Pamela Mindell
Pamela Getnick Mindell, has been Director of Choral Programs and Lecturer in the Music Department at the College of the Holy Cross for eight years. Under her direction, the choirs have traveled to Italy and Spain, as well as throughout the Northeastern United States, singing in such venues as Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.In 2007, the Chamber Singers performed Osvaldo Golijov’s Pasion segun San Marco as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center.
Prior to taking up her conducting post at Holy Cross, Ms. Mindell was a member of the Music faculty at Smith College where she directed the College Chorus and Chamber Singers and taught conducting. She also spent a year as Visiting Choral Fellow at the Ascham School and Sydney Grammar School in Sydney, Australia, conducting several choirs and singing professionally in prominent Sydney ensembles. Since that time, she has been invited back to Sydney as guest conductor and soloist for the 2003 and 2005 Sydney Grammar Bach Festivals. Ms. Mindell has worked with a number of children’s choirs, including the Litchfield County Children’s Choir in CT and the Paradise City Children’s Choir, which she founded in 2001. As a soprano, Ms. Mindell has performed in several duet recitals with mezzo-soprano Justina Golden as part of the Smith College Faculty Concert Series. She also sang for four seasons with The Boston Secession, a 24-voice professional chamber choir in Boston. Finally, Ms. Mindell serves as Artistic Director for the Hotchkiss Summer Portals Vocal Chamber Ensembles Program for High School students.
Ms. Mindell is a graduate of the Yale University School of Music, where she received her doctorate in Choral Conducting and studied with Marguerite Brooks and David Connell. She also holds a master’s degree in Music Education from The Hartt School as well as a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Princeton University.
Nathan A. Zullinger
Nathan Zullinger received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting from Boston University. He also holds a Master of Music degree in conducting from Boston University and a Bachelor of Science degree in music education from Messiah College, Grantham, PA. His principal teachers have been Ann Howard Jones, David Hoose, Dennis Shrock, Joseph Gifford, and Linda Tedford.
Since 2004, Dr. Zullinger has been music director and organist at the United Church in Walpole, MA, where he directs the Chancel and Handbell choirs. He has taught or conducted at Boston University, Brown University, and the University of Rhode Island.
In 2007, Dr. Zullinger was a Conducting Fellow at Chorus America’s A Cappella Conducting Workshop in Minneapolis, MN, where he was coached by Anton Armstrong, Kathy Romey, Sigrid Johnson, and Ronald Staheli. He has participated in the Robert Shaw Choral Workshop at Carnegie Hall, the Conductor’s Institute at Bard College and the New Pathways in Conducting workshop in Nashua, NH.
A member of the professional choir CONCORA (Hartford, CT) since 2005, he conducted an ensemble of CONCORA members in a recording session of contemporary choral works during the summer of 2011. Entitled “In Delightful Company,” the recording features the choral music of Charles Fussell and selected complementary works by other composers. It is scheduled for release in May 2012.
Eric Bachrach
Eric Bachrach, founder and Executive Director Emeritus of the Community Music School of Springfield (CMSS) for 27 years is himself a product of the community music school tradition, having attended the Turtle Bay Community Music School in Manhattan. Mr. Bachrach holds a Master’s degree in Music from the University of Massachusetts and a Bachelor’s degree from Hunter College in New York. He also studied at the High School of Music and Art, Berklee College of Music, and Mannes College of Music. Mr. Bachrach taught elementary grades, general music, and strings for more than 10 years in the New York City Public and has studied violin with Samuel Gardner, Ruth Kemper, Julian Olevsky, Philipp Naegele, and Michal Urbaniak. Bachrach was awarded the 2001 Frances Hesselbein Fellowship by the Peter Drucker Foundation and was awarded western Massachusetts’ William Pynchon Award, also in 2001. Under Bachrach’s leadership, the Community Music School of Springfield was awarded the 2001 Commonwealth Award, a bi-annual distinction awarded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is the state’s highest arts honor. He currently serves on the boards of the Arts Extension Service, as well as WFCR, New England Public Radio.
Bachrach has led CMSS through 2 highly successful capital campaigns raising nearly $6 million from a variety of sources including private individuals as well as public and private foundations (e.g., Kresge, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Peabody Foundations). Each campaign was primarily focused on ultimately achieving the full and complete retrofit of a 34,000 square foot 1932 Art Deco former bank building in downtown Springfield (MA) that would become a community arts center. CMSS now includes a large community music school serving 700 students, a full time preschool of the arts, and a very active performance and concert hall. Bachrach also has assisted New England Public Radio and the Amherst Survival Center in achieving their capital campaign goals.
