About The Artists
The Worcester Chorus, under the sponsorship of Music Worcester, has the distinction of being one of the most distinguished ongoing choral groups in the United States. Founded in 1858 to sing in the first Worcester Music Festival, the 100+ member chorus includes singers from Worcester County, northern Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the Boston area. Its repertoire has included traditional choral masterworks, contemporary literature - including commissioned works, arrangements of American folk songs, and musical theater classics. The singers perform annually in the Handel's Messiah, a highlight of the Worcester Music Festival. The Worcester Chorus season includes 3-4 major choral performances every year.
The Worcester Chorus has appeared with the Hartford Symphony, the American Symphony at Avery Fisher Hall in the Lincoln Center, and the Prague Symphony at Carnegie Hall. The Chorus performed at the 1992 American Choral Directors Association Eastern Division Convention in Boston, and has appeared at the Worcester Music Festival with the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Rochester Philharmonic, and the symphonies of Boston, Baltimore, and Detroit. For additional information, visit the Worcester Chorus web site at www.worcesterchorus.com.
In recent years, Artistic Director and conductor Christopher Shepard has been most associated with the choral music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He founded the Sydneian Bach Choir and Orchestra in Sydney, Australia, and was the music director of BACH 2010, a project to perform all of Bach’s choral cantatas. Under his direction, the ensemble performed over seventy-five cantatas, as well as the two Passions, B-Minor Mass, and Christmas Oratorio. A Sydney reviewer wrote of the cantata series that “these well-attended events, using a fine choir and perceptive soloists, are high points in our musical terrain.”
In addition to the music of J.S. Bach, Chris has conducted many staples of the choral-orchestral repertoire, and he has commissioned and premiered a number of new choral works in both Australia and America. Chris was recently named Music Director of the Dessoff Choirs, one of New York City’s most venerable choral organizations. They perform regularly with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and have long had a commitment to new music. Since returning to America, Chris has also been a guest conductor at Emmanuel Church in Boston, a church renowned for its three-decade Bach cantata project. He currently serves as Music Director of the First Congregational Church in Watertown, CT. He has conducted avocational choirs for more than two decades, including the Stamford MasterSingers, Greater Middletown Chorale, and Waterbury Chorale in Connecticut.
Resident in Sydney from 1996 to 2008, Chris served as Director of Music at Sydney Grammar School, one of Australia’s most prominent high schools. Music education has been a major focus of his career; before moving to Sydney, Chris led the choral program at the Taft School in Connecticut, where his Collegium Musicum appeared at the 1994 ACDA Eastern Division convention. The Litchfield County Children’s Choir, which he founded in 1990, continues to thrive after nearly two decades. Since 2004, Chris has been Music Director of the Hotchkiss Summer Portals Chamber Music Program, an intensive chamber music program for advanced young players and singers from around the world. He conducts the chamber orchestra and choir, serving on the faculty alongside such guest ensembles as the Shanghai Quartet, the Brentano String Quartet, and Cantus. Over the last two decades, Chris has given several presentations for the American Choral Directors’ Association and has conducted several high school regional festival choirs in New England.
With SBS-TV, an Australian national public television network, Chris presented two documentaries: Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and From Mozart to Morrison with eminent Australian jazz musician James Morrison. The Melbourne Age recommended the Mozart documentary as a “novel, thoughtfully produced hour”. In 2000, Chris was chorusmaster with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs for their performance in the Olympics Opening Ceremony. Throughout his years in Sydney, Chris worked with a wide range of school and community choirs as conductor and clinician.
Chris holds degrees from the Hartt School and the Yale School of Music, where he studied choral conducting with Marguerite Brooks. He is currently completing his PhD in Musicology at the University of Sydney, researching the performance history of Bach’s B Minor Mass in 20th century America. updated June 2010
Chorus Accompanist, Piano Soloist & Teacher, Sima Kustanovich is one of the Northeast’s most sought after pianists. Hailed by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette for the “extraordinary intensity and brilliance of her playing,” she concertizes in some of the most acclaimed international venues, including France’s Courchevel Chamber Music Festival, Toronto’s Royal Conservatory Chamber Music Series, Sweden’s St. Jacob’s Cathedral, and major cities of Russia, Italy and Estonia. In 1990 she was the recipient of a rare invitation to perform on Steinway & Sons 500,000th piano that toured the United States from coast to coast.
Through mastery of the keyboard repertoire equipped Ms. Kustanovich with a richly varied career. Cited as the “consummate musician” (Worcester Telegram), she is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, collaborating with ensembles including the Borodin String Quartet. She received a Masters in Music from the St. Petersburg Conservatory; she then joined its faculty and accepted a coveted appointment to the famed Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater, working intensively with such luminaries as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Natalia Makarova.
A recipient of the Telegram & Gazette’s 1995 prestigious Visions 2000 Cultural Enrichment Award, Ms. Kustanovich has won many grants and commendations for community contributions as performer and program administrator. An esteemed teacher, she is on the faculties at Clark University and the Walnut Hill School for Performing Arts. She is Co-Founder/Administrator if the Commonwealth Competition for Young Pianists, Music Director of Brown Bags for Kids at Mechanics Hall, and Founder/Director of the Neighborhood Music Program sponsored by Clark University.
