Baritone Joshua Copeland has been Artistic Director of the Antioch Chamber Ensemble since its inception in 1997. He holds an undergraduate degree from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, where he was a member of the highly acclaimed Westminster Choir for four years. He can be heard in performance on the New York Philharmonic’s critically lauded recordings of Brahms’ Ein Deutches Requiem, and Britten’s War Requiem, under the direction of Kurt Masur. Mr. Copeland has toured as a singer both in the United States and abroad throughout Asia, Europe, and South America. Under Mr. Copeland’s direction, Antioch has dazzled audiences with diverse programming that has included such masterworks as William Albright’s Chichester Mass, Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir, Morten Lauridsen’s Mid-Winter Songs & Six Fire Songs, Michael Tippett’s Dance Clarion Air, and William Cornysh’s vocally demanding Salve Regina. Mr. Copeland splits his time between his residences in Mendham, New Jersey and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
Tenor Stephen Sands is a founding member of Antioch and it’s Executive Director. He is a graduate of Westminster Choir College, where for four years he sang with the world-renowned Westminster Choir, with whom he toured throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe. He has performed under the batons of some of the world’s most noted and admired conductors, among them Kurt Masur, Wolfgang Sawalish, Stefan Parkman, Jane Glover, Bruno Weil, Joseph Flummerfelt and John Rutter. Praised for a stunning flexibility and uniquely beautiful lyric vocal quality, Mr. Sands is at home with an impressive range of musical material. Mr. Sands has been heard as the Evangelist in numerous performances of Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions, most recently with Fuma Sacra and the Westminster Kantorei. During the summers, Mr. Sands is a member of the Carmel Bach Festival Chorale. Mr. Sands is the Vocal Music Director at Bernards High School where he leads the Bernards High Madrigal, Concert Choir and Women’s ensembles. Mr. Sands is the Artistic Director of Music in the Somerset Hills and he also directs the youth choir at St. Luke’s Church in Gladstone, NJ. He has been a member and soloist of the choir of Trinity Church Wall Street, Fuma Sacra, the Aoede Consort, Clarion Early Music Society and the Vox Vocal Ensemble.
Soprano Martha Cluver has been hailed by the New York Times for her “sweet, pure” and “soulful soprano” voice. Focusing on contemporary music, Ms. Cluver performs frequently with the ensembles Alarm Will Sound, Roomful of Teeth, Signal, SEM, So Percussion and the Vox Vocal Ensemble. She has performed numerous works by composer Steve Reich under the direction of Brad Lubman, David Robertson and Alan Pierson. Ms. Cluver traveled to the Czech Republic in the summer of 2007 for the Ostrava Days New Music Festival, where she performed Neither by Morton Feldman with conductor Peter Rundel and the Janáček Philharmonic. Ms. Cluver has since then returned to the Czech Republic where she performed the demanding soprano role in George Benjamin’s opera Into the Little Hill with PragueModern. In September of 2009 she will be premiering the new opera La Douce by Emmanuel Nunes with the Remix Ensemble in Porto, Portugal. As a chamber musician, Ms. Cluver has premiered works by John Zorn, O&A, Caleb Burhans, Nico Muhly and Brad Lubman. She sings regularly with the Vox Vocal Ensemble, Clarion, and the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and has performed under choral directors such as Andrew Megill, Jane Glover, Stefan Parkman and Simon Carrington. Her discography includes Nonesuch, Sweet Spot DVD, Cantaloupe, and Tzadik. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Eastman School of Music in viola performance.
Soprano Molly Quinn currently lives and works in New York City. Miss Quinn appeared at the 2009 Spoleto Festival performing Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri under the direction of Andrew Megill, and at Piccolo Spoleto with Antioch Ensemble. Other recent engagements include the role of Drusilla in the Opera Omnia debut production of The Coronation of Poppea. Also in 2008 Miss Quinn appeared in The Wordless Music Orchestra’s performance of Gavin Breyer’s Sinking of the Titanic, under the direction of Brad Lubman. She is a member of the Trinity Church Wall Street Choir with which she is a regularly featured soloist; notable performances include Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 under the direction of Andrew Megill, and the role of Venus in King Arthur under the direction of Owen Burdick. Upcoming projects include the premiere of James Blachly’s song cycle for two Sopranos based on texts from Moby Dick with Nacole Palmer and Benedicte Jourdois. Miss Quinn is a North Carolina native and studied at Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.
