Bio
I’ve happily taught PreK-12 music in the northern Adirondacks of New York State for nearly 15 years. My own educational journey includes a BFA in Piano Performance from Purchase College (studying piano with Maria Shielska, John Cobb, Vladimir Felstman, and Steven Lubin; vocal accompanying and coaching with Steven Blier and Dennis Helmrich), graduate work in Vocal Accompanying and Coaching at Westminster Choir College (studying with JJ Penna and Dalton Baldwin), a MM in Music Education from the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam (serving as accompanist and assistant conductor of the Hosmer Choir), and am currently a DMA candidate in Music Education at Boston University focusing on rural music education research. I’ve been both an Associate and Full Conductor at the Choral Institute at Oxford while attending the 2017, 2019 and 2022 summer sessions at St. Stephen's House under the direction of James Jordan, James Whitbourn, and Steve Pilkington.
My interests in place-based music education have extended into the broader music ecosystem of the Champlain region on both the Adirondack and Vermont sides of the lake. This includes some engagement with the robust regional folk music scene: Bluegrass for the Next Generation at WCS, Roots & Branches Adirondack Folk music conference at Great Camp Sagamore, collaborations with the Whallonsburg Grange and Young Tradition Vermont thanks to the generosity and kindness of Pete Sutherland.
Choral music has been at the heart of so much of my own musical life. As a high school student, I had the opportunity to attend the Gregg Smith Vocal Workshop in Saranac Lake-jumping into the deep end of the choral waters by learning and performing choral masterworks by Fauré, Rorem, Ives and Billings. Performances during my time at Westminster have taken me to Lincoln Center nearly a dozen times where we recorded Britten’s War Requiem for Deutsche Grammophon, performed Mendelssohn’s Elijah with baritone Bryn Terfel, and Debussy’s Martyrdom of St. Sebastian featuring soprano Natalie Dessay, all under the direction of Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. Locally, I’ve served as pianist and interim conductor of many of our regional community choirs, including the Pleasant Valley Chorale, the Champlain Valley Chorale, and St. John’s Episcopal Church Choir in Essex, NY. Lastly, I’ve had the great privilege of preparing students for the Ithaca College High School Gospel Choir Invitational these past 14 years and was also one of the founding members of the 2019 Plattsburgh State High School Honors Gospel Choir Festival under the direction of Dr. Dexter Criss and Andrea Ogle.
I've been an active member of the Piano by Nature Board of Directors coordinating a robust virtual and live concert series as well as educational outreach programming throughout the region. I also serve as a member of the Depot Theatre’s Education Advisory Committee, a professional theatre organization dedicated to providing rich learning opportunities for all students both on and off stage. I've enjoyed decades of performance opportunities on stages large (Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, UNESCO, Chicago Cultural Center) and small (Middlebury Town Hall Theatre, Piano by Nature, Harborside Concert Series, and a host of public school festivals) as collaborative pianist, chorister, and conductor.
My husband and I have recently moved into a quiet neighborhood in Port Henry, NY, with a beautiful view of Lake Champlain and days filled with sunlight and bird song surrounding our home. Our kids are now adults, each with their own career paths in the trades and a community of lifelong friends to enrich their lives.
Eclogue, Op. 10 by Gerald Finzi
Jennifer Moore, piano
Rose Chancler, keyboard
(2020 Piano By Nature Virtual Season)