Rand Reeves, director

Rand began his musical training at nine years of age at The American Boychoir School in Princeton, NJ. With them, he toured the continental USA and Canada, performed on television with the Bell Telephone Hour, and sang in the opening performance at the Philharmonic Hall in New York City with Leonard Bernstein. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in musicology from the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam, and a Masters of Music from Colorado State University.

In the Greater Capital Region, his tenor solo singing experience has been varied, including such works as Haydn’s Creation and Seasons, Bruckner’s Mass in F Minor, many works by Handel and Mozart, the premiere of Leonard Kastle’s opera, The Passion of Mother Ann, and Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with the St. Cecilia Chamber Orchestra. As a soloist he has appeared with Capitol Hill Choral Society, Burnt Hills Oratorio Society, Albany Pro Musica, Hamilton College Concert Choir, Bethesda Episcopal Schola Cantorum (Saratoga), St. Cecilia Chamber Orchestra, and others.

Rand currently rebuilds fine grand pianos in his Ballston Spa workshop, The Piano Place. He is Director of Music at Saratoga Springs United Methodist Church. Mr. Reeves has been the Musical Director of Burnt Hills Oratorio Society since 1990.

Alfred V. Fedak, accompanist

BHOS is privileged to have Al Fedak as our regular accompanist and concert organist or any keyboard-ist. He has served as organist and Choir Director for churches and synagogues in the east and midwest. Currently he is Minister of Music and Arts at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Capitol Hill in Albany. A Past Dean of the Eastern New York Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, he is also Chapel Organist at Emma Willard School, and accompanist for the Mohawk Valley Chorus. He performs regularly with the Capitol Chamber Artists.

Organist and composer, Al holds degrees from Hope College and Montclair State University, and has done additional study at Westminster Choir College, Eastman School of Music, and in Austria and England. A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, he also holds the Guild’s Choirmaster Certificate, and from 1995-2000 served as Director of the AGO’s national Professional Certification Committee. A widely-published and well-known composer of church music, Al has more than 200 choral and organ works in print, and his hymn tunes appear in hymnals and collections in the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, China and Japan. Al has earned many awards in organ performance and composition, including the AGO’s prestigious S. Lewis Elmer Award, as well as grants and prizes from the New York State Council on the Arts, ASCAP, the Hymn Society, and the John Ness Beck Foundation. In 1995 he was named a Visiting Fellow in Church Music at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, and now serves on the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song, the committee preparing a new hymnal for the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Mr. Fedak has performed and lectured throughout the US, including at national and regional conferences of the AGO and the Hymn Society (of which he is a Life Member), and his compositions have been broadcast nationally on radio and TV. He has composed music on commission for many churches, cathedrals, schools, colleges, individuals, community choruses, and for chapters of the AGO, Choristers Guild, and the Organ Historical Society.

He and his wife Susan are the parents of two grown sons, Peter and Benjamin. For a complete overview of Al’s accomplishments, visit www.alfredfedak.com.

Susan Hermance Fedak, associate director

Susan Hermance Fedak, mezzo-soprano, grew up in Schenectady, New York, and graduated from Hope College with a degree in vocal performance. Now a resident of Albany, New York, she is in demand as a performer, teacher, and conductor in the northeast. Comfortable as a conductor of vocal ensembles, Susan was appointed Associate Director of the Burnt Hills Oratorio Society in June of 2010. She also serves as Associate Minister of Music and Arts at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Albany, where she directs the church’s vocal and handbell choirs. She is the Director of the Saratoga Children’s Chorus, has conducted the Burnt Hills Oratorio Society Repertory Ensemble, and served as Director of the Concert Choir at RPI in Troy. She maintains a private vocal studio.

As a soloist, Susan has sung with the Burnt Hills Oratorio Society on numerous occasions, at Tanglewood with the Berkshire Lyric Theatre, as well as for the Battenkill Chorale, the Bennington County Choral Society, the College of St. Rose, Skidmore College, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Saratoga Chamber Singers, Glens Falls Symphony, Mohawk Valley Oratorio Society, Octavo Singers, Capitol Hill Choral Society, the Men and Boys’ Choir of All Saints’ Episcopal Cathedral, the New York Catholic Chorale, and the Mohawk Valley Chorus. She has appeared as soloist at national conferences of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, and under the direction of English conductor David Hill during a recent AGO convention. She has also sung with the Lake George Opera Company, Saratoga-Potsdam Choral Institute, and under the direction of John Rutter in Cambridge, England.