Soprano Amy Goldin has performed extensively throughout the New York Metropolitan area. At home in a wide range of musical genres, she began singing professionally in a jazz quartet in the Hudson River Valley. Since then she has made her mark on the New York choral music scene and the world of opera. She has performed with Cantori New York and the Greenwich Village Singers as a chorus member and featured soloist; with the American Women’s Chorus at Carnegie Hall; and with the Cygnus Ensemble. With Cantori New York she sang the role of Branghien in Frank Martin’s oratorio Le Vin Herbé, recorded by Newport Classics and released in 2000. She has appeared in the New Jersey Verrisimo Opera’s production of Bellini’s Norma; with Opera Quotannis, under the direction of Bart Folse, at Lincoln Center for the complete, original concert performance and recording of Luigi Cherubini’s Medeé, released by Newport Classics in 1997; and most recently with Teatro Grattacielo, returning to Lincoln Center for a revival of Franco Alfano’s Risurrezione. Ms. Goldin resides in New York with her husband and two children.
Soprano Kristin Sands, a co-founding member of the Antioch Chamber Ensemble, has also performed in many of the most treasured concert halls and cathedrals with the critically acclaimed Westminster Choir, Westminster Symphonic Choir, Vox Vocal Ensemble, The Choir of Trinity Church, Wall St., Fuma Sacra, and Aeode Consort. Under the baton of distinguished conductors Joseph Flummerfelt, Kurt Masur, Zdenek Macal, Claudio Abbado, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Andrew Megill, George Steel, Owen Burdick, Joel Revzin, and Glenn Parker, Mrs. Sands has performed a wide range of repertoire, solo, choral, and operatic, representing the early Renaissance to modern compositions. Many performances have been broadcast live on radio and television; multiple recordings are available through the Naxos, Teldec, MSR Classics and Delos labels. Kristin received her Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from Westminster Choir College of Rider University, graduating magna cum laude in 1998. Since that time, Mrs. Sands has maintained a successful private voice and piano studio in the home she shares with her husband, tenor Stephen Sands, and their daughter Micaela.
Luthien Brackett is a graduate of Westminster Choir College and alumnus of the renowned Westminster Choir. Her discography includes the New York Philharmonic’s recording of Britten’s War Requiem for Teldec, Christmas at Trinity for Naxos, and The Complete Haydn Masses for Hanssler Classic. In addition to being a founding member of Antioch, she is a member of the Choir of Trinity Wall Street. Sought after as both an ensemble performer and soloist, Miss Brackett regularly performs with noted ensembles including TENET, Vox, Voices of Ascension, Pomerium, and the Clarion Music Society. Her recent solo appearances include performances for the Colonial Symphony, the 4 x 4 Festival of Baroque Music, and The Choral Arts Society of New Jersey.
Alto Rebecca Oehlers is a sought after soloist and professional ensemble singer specializing in Early, Baroque and New Music. Ms. Oehlers received her music degrees from the Mannes College of Music and Temple University in both voice and French horn. She has been a featured soloist several times with the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, Choral Arts Society, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the St. Clement’s Choir of Philadelphia, St. Marks Choir of Philadelphia, Dolce Suono Chamber Music Series, and with the Philadelphia Classical Symphony, where she collaborated in a concert of 17th century Spanish Opera with Early Music Soprano Ellen Hargis and the Harp Consort under the baton of Andrew Lawrence King. Her discography includes A White Christmas at Longwood Gardens on the DTT Label, Hymns of Heaven and Earth, Music of Tomás Luis de Victoria, and Masses and Motets of Rheinberger and Brahms, all on the Dorian Records Label and Vespers with Piffaro and The Crossing on the Navona Records Label. Ms. Oehlers currently sings with The Crossing under the direction of Donald Nally, and the international award-winning Antioch Chamber Ensemble. She has recently given solo recitals in Aachen and Jülich, Germany. She is currently on the voice faculty at Drexel University.
