Syracuse Vocal Ensemble Singers

Singers

SOPRANOS

Karen Bartlett-Morse
Audrey Fletcher
Renee Heitmann
Julie McKinstry
Sandra Murphy
Norma Tippett

ALTOS

Robin S. Carruthers
Joyce Irwin
Stacie Issakainen
Martha V. Lyon
Pamela W. McLaughlin
Jane Ondich
Heather Pearsall

TENORS

Colin Keating
Charles King
Kenneth Pease
Thomas Sauvé
Stephen Stewart
Stephen Zumchak

BASSES

Josh D. Coles
Roderick Etzel
Bruce Ward
Jeffrey Welcher

Karen Bartlett-Morse currently teaches vocal and general music 5-12 in Port Byron, NY. She is a member of the MasterWorks Chorale, in which she has performed as a featured soloist, as well as the Syracuse Vocal Ensemble. Karen is the Music Director and Adult Choir Director at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Auburn, as well as an organist and cantor at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in Auburn. She is also a certified NYSSMA adjudicator, and travels around New York State as a judge for vocal soloists at state festivals. In the past, Karen has performed lead roles in many musicals, including The Music Man, Guys and Dolls, The Secret Garden, The Mikado, Fiddler on the Roof, The Telephone, and Pirates of Penzance. She has worked with Skaneateles Summer Theater and Salt City Performing Arts Center in Syracuse. Karen has a full studio of private voice students, including some Merry-Go-Round performers. In addition to singing, Karen is an organist and flautist and has performed actively on these instruments for many years.

Alto Robin S. Carruthers teaches 4th to 8th grade vocal and general music in Canastota Central Schools. She received her BM in music education from the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam. She received her MM in Ethnomusicology from Tufts University where she studied the music of Ghana, Indonesia, Turkey, and Venezuela. Robin has studied voice with Kathy Montcrieff and Anitra Lynch, and Turkish classical singing with Fred Stubbs in Boston, MA. She is also the director of the Canastota World Drummers, a student group that specializes in the music of West Africa. Robin has been a member of SVE since 2002. She currently lives in Canastota with her husband, children, and two cats.

Roderick Etzel is an architect and principal at Alestalo & Etzel Architects, P.C. He has sung with 16 choral groups from Tennessee to Albany, NY, has served as resident conductor for five choruses, is currently director of choirs at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Syracuse, and has sung with SVE since 1987. It's probably obvious that he loves the choral artform and he feels that SVE is the best such group in the region. Rod has B.Science and B.Architecture degrees and minored in music composition and conducting. His hobbies include cooking, carpentry and gardening.

Audrey Fletcher, a soprano who has sung with SVE since about 1987, is delighted that chamber choral music is alive and well in Central New York. She enjoys SVE for the challenge of performing with exceptional singers and conductors who set very high standards. Audrey has a BA in German and French from Syracuse University, has studied voice with Neva Pilgrim for many years, and has also sung with the Syracuse Opera Chorus and Opera Workshop. She works in sales and marketing for Griffin Environmental Co., Inc. and spends her free time backpacking, cycling and gardening.

Alto Joyce Irwin has been a member of SVE off and on since 1999. She is the Music Director at St. David's Episcopal Church, DeWitt; director of Schola Cantorum of Syracuse; and an independent scholar in the field of 17th-century theology and church music. Joyce holds an A.B. in German from Washington U. (St. Louis), a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Yale, and is a Colleague of the American Guild of Organists. She enjoys having the opportunity to sing a wide variety of choral literature with a group of very capable singers, and she particularly enjoyed the chorus's trip to the Baltic countries and performance at the Estonian Song Festival in July of 2004.

Charles King has sung with SVE since 2001 and enjoys switching between the tenor and bass sections. He double-majored in English and music at Yale, where he studied composition and conducting. Charles then callously betrayed his musical background to pursue graduate studies in English Literature at Georgetown and (after a stint as a ne'er-do-well corporate vagabond) in 1999 founded an editorial and typesetting/design business that handles several dozen specialty publishing projects per year, mostly non-fiction books. Fortunately for Charles, music forgave his cowardly fickleness, and it continues to enrich his life; he has enjoyed participating in semi-professional choirs through the Yale School of Music, Washington National Cathedral, Schola Cantorum of Nashville, and he has studied as a countertenor and lyric baritone at Yale and Vanderbilt. He currently calls Geneva home and is a soloist at St. Paul's Episcopal church in Rochester. Sharing music, either hearing it or making it, is one of his favorite things.

Martha Lyon, an alto who has sung with SVE since 1987, is a librarian at the Oswego Public Library and choir director of the Trinity United Methodist Church in Oswego, where she is also a member of the Trinity Quartet. Martha received her BA in Music Education and her MA in Music History and Literature from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, and also has an MLS degree from Syracuse University. She enjoys the variety of music SVE performs and enjoys working with the group's dedicated singers.

