| Vesper Chorale Inc., a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation provides performance and educational opportunities for singers and instrumentalists throughout northern Indiana and southern Michigan. Beginning in 1993 as Vesper Chorale, Vesper Chorale Inc. was formally incorporated in July of 2004 and now sponsors four performing organizations:
Under the leadership of Artistic Director and founding Conductor Wishart Bell, the company has become a major artistic and educational influence in the community. Through its Basically Baroque Concert Series, Vesper Chorale and Orchestra perform collaborative concerts of historic and contemporary literature with singers from colleges, universities, public schools, and local parishes. These singers receive specific vocal and stylistic education while preparing for professional level performances. The Vesper Chorale Mentoring Program invites gifted high school singers and string players to practice and perform beside professional musicians.
The choir’s educational programming has been recognized with awards form the Elnora Stickley Foundation, Indiana Arts Council, the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, and the Josephson Music Trust. In 2008, in commemoration of the organization’s 15th Anniversary, Vesper Performing Arts Inc. received a citation from the Mayor of South Bend for its contribution to arts education in the community.
| Vesper Staff |
Board of Directors |
National Advisory Board |
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- Christina Dougherty
Chair
- George Zielke
Co-Chair
- Monica Brickel, C.P.A.
- Wishart Bell
- Patricia Doyle
- Lisa Bloom
- Roland Swanson
- John Charles Bryant
- Sara Conroy
- Sharon Dudgeon
- Dale Grayson
- David Jordan
- Derrick Pennix
- Carla J. Wisler
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- Marva Dawn, Ph.D.
Author & Lecturer
- Bazeal Dennard
Music Director, Brazeal Dennard Chorale
- Ann Divine
Executive Director, Fischoff National Chamber Music Association
- Rev. Columba Kelly, OSB
Doctor of Sacred Music, Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, Rome, Italy
Monk of St. Meinrad's Archabby, St. Meinrad, IN
- Marilyn Keiser, D.S.M.
Chancellor's Professor of Music, Indiana University
- Richard Proulx
Chicago Composer & Conductor
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Wishart Bell
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 Wishart Bell provides significant leadership in arts education, performance, and church music in Northern Indiana. He conducts Vesper Chorale, Vesper Chamber Orchestra, and the Children’s Choir of Michiana. He is also Director of Music Ministries at First United Methodist Church, and directs Cantus Cathedralis, a polyphonic choir based at St. Matthew Cathedral of South Bend. He additionally teaches voice at Bethel College. He is active as a choral clinician with adult and children’s choirs and handbells.
At First United Methodist Church, he conducts the Sanctuary Choir, Laudate Ringers, and the Taize Choir. The musicians at the church have performed such projects as Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Haydn’s Little Organ Mass, and Poulenc’s Organ Concerto, the Robert Ray Gospel Mass, and contemporary works by Rutter, Thoms, and others. Further, in the fall of 2004 Dr. Bell formed Cantus Cathedralis (Cathedral Singers), a liturgical vocal ensemble that studies liturgical music ranging from medieval chant to the 20th Century, focusing on repertoire of the 15th and16th Centuries. In October of 2006 he toured with the ensemble to Belmont Abbey College (North Carolina), where they presented a clinic and concert. He has published articles in Creator Magazine, The American Organist, and Worship Arts magazine. A larger essay focusing on Mozart’s Requiem was published in the 2006 Journal of the Conductor’s Guild.
He is a graduate of Trinity College and the American Conservatory of Music, with the advanced degrees Master of Music in piano, and Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting. With emphasis in both choral and orchestral conducting, he has studied with Charles Heffernun, Harold Decker, Tsung Yeh, and Harold Farberman, and has attended classes with Kenneth Kiesler, Helmuth Rilling and Robert Shaw. He has also taken advanced study in vocal pedagogy, with Richard Miller, at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. His artistic awards include the Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation Award, the Leo Heim Memorial Award, and appointment as Senior Artist at the Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada).
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Patricia Doyle
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 Ms. Doyle’s has 33 years experience in community arts organizations including music, dance, and theater both in volunteer (President, Board of Directors) and paid positions (Executive Director). She has produced classical, jazz, and pop festivals in California and Indiana. She is skilled in grant writing, development, and marketing.
She received a Bachelor of Music degree from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana in 1969, a Bachelor of Music Therapy degree from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas in 1973, and a Certificate of Arts Administration (1997) from the University of California-Irvine.
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Lisa Bloom
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Currently celebrating her seventh season singing with Vesper Chorale, Lisa Bloom is a graduate of DePauw University and The Cleveland Institute of Music with degrees in vocal performance. She currently teaches private voice in several schools throughout the area, in addition to singing with Cantus Cathedralis at the Cathedral of St. Matthew and with the choir of First United Methodist Church.
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Lyn Caponigro
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Lyn Hudson Caponigro brings 11 years of experience with the Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus, as chorister, apprentice, part-time administrative support, and Board Member. She performed with the St. Olaf Choir, Grant Park Symphony Chorus, Apollo Choir of Chicago, the New Classic Singers of the College of DuPage, and is in her third season singing with Vesper Chorale.
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Beverly Butler
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Beverly Butler has been accompanying Vesper Chorale since 2003. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bethel College and a Master of Arts degree from Indiana University at South Bend. Beverly is also Adjunct Piano Instructor at St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, where she teaches private piano and coaches music majors for piano proficiency exams. In addition to accompanying the Vesper Chorale, Beverly also accompanies both the St. Mary’s College Women’s Choir and Collegiate Choir. She has accompanied the St. Mary’s Women’s Choir on several tours, including a 2005 trip to Los Angeles to perform at the American Choral Directors Association National Convention. She has also served as church organist for many years in the South Bend area, currently at the South Bend Christian Reformed Church, and has been an active member in the St. Joseph Valley Chapter of American Guild of Organists. She is also a member of South Bend/Michiana Music Teacher Association and Music Teachers National Association.
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Vicky Warkentien
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 Vicky Tan Warkentien combines the academic rigors of her discipline with the practical experience of church music ministry. She currently is Assistant Professor of Music at Bethel College, Indiana, and serves as the Director of Music Ministries at the First Presbyterian Church in Michigan City, Indiana.
Through the years, Dr. Warkentien has appeared as lecturer in Chinese Church music ministry through out Chinese Christian communities in North America, New Zealand, Australia and Asia. Dr. Warkentien was the choral director for San Francisco Chinese Children's Choir from 1984-87, touring Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Since 1990, she has served as the choral director for annual Summer Children Music Camp in Rochester, NY and Toronto, Ontario.
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