Dr. Ellen Gilson Voth leads an active career as conductor and composer, educator and keyboard artist. In addition to her role as Artistic Director of the Farmington Valley Chorale, she served for seven years as Artistic Director of Novi Cantori, a professional chamber choir based in Springfield, MA. Recently she has served on the music faculty at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT, as well as Westfield State University in Westfield, MA. Ellen currently serves on the Board of the CT chapter of the American Choral Directors Association as well as Vice-Chair of Choral Arts New England, a grant-awarding agency supporting the choral arts in the six New England states.

In past years, Voth has served as Chorus Director of the Pioneer Valley Symphony Chorus (MA), as Director of the Symphonic Chorale at Gordon College (MA), as Assistant Conductor of the New Haven Chorale (CT), and as a conductor with the Connecticut Children’s Chorus. She has been a member of the music faculty at Western New England University (where she also served as music coordinator), at Gordon College in Wenham, MA and at the Ithaca College School of Music in Ithaca, NY. Previously she was also the choral director at Perkiomen Valley High School in Collegeville, PA. For many summers Voth served on the faculty of the Masterworks Festival in Winona Lake, IN and the Csehy Summer School of Music in Langhorne, PA (now Houghton, NY). She has been active as a guest conductor for choral festivals, most recently for the OAKE national conference (March, 2013), and the Rhode Island All-State High School Chorus (March, 2014).

A regularly commissioned composer, Voth’s works are published by Oxford University Press, ECS Publishing, Colla Voce, and Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and frequently appear at conferences of the American Choral Directors Association. Her recent awards and recognitions include the Michigan Choral Commission Consortium prize and also being a finalist in the 2020 Raymond Brock competition for professional composers sponsored by ACDA. She is a frequent guest conductor and clinician, an active pianist and organist, and a singing member of CONCORA.

Voth received her doctoral degree (DMA) from The Hartt School, Univ. of Hartford (CT), where she was the recipient of the Regents’ Honor Award for graduate students. Her master’s degree (MM) was from Westminster Choir College of Rider University (NJ), and her bachelor’s degree (BME), magna cum laude, was from Wheaton College Conservatory of Music (IL). Ellen, her husband, Greg, and their daughter, Heather Joylin, make their home in West Hartford, CT.

STEPHEN SCARLATO, ACCOMPANIST

Stephen Scarlato is a pianist and organist based in central Connecticut. He received his bachelor’s degree in organ performance from The Hartt School, where he studied under Larry Allen. While at The Hartt School, Stephen received the University of Hartford’s Regents Honors Award for academic excellence, won prizes in the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival/USA, and graduated summa cum laude. He can be heard on several commercially available recordings, including the recent albums “Blessing: The Music of Paul Mealor” and “Music of the Spheres” released by the Hartford-based choral group Voce. In addition to a wide variety of freelance work, he currently serves as organist at Immanuel Congregational Church, accompanist for Voce and the Farmington Valley Chorale, and as a collaborative pianist in The Hartt School’s vocal studies division.

Guest Artists – Fall 2022:

Lisa Williamson – Soprano:

Described by the Washington Post as “silvery of voice” and “a showstopper” as The Rose in The Little Prince and The Flamingo in the world premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion, the Unicorn and Me with Washington National Opera, Lisa Williamson is a versatile soprano who has forged a career that has taken her around the world from the Sultan’s palaces in Muscat, Oman to Carnegie Hall to the Indianapolis Brickyard.

She is a frequent guest on Connecticut stages including with Salt Marsh Opera, Opera Theater of Connecticut, Opera Connecticut, Hartford Opera Theater, Brief Cameo at Ivoryton Playhouse, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra. Recently she appeared with Salt Marsh Opera’s Music at the Lighthouse, with New Haven Symphony Orchestra at the Canal Boat House singing art songs by Florence Price and Margaret Bonds, and in Hartford Opera Theater’s Folxtales. From 2005-2010 he was the vocal soloist with The United States Coast Guard Band singing in more than 200 concerts in 35 states and throughout Japan and twice singing the National Anthem at the Indianapolis 500 for millions of television viewers worldwide.

Ms. Williamson teaches voice at UConn and Eastern Connecticut State University and was a fellow with the Cleveland Institute of Music’s inaugural Future of Music Faculty Fellowship for Black and Latinx Musicians. She holds a doctorate from UConn and additional degrees from the Yale School of Music and the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University. The daughter of premiere military band musicians, Lisa is a native of Alexandria, Virginia. She now makes her home in central Connecticut with her husband, Commander Adam Williamson, the director of the United States Coast Guard Band, and their son. Find out more about upcoming performances at LisaWilliamsonSoprano.com

Meredith Ziegler – Mezzo-Soprano: