Matthew Phelps, Minister of Music
Matthew Phelps is entering his fourth year as the Minister of Music at The Reformed Church of Bronxville. During his tenure at The Reformed Church, Mr. Phelps has led the department into a period of growth in all ensembles, an organ console renovation, and many new worship and music initiatives. Mr. Phelps has led performances of choral music which span 6 centuries, and has expanded the Chancel Choir’s repertoire to include premieres of pieces by Dan Locklair, David Conte, Dave Macdonald, and Miguel Roig-Francoli. Masterworks figure prominently in the repertoire of the Chancel Choir, and this season sees Mr. Phelps leading performances of Gounod’s Mass in Honor of St. Cecilia, Parry’s Blest Pair of Sirens, and Handel’s Chandos Anthem no. 12 along with performances of major choral repertoire that is sung weekly at The Reformed Church.
Mr. Phelps also led a of performance Bach’s Cantata no. 80 at Concordia College in Bronxville, New York, along with a program of Palestrina, Brahms, and Dawson with the professional Chamber Choir of The Reformed Church of Bronxville. In 2010, Mr. Phelps led a critically lauded performance of Bloch’s Sacred Service with the Danbury Concert Chorus. He is a regular clinician and guest conductor, and has worked with singers of all ages. While in Cincinnati, Mr. Phelps worked as a pianist or conductor with every choral ensemble in the city, most notably the Cincinnati Boychoir, the Vocal arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati May Festival, and the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Mr. Phelps also taught on the faculty of Xavier University where he conducted the Women’s Choir, the Concert Choir on their 2007 tour and in preparation for their performance of Carmina Burana with the Cincinnati Ballet, and taught courses in musicianship and the history of American Popular music. Also comfortable with popular music, Mr. Phelps has conducted numerous musical productions and made a debut in country music when he conducted the WGUC Radio Singers for country star Jo Dee Messina’s Christmas performance at the Taft Theater in Cincinnati.
As an organist, Mr. Phelps has played in all the major concert venues of New York, and is highly regarded as an accompanist of major choral works. With Distinguished Concerts International New York, Mr. Phelps has provided organ accompaniment for performances of Mozart, Haydn, and Faure. He was also the featured organ soloist for a performance of Bernstein’s Chichester Pslams in Avery Fisher Hall. Mr. Phelps has played recitals at St. Mary the Virgin in Times Square, St. Francis Xavier Church in Manhattan, and at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Bridgeport CT; along with recitals throughout the Midwest and Florida. This year, Mr. Phelps will be returning Dayton, OH, to perform an inaugural organ recital in the newly renovated concert hall of his Alma Mater, Wright State University, and will perform Messiaen’s L’Ascension at St. Mary the Virgin Church in Times Square on Ascension Day. He will be making his world debut on NPR’s Pipedreams, where his performance of Dan Locklair’s Trumpets of Light will be broadcast in the spring. Mr. Phelps lives with his wife Colleen and 2-year-old son Noah in White Plains, NY.
Nell Macdonald, Director of Children and Youth Choirs
Nell Macdonald has been the Youth and Children’s Choir Director at The Reformed Church in Bronxville since the Fall of 2007. Nell arrived directly from Pleasantville Presbyterian Church where for ten years she was the Soprano Soloist and Director of Children and Youth Choirs. She is also the Founder and Artistic Director of Sing We Enchanted, a vocal ensemble that performs in the Metropolitan area, and she was formerly an Associate Conductor with the Children’s Aid Society Chorus in Manhattan. Nell maintains a separate career in opera, and oratorio, and has performed many new chamber and orchestral works here in the U.S. and abroad. She also teaches voice and piano privately at the Academy of Music Arts; a school she co-founded, where she is also the Program Director. She lives in Ossining with her husband, David, who is a composer and professor at The Manhattan School of Music.
Mark Peterson, Associate Music Director and Organist
Mark Peterson, organist, came to New York in 1994 to assume the position of Assistant Organist and Music Department Administrator at Trinity Church, Wall Street. He subsequently enjoyed interim positions at the Church of St. James the Less in Scarsdale, and Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn Heights, New York. From 2003 through 2010, he was the Director of Music and Organist for St. Paul’s Church, Carroll Gardens, an historic Anglican church in Brooklyn.
Educated at Iowa State University and St. Olaf College, Mark did graduate work at Cambridge University. Mark is a composer and contributor to the Episcopal hymnal supplement, Wonder, Love and Praise, and also a carillonneur and choral clinician. He has served as a member of the Executive Board of the New York City Chapter of the AGO, was Director of the 2006 New York Pipe Organ Encounter, and served as Placement Officer for the New York City AGO Chapter from 2001 to 2010.
Lee Corbett, Director of Handbell Choirs
Lee Corbett has been the Handbell Director at The Reformed Church since 1986 and directs six handbell choirs. Children begin ringing bells in the sixth grade and continue through high school. There are two adult choirs, the Concert Ringers, many of whom have rung together for twenty-two years, and an intermediate choir, which welcomes new ringers. Lee studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and has had an active piano studio for forty-four years. Please call Lee at 337-6776 #128, or e-mail her at lee@reformedchurch.org, if you are interested in handbells.
David Macdonald, Composer in Residence, The Reformed Church of Bronxville
David Macdonald holds a doctor of musical arts degree from Manhattan School of Music, an MFA degree from SUNY Purchase, and a BA from St. John’s College. His teachers have included Nils Vigeland, David Noon, Charles Jones, and Joseph Webber. He is a co-director of the Locrian Chamber Players, a contemporary music ensemble. He has been a fellow at the festival and conference June in Buffalo and has participated in master classes with Lukas Foss, George Crumb, Roger Reynolds, and others. Commissioners of his music include the Elements Quartet and Manhattan School of Music.
His works have recently been performed on the Hartford Commissions Concert (in Merkin Hall); Genealogies (in Rock Hall, Philadelphia); and on recitals in Chicago, Israel, and Taiwan. He regularly contributes music to productions of the Actors’ Company Theater in New York City.
