. He also served as assistant director of the Williams College choruses, studying conducting with E. Wayne Abercrombie and Bradley Wells. Currently a student of mezzo-soprano Pamela Dellal, he maintains an active career as a recitalist, concert artist, and ensemble singer throughout New England. At Harvard, he directed the Dudley House Choir and Consort and appeared as a soloist with the Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum. Mr. Giarusso has performed Schumann's Dichterliebe and Liederkreis, Op. 39, Schubert's Winterreise and Schwanengesang, and songs of Brahms, Mahler, Ives and others throughout Massachusetts. In western Massachusetts, where he currently resides, he is the co-director of Williamstown Early Music and The New Opera. With these organizations, he has led performances of Bach’s St. John Passion and excerpts from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Così fan tutte. An article entitled “The End of the Journey?: Disorder, Imagination, and Musical Metaphor in the Final Songs of Schubert’s Winterreise” will soon appear in a volume of Schubert essays published by Ashgate. Mr. Giarusso sang for five years as a member of the Choir of the Church of the Advent and has also performed with the Chorus of Emmanuel Music (both of Boston).

	Alexander Jones (baritone) has appeared or soloed with Albany Pro Musica, Saratoga Chamber Singers, the College Consortium Singers at Russell Sage, and Lanfranco Marceletti of Glimmerglass Opera. A student of Keith Kibler, his affiliations have included St. George's Episcopal (Schenectady NY), St. Paul's Episcopal (Albany NY), and the Cathedral Choir of Men & Boys at All Saints Cathedral, with whom he toured the Northeast. Alex is an accomplished guitarist, composer of several smaller pieces and a suite, and an avid performer of Eastern European folk music. In addition to Aoede Consort, he currently performs on a regular basis with Tom Savoy and the New York Catholic Chorale.