Congratulations to Dr. Susan Summerfield for being named as Artist of the Year 2015!

Performance: Sunday June 12, 3 pm

St. Michael’s Chapel, One Winooski Park, Colchester, VT

Dr. Susan Summerfield has a long career of performing and teaching music. She received degrees in music from Douglass College (Rutgers), Mills College and Stanford University, specializing in historical performance practice on keyboard instruments. She also studied organ with William Hays (Westminster Choir College) and, in Paris, with Pierre Cogen and Michel Chapuis. Before moving to the Burlington area, Susan was the Luther B. Marchant Professor of Music at Mills College where she taught for 18 years. Now at Saint Michael’s College, she teaches music history, theory and performance. She also serves as the Saint Michael’s College Organist. Susan has accompanied choirs for many years, including nine years as organist at the First Baptist Church, Burlington, working with Dawn Willis. She is currently the Collaborating Accompanist for Solaris Vocal Ensemble. Susan lives in Essex, Vermont.

Congratulations to Jim Cassarino for being named as Artist of the Year 2014 !

A Vermont native, James P. Cassarino serves as Chair of the Music Program at Green Mountain College where he oversees a vibrant program that includes course work in music, and vocal and instrumental ensembles. He holds degrees in music and theology from Castleton State College, Ball State University, St. John’s University School of Theology/Seminary, and the Centre for Advanced Welsh Music Studies at the University of Wales in Bangor, Wales.

Prof. Cassarino has served as Music Director at Trinity Episcopal Church, Rutland since 2004. In Vermont he has held similar positions at St. Peter’s Church (Rutland), the Federated Church (Castleton) and Our Lady of the Snows (Woodstock). He has also served as Director of Music for the University Lutheran Church at St. Cloud State University, Director of Chapel Music at the College of St. Benedict, Organist for St. John’s Seminary, and Music Director at historic St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island.

His recital will take place at Trinity Church, Rutland and will include music for organ, choir, brass, and woodwinds. Assisting artists will include colleagues that he has collaborated with throughout the years.

Congratulations to Mark Howe for being named as Artist of the Year 2013 !

Mark Howe has served as Organist and Director of Music at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul (Episcopal) in Burlington, Vermont since 1999. A native of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, he grew up in Providence, Rhode Island and Springfield, Vermont.

At the Cathedral, Mr. Howe has been active in the Cathedral Arts concert series in addition to his normal duties as organist for at least two sung services each Sunday and trainer and director of children’s and adult choirs. He is a past member of the Board of the Association of Anglican Musicians, and has taught as a regular, visiting, or adjunct faculty member at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Yale University (Divinity School and Institute of Sacred Music), and McGill University.

As a recitalist, Mr. Howe has performed in many parts of Vermont as well as in other states in the northeastern U.S.; in the Chicago area; and in Canada, France, and Belgium. His Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in organ are from Westminster Choir College and Yale University respectively, and he holds a Ph.D. in musicology from New York University. His organ teachers were Harriette Slack Richardson, William Hays, and Thomas Murray.