Frank Nemhauser, Music Director
Currently in his fourth season as Music Director of the Westchester Choral Society, Frank Nemhauser is also the Music Director of the Berkshire Choral Festival. He is the Director of Vocal Studies of the Mannes College of Music.
Mr. Nemhauser has been Music Director of the Hartford Chorale, Chorus Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Associate Director of the Collegiate Chorale. He has been a guest conductor with the Houston Masterworks Chorus, The Dessoff Choirs, The Greenwich Choral Society, and The Handel Choir of Baltimore. In addition, he has led workshops and clinics for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, The New Amsterdam Singers, The Augusta Choral Society, The Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, and the Southwestern Virginia Spotlight on the Arts Festival.
In his most recent Berkshire Choral Festival performance, Mr. Nemhauser conducted the Festival Chorus and Orchestra in the Dvořák Stabat Mater. In previous appearances at BCF, he conducted the Mozart Requiem, Bach’s Magnificat, the Brahms Alto Rhapsody and Nänie, the Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms, the Fauré Requiem, the Lauridsen Lux Aeterna, the Britten cantatas St. Nicholas and Rejoice in the Lamb, the Rutter Gloria, and Handel’s Solomon. Mr. Nemhauser has also led BCF concerts in Santa Fe, Canterbury, and Salzburg.
As a singer, Mr. Nemhauser has appeared throughout the United States and Europe, performing with The New York City Opera National Company, The Ensemble for Early Music, and Chanticleer and has also sung at numerous festivals, including Tanglewood, Edinburgh, Aspen and Spoleto. Mr. Nemhauser can be heard singing back-up on the Pet Shop Boys album Go West, and he confesses that at the time he made the recording, he did not know who the Pet Shop Boys were.
He has never appeared on Law and Order.
David Baranowski, Accompanist
David Baranowski is a highly versatile accompanist, performing on piano, organ, and harpsichord, with repertoire ranging from Beethoven to Deep Purple. He has played numerous chamber and choral concerts in the Westchester area. As an organist, Mr. Baranowski has performed such works as the Brahms, Fauré, and Duruflé Requiems, the Dvořák Mass in G, and Handel’s Messiah. A conductor as well, he has directed the Poulenc Gloria, the Schubert Mass in G, and the Rutter Magnificat. At the piano, Mr. Baranowski has been performing major works as an accompanist, collaborative artist, and soloist for a number of years.
For the past five years, he has been touring internationally with rock icon Ritchie Blackmore as a keyboardist and singer. He has played over 100 concerts and visited nearly 25 countries as a member of Blackmore’s Night, which has been on the charts in Germany, the Czech Republic, England, and the US. Mr. Baranowski has appeared on German television multiple times and was recently featured on the primetime program Hit Giganten.
Currently the Director of Music at St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Danbury, Mr. Baranowski studied piano with Paul Ostrovsky and Steven Lubin, and organ with Robert Fertitta. He received both his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Purchase College Conservatory of Music.
Lyndon Woodside, Music Director 1967–2005
The Westchester Choral Society remembers Dr. Lyndon Woodside as a distinctive leader who mixed wit and erudition with discipline. Besides his enormous musical knowledge, his stories about conducting different orchestras and singers on his trips to Europe and China were always fascinating and full of fun. Sometimes he made you laugh, and sometimes he made you feel a sense of awe.
Lyndon Woodside served as the Music Director of the Westchester Choral Society from 1967 until his death in 2005. Under his direction, the WCS expanded its repertoire and delighted audiences with vocal music of the highest order, ranging from Bach to Bernstein, earning Dr. Woodside critical acclaim for his sensitive conducting.
Dr. Woodside also served as Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York for 32 years. After his 1982 European debut in Salzburg, Dr. Woodside made guest appearances throughout Europe in many choral and orchestral concerts. In addition to leading orchestras in Paris, Venice, and Stockholm, he also conducted the Mozarteum Orchestra, Orchestre Pasdeloup, Prague Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Tours, Artur Rubinstein Philharmonic of Lodz, I Solisti di Roma, English Chamber Orchestra, and Orchestre Bell’Arte. In response to his 1995 debut in Tours, the press hailed the "great art of the conductor." In June 2000, he conducted members of the Oratorio Society and the Beijing Orchestra and Chorus in the new Forbidden City Music Hall in Beijing. In March 2003, Dr. Woodside conducted members of the Society and the Orquesta Sinfonica National in a series of concerts in San Jose, Costa Rica to benefit the ecological preservation of Cocos Island, for which he was awarded a UNESCO World Heritage Medal. In addition, Dr. Woodside served as the principal judge for the Oratorio Society’s Solo Competition for 29 years. He also served on the judging panel of the Opera Index Awards at the Metropolitan and for the Opera at Florham Competition. In 1976, he received a Grammy award for his participation in the "Concert of the Century."
Dr. Woodside was Music Director of Temple Emanu-El of Southern Westchester in Yonkers for 35 years, and Organist and Choir Director at the Park Avenue United Methodist Church in Manhattan. In addition, he was associated with the Birch Wathen Lenox School in Manhattan for 40 years. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Dr. Woodside was voted distinguished alumnus of the year and awarded an honorary Doctorate in Music in 1991. He received his Masters degree from The Juilliard School of Music.