SUSANNE PECK BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Susanne Peck, a vibrant addition to the field of music direction, enjoys a diverse career as conductor, professional singer, and teacher. Founder and director of Charis, and founder and former director of Cerddorion Vocal Ensemble in New York City, Ms. Peck is Assistant Artistic Director of the Dennis Keene Choral Festival in Kent, Connecticut.

A highly acclaimed soprano soloist and 1990 winner of New York's Schubertiade Lieder Competition, Ms. Peck is widely recognized as a versatile solo and chamber singer of repertoire ranging from medieval to contemporary. She has appeared and recorded with many leading ensembles, including the Boston Early Music Festival, the Waverly Consort, the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Concert Royal Baroque Opera Co., AmorArtis, the New York Collegium, and Musica Sacra. A frequent guest with the Baroque ensemble Capriole in Williamsburg, Virginia, Ms. Peck has also sung Viennese operetta with Amadeus Virtuosi and is a frequent soloist with Voices of Ascension, directed by Dennis Keene.

Ms. Peck was selected to participate in Chorus America's conducting workshop at Saranac Lake, where she studied with renowned maestros Margaret Hillis, Gregg Smith, Vance George, and others. She has prepared choirs for the Bronx Arts Ensemble and the Hudson Valley Opera and is former director of music at South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry. She has taught at the Horace Mann School, Lehigh University, and Jersey City State College. She is currently on the faculty of the Hoff-Barthelson Music School in Scarsdale and maintains a private teaching practice in Westchester and New York City.

Ms. Peck's extensive vocal career, unusual for a conductor, gives her a special feel for the demands of vocal music as well as a clear understanding of the techniques of vocal production. Michael Jaffee, director of the Waverly Consort, says: "Susanne Peck, an outstanding singer and gifted conductor, has developed Charis into a superb vocal ensemble, whose achievements reflect the high standards and inspired musicianship of its talented leader."

Born in Australia and educated in Salzburg, Austria, and the United States, Ms. Peck holds a Master's of Music in vocal performance from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where she was a student of Jon Humphrey. She is a resident of Hastings-on-Hudson.