> Membership Info
> Annual Fund
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Repertoire
> Contact Us
Upcoming
Concert
>Sunday, May 18 at 3:00 pm at the Rye Presbyterian Church
Johannes Brahms : Liebeslieder Waltzes; Nänie; Deutscher Volkslieder
> more.
Frank
Nemhauser
Music Director
216 Central Avenue
White Plains, NY 10606
Phone (914) 761–3900 ext.103
Fax (914) 761–4576
info@westchesterchoralsociety.org
The award-winning Westchester Choral Society was founded by Sarah Stewart Bowne in 1942 to perform Bach’s B minor Mass with 15 singers. Today we are 50 singers performing works from Baroque to contemporary, presenting three concerts per season to audiences in Westchester and nearby communities. We are pleased to have been recognized by the Westchester Arts Council’s prestigious Year 2000 Arts Organization Award as the county’s premier choral organization.
The Society supports the Westchester community with a yearly program of holiday music for patients at Burke Rehabilitation Hospital and joins the Music Conservatory of Westchester in White Plains, where we are Chorus in Residence, in sponsoring annual Summer Sings that are open to all.
> Frank Nemhauser, Music Director
Currently in his third season as Music Director, Frank Nemhauser is also Music Director of the Berkshire Choral Festival and Associate Dean at the Mannes College of Music where he is Director of Vocal Studies.
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 clinics for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, the New Amsterdam Singers, 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 Dvorak 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 Dvořák Mass in D, and the Rutter Gloria. 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, pianist and organist, received both his Bachelor and Masters of Music from the Purchase College Conservatory. He studied piano with Paul Ostrovsky and Steven Lubin, and organ with Robert Fertitta. He is currently Associate of Music at the Reformed Church of Bronxville as well as accompanist for the Westchester Choral Society. David has presented numerous chamber music and choral concerts in the Westchester area on piano, organ, and harpsichord. During the past three years, he has been touring internationally with rock icon Ritchie Blackmore as a member of Blackmore’s Night, playing keyboards and singing in over 100 concerts in 25 countries.
> 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. Among the orchestras he conducted in Europe are 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.
Additional tributes to the memory of Dr. Woodside can be found at the following link: > Oratorio Society of New York
