The Ruth Susan Westheimer Artistic Director

Chris Shepard has had a long affinity for Baroque music, as both a conductor and keyboard player. He has conducted all of Bach’s major choral works several times, in addition to founding the Sydneian Bach Choir in Sydney, Australia, which performed all of Bach’s choral cantatas from 2004 to 2013.

He has been the steward of two longstanding annual Handel Messiah traditions. Since 2009, he has conducted the Worcester Chorus in an annual performance at Mechanics Hall (begun in 1900), and from 2015 to 2023, the annual performance at Carnegie Hall by the Masterwork Chorus of New Jersey (a six-decade tradition). He also conducts CONCORA, Connecticut’s oldest professional choir.

His PhD thesis on the performance history of the Mass in B Minor received ACDA’s 2012 Julius Herford Prize for outstanding dissertation in choral music. As a guest conductor, Chris has led performances of Bach and Handel’s music in the Americas, Australia, Europe, and the Middle East. He holds degrees from the Hartt School, Yale and the University of Sydney.