Soprano Vale Southard is a summa 
cum laude graduate of University of Miami’s Frost of School of Music, where she studied under Dr. Susan Williams and was awarded the Rita Wallach Vocal Scholarship.
Born and raised right outside of Boston, Vale Southard has been surrounded by music her entire life. She grew up listening to her mom’s Faure and Mozart CDs in the living room, and her dad’s Jim Croce and Cat Stevens CDs in the car. At 6 years old, she began taking piano lessons with Barbara Jones in Stow, Massachusetts. She would continue those lessons for 8 years, crediting Mrs. Jones with providing her with an amazing musical foundation of theory and literacy.
She is currently a member of the Metropolitan Chorale, directed by Dr. Lisa Graham, and regularly performs in church services in the Boston area. In addition to performing, Ms. Southard is the K-8 general music teacher and choral director at the Michael Driscoll School in Brookline, MA. She is also a musicianship teacher for the Handel and Haydn Society’s Vocal Arts Program*, and serves as a member of H&H’s Education Planning Team. She is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda and Sigma Alpha Iota.
*[the Vocal Arts Program provided our wonderful array of young soloists for ‘Aspects of Light’ in March 2016]
Alto Cara Sanford inherited her 
love of singing from her mom. She has sung with numerous choruses over the years in Maine and Massachusetts, with her rich warm tone functioning both as valuable core voice for her section and also as capable solo pinch hitter stepping up on a moment’s notice. Cara was a student of mezzo-soprano D’Anna Fortunato and soprano Bonnie Scarpelli. She lives in Lancaster with her husband and two cats.
Tenor Nate Ramsayer hails from the 
gorgeous (but cold!) land of northern Minnesota. Now a professional singer in Boston area, Nate performs regularly in a variety of choirs, including singing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops; he recently sang backup for Josh Groban, The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses national tour, and the Game of Thrones: Live Concert Experience. Nate is an avid lover of musical theater, and has been a part of seven productions of the show Les Misérables in the Boston area—landing DASH Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor twice (roles of Enjolras and Marius). Other recent shows include Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Into the Woods, Bonnie & Clyde, and three productions of Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Nate holds an M.A. degree in Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East from Brandeis University, and works as a freelance biblical studies instructor, giving guest lectures at churches, synagogues, schools and universities. He is also an archaeologist who has excavated at numerous sites in Israel, Russia, and the U.K., a karaoke host, a samurai sword tournament champion, and one of America’s top-scoring Ms. Pac-Man players.
Tenor Michael Pfitzer is Director of Mus
ic at First Parish Church of Stow & Acton in Stow, MA, where he directs the church’s Adult and Youth Choirs and oversees a vibrant music program; and Choral Director at Framingham State University.
An experienced singer, he has performed as an oratorio soloist with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Cambridge Community Chorus, and has sung in voice recitals in the US, France, and South Africa.
Michael has previously conducted choirs at Harvard University, Boston University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and led international performances in Brazil and Romania. An advocate for creating strong communities through music, he conducts Boston-area community choruses Voices of Metrowest and the Wakefield Choral Society, and has previously led the Cambridge Community Chorus.
He is currently a doctoral student at Boston University, studying conducting with Dr. Miguel Ángel Felipe. He received a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and History from Tufts University. For more information, please visit michaelpfitzer.com
Giovanni Spanu performs Oratorio, operatic and art song repertoire regularly in Massachusetts and Canada. He was featured in concert at Massey Hall and the Glenn Gould Studio (Toronto), Palais Montcalm (Quebec City) and the Neptune Theatre (Halifax) and looks forward to future opportunities to make music.Operatic roles include Papageno (Magic Flute), Peter (Hansel and Gretel), Don Giovanni and Leporello (Don Giovanni), the Hunter (Rusalka), Marquis de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites), Dulcamara (L’
Quiet City horn soloist Sharon Juhasz’s musical adventures 
started as a little girl in Hawaii, where she took Suzuki violin lessons from her neighbor down the street. Soon after, she moved to Massachusetts and continued the violin but also picked up oboe lessons through her elementary school’s music program. An avid violinist for many years in Boston Youth Symphony Orchestera (formerly GBYSO), Sharon gradually shifted her focus to the oboe, serving as the principal oboist of several ensembles including New England Conservatory’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra under Benjamin Zander and the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra under James Yannatos.
Today, Sharon is an active oboist and English hornist in local community orchestras, including the Concord Orchestra, the Mercury Orchestra, and the Sounds of Stow. She has also played with the New England Philharmonic, the Lowell House Opera, and the Nashua Chamber Orchestra. Her oboe teachers include Janice Bennett and Stuart Dunkel, and she has also participated in Elaine Douvas’ Oboe Master Conference at Interlochen.
Quiet City Trumpet 
soloist Charlie Anderson is a retired computer programmer and amateur trumpeter. He plays regularly with the Concord, Sounds of Stow, and MIT Summer Philharmonic orchestras, attends the Chamber Music Workshop at Wellesley College each summer, and is a member of the rock ‘n’ roll band White Collar Crime. Charlie is the Artistic Director of the Wayland Concert Series, which presents three or four free concerts per year at Wayland High School. For more information on the series, visit waylandconcerts.org
Siri Smedvig grew up in an artistic, musical Scandinavian family in Seattle, Washington. Her childhood was steeped in an education that emphasized the relationship between all the arts, complemented by summers spent traveling through Europe seeing art and architecture. She studied violin, piano, composing, figure-skating, ballet, drama; 
and later, painting and writing. As a Harvard graduate, Siri’s major was in English and American Literature. She won the McCord Prize for Artistic Excellence as well as numerous awards from juried shows.
Siri is a world traveler and has lived abroad in Saudi Arabia, Greece, and France. She has appeared as violin soloist with the Seattle Symphony, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, Thalia Symphony Orchestra, Boston University Young Artists’ Orchestra, Concord Orchestra, and Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra. She has performed professionally with the Boston Pops (including tours with Henry Mancini) Boston Ballet Orchestra, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Classical Orchestra, Harvard Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra (NYC), and currently is Concertmaster of the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra and Concord Orchestra. Siri is first violin of the Egg Rock Quartet and the Fly By Night Trio. She regularly performs violin recitals and her “Scenius” performance creations.
Siri is an active member of the Cambridge Art Association (“Artist of the Year” in 2013) and Concord Art. She has exhibited her mixed media and acrylic paintings and collages at the Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA; Depot Square Gallery in Lexington, MA; Three Stones Gallery in West Concord, MA; Six Depot Gallery in West Stockbridge MA; and numerous juried shows in the Boston area. She also writes poetry and music, and has created Scenius Art Performance collaborations with art, music and poetry. She is co-creator of Alchemy Circus, which is a Virtual Reality Experience soon to be launched in 2018.
Siri enjoys hiking, biking, dancing, skiing, gardening, riding horses (dressage) playing with her animals and parrots, and tweeting on twitter.