Originally from the central Pennsylvania area, Julie McKinstry earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in opera performance from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Her career has taken her to New York City, Baltimore, Washington, DC and to Germany where she was engaged by the Regensburg Städtische Bühnen, appearing in Traviata, Viva la Mama, Zigeunerbaron, and many other works over a two-year period. She has performed such diverse roles as Cunegonde in Bernstein's Candide, Adina in L'Elisir d'Amore, by Donizetti, and Madame Weltschmerz in Mozart's Impressario, as well as performing in Orff's Carmina Burana, and Mozart's C Minor Mass. Chamber music is also part of her repertoire, including Mozart's Exultate Jubilate, Schubert's Shepherd on the Rock, and many recital programs. Ms. McKinstry moved to the central New York area in 2004, and is currently an Affiliate Artist at Syracuse University's Setnor School of Music. In addition to the Syracuse Vocal Ensemble, she sings with the Syracuse Opera chorus.

Alto Pamela Whiteley McLaughlin has been a member of SVE "most of [her] adult life" because she enjoys the group's reputation for excellence and artistry. When she's not singing with the ensemble or as soloist at St. Paul's (Episcopal) Cathedral in Syracuse, she's working as the Director of Digital Library Development at Syracuse University. Pam received her BA in voice performance from SUNY Oswego and her MLS from S.U. She has studied voice with Leon Carapetyan, Jean Loftus and Lauralyn Kolb. She is married to Brian McLaughlin, and they have three grown children, Andrew, Sarah and Margaret.

Soprano Sandra Murphy, who has sung with SVE since about 1995, is a business analyst for the MONY Group. At Wells College, where she got a BA, she dual-majored in English and Math, with a minor in Philosophy. She later received an MBA from LeMoyne College. Currently a member of the Syracuse University Oratorio Society, she has studied voice with Jean Loftus, sung with Theatre '90 and Syracuse Opera, and served as pianist and music director for various theater productions. Sandra also enjoys reading, skiing and especially traveling. She's happy to be a part of this "top notch" ensemble and enjoys SVE's challenging and varied repertoire.

Alto Jane Ondich teaches general/vocal music at Enders Road Elementary School in the Fayetteville-Manlius School District, and currently studies voice with Patti Thompson. She received her Bachelor of Music Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, her Masters of Music Education from Duquesne University, and has National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification in Early and Middle Childhood Music. A long-time SVE member, Jane has sung with the group since 1986, because the chamber ensemble has talented conductors who provide challenging musical repertoire. She feels that even though singing with the group is work, it is fun and rewarding. In the past, Jane has also performed with the Syracuse Opera Chorus and the Society for New Music. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, baking, and gardening.

Having recently retired from a career in school counseling, soprano Norma Tippett holds an MS degree in Health and Physical Education and an MS, CAS degree in Counseling and Psychological Services. During her career, choral and solo music emerged as a very important life complement. When a member of and frequent soloist for the Syracuse Chorale for many years, she served many board positions, managed concerts and the events of the Chamber Singers. Singing in the Berkshire Choral Festival for the past eight years is one of her choral delights. Norma studies voice with Warren Ottey and is a choir member and soloist for Eastwood Baptist Church and a soloist for the First Church of Christ Scientist and a member of SU Oratorio Society and Syracuse Vocal Ensemble. Although she has participated in student recitals, "Women Composers of the Art Song" was her first designed recital performed in the year 2000, a portion of which was presented for a Civic Morning Musicals. As a soloist this past season, Norma performed for CMM with harp and piano, coordinated and performed in a benefit recital for Vera House, and was a featured soloist for the Onondaga Civic Symphony Orchestra. Apart from music, Norma is an avid tennis player, who, within years of competing, has traveled with teams to four national tournament finals.

Bruce Ward was one of the first members of SVE at its founding in 1973, while a student at Colgate University where he sang with several groups and graduated with honors in music. From there, he pursued many musical avenues including work as a singing waiter in a resort and in a dinner theater, and as an actor/singer in numerous productions with the Auburn Civic Theater and the Ithaca Opera. With his wife Sarah Wider, Bruce performed solo recitals at the Oneida Mansion House, and has sung vocal jazz with Dianne Adams & Jim McDowell. A long-time folk singer and guitarist, Bruce has also had formal voice study under Eric Johnson, Neva Pilgrim, and others. In his spare time Bruce runs an independent architectural practice, and is delighted to be back with SVE after a 27 year hiatus.

Bass Jeff Welcher, who teaches vocal music at Oneida High School, joined SVE in 1997 because he "wanted to hang around with other cool choral directors like Bob Cowles!" He received his B.Mus.Ed at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam and his M.Mus.Ed at West Chester State University in Pennsylvania, and has studied voice with Floyd Callahan and Raymond Friday. Jeff has served as the NYSSMA All-State Vocal Jazz chair and the ACDA Eastern Division Jazz/Show Choir Repertoire and Standards chair. In 2003 he received the Outstanding Educator Award from the Syracuse Symphony.

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