Concert Organist and Teen Choir to Play at Holy Cross as Part of the Chapel Artist Series

WORCESTER, Mass. – Peter Stoltzfus Berton, concert organist and choir director at All Saints Church in Worcester, will perform Sunday, Dec. 9 at 3 p.m. in St. Joseph Memorial Chapel at the College of the Holy Cross.  Berton will be assisted by the All Saints Choirs for Boys and Girls. The concert is free and open to the public.

As part of the Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series, the program will include music by J.S. Bach, J. Michael Bach, Louis-Claude Daquin, Anton Heiller, Sigfrid Karg-Elert, Hans Friedrich Micheelsen, and Keith Chapman.  The All Saints Choirs for Boys and Girls will sing chorales and a setting of Away in a Manger by David Hill. This concert, as well as the entire 2007-2008 Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series, is dedicated to the memory of renowned composer Daniel Pinkham, who died in December of 2006.

Berton earned degrees at both The University of Michigan School of Music and the Yale University School of Music. He trained as a church musician through assistantships at Saint Thomas Church in New York City, Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven, Conn. and St. Paul’s Cathedral in Detroit, Mich. Prior to Berton’s appointment at the All Saints Church in 2003, he was minister of music and organist at Christ Episcopal Church in Los Altos, Calif., and at Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y.

He is an active composer and has recorded several CD’s on distinguished Skinner and Aeolian-Skinner instruments for JAV Recordings. Recent performances include Washington National Cathedral; Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, Calif.; Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, Ore.; All Saints Church, South Hadley, Mass.

Berton has served as sub-dean of the Worcester chapter of the American Guild of Organists for the last four years, has been part of the faculty of the Guild's Pipe Organ Encounters for young organists in Worcester in 2004 and Northampton in 2007, and will host the opening event at All Saints Church, Worcester, for a Pipe Organ Encounter in July 2008.

The All Saints Choirs for Boys and Girls are thought to be the oldest professional choirs of their type in continuous existence in America, founded in 1868 (Boys) and 1878 (Girls). They are well-known in the greater Worcester community and beyond as a regional center of excellence in vocal training and repertoire for children ages 7 1/2 and up. Currently fourteen boys and seventeen girls are enrolled.  They train and perform separately and combine occasionally for special performances.

The Choir will be traveling to England in August 2008, to attend the 281st Three Choirs Festival held this year in Worcester, to train with distinguished choirmasters Adrian Lucas and Barry Rose, and to sing daily services at Worcester, Gloucester and Hereford Cathedrals for two weeks. Other upcoming performances include the Worcester Art Museum, a Christmas Brown Bag concert broadcast live from Mechanics Hall, Fitchburg Public Library, Groton School, and a benefit concert for Abby's House at Wesley United Methodist Church.

Pinkham, one of America’s most active and most-performed composers, taught at New England Conservatory from 1958 until 2000.  In addition to composing, he was an organist, harpsichordist, conductor, pioneer in the early music movement, and longtime music director at Boston’s historic King’s Chapel. With an A.B. and an M.A from Harvard University, his scholarship and work were recognized with a Fulbright Fellowship in 1950 and a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1962. He received six honorary degrees: New England Conservatory, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Adrian College, Westminster Choir College, Ithaca College, and the Boston Conservatory.