Tenor Matthew Hughes is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and has been a member of Antioch since 2001. Matthew is active in the choral circuit in New York City and has been a member of the Trinity Choir, Apollo’s Fire and the Vox Vocal Ensemble. Since 2005, he has also been a member of the Blue Hill Troupe, an theater company in New York City, and has appeared in numerous roles with BHT: Marco (The Gondoliers), Colonel Fairfax (Yeomen of the Guard), Cyril (Princess Ida), Frederic (Pirates of Penzance), Notary (Grand Duke) and Lord Tolloller (Iolanthe) and Charles Dalrymple (Brigadoon). Non-BHT roles include Nathanaël (Les Contes D’Hoffmann), Camille (The Merry Widow) and Albert (Albert Herring). Matt is a financial analyst for a national non-profit that aids in the development of housing for the homeless.
Baritone Jeremiah Goldovitz has been a fulltime member of the Antioch Chamber Ensemble since 2001, when he graduated from Westminster Choir College, in Princeton, NJ. He currently holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and is working on a Master of Music Education degree. While at the Choir College he was a member of the acclaimed Westminster Choir under the baton of Joseph Flummerfelt and also performed with some of the finest orchestras and conductors in the world. He has appeared in operatic performances at the Berkshire Opera Festival, Westminster Opera Theater, the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. and can be heard in the 1999 Spoleto Festival premiere recording of Kurt Weill’s opera, Die Burgschaft. He has appeared as soloist with the Trenton Symphony Orchestra and Trenton Diocesan Festival Choir, the Choral Art Society of New Jersey, and the choir of St. Bernard’s Episcopal Church, in Bernardsville, NJ, performing works such as Rutter’s Mass of the Children, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Saint-Saens’ Christmas Oratorio, and Handel’s Messiah. In addition to his accomplishments in the vocal arena, he is also a talented world music percussionist, specializing in Middle Eastern percussion and music. He has studied with master doumbek teacher Amir Naoum Chehade, as well as with world-renowned drummer Issam Houshan of Bellydance Superstars and Bill Koutsouros of Philadelphia’s world music group Animus. He has performed at venues around the world such as three consecutive years at the Tzfat Klezmer Festival in Tzfat, Israel and the Ryles jazz club in Boston, MA with group Cha Levim, as well as throughout New Jersey with the Middle Eastern dance and music collective Insinuous.
Baritone Brian Ming Chu has been acclaimed for his “sterling performances” [Washington Post], and hailed for his versatility in repertoire encompassing the Renaissance to the 21st-century. Cited for his “rich and resonant [voice]…an impressive performer of wide range, agility, and expressive storytelling ability” [Monterey Herald], he has been a featured soloist with Boston’s The King’s Noyse, Washington’s Cathedral Choral Society, Orchestra of the 17th Century, Princeton’s Dryden Ensemble, Piffaro, Hesperus, the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, and Brandywine Baroque. Mr. Chu has performed at the Caramoor (NY) and Carmel Bach (CA) Festivals, and has sung roles under the baton of conductors William Christie, Will Crutchfield and Peter Schreier. His resume encompasses the core oratorio repertoire, including repeat appearances in the title role of Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Philadelphia and NJ, the Bach Passions and solo cantatas, the Brahms, Fauré and Mozart Requiems, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, and performances of Handel’s Messiah on three continents. Recent concert engagements included Orff’s Carmina Burana in PA, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Creation in NJ and Advent cantatas with the Bach Festival of Philadelphia. An avid recitalist and advocate for new music, Mr. Chu has appeared in concert at Carnegie’s Weill Hall and Merkin Hall in New York, the Zoellner Arts Center (PA), the Myrna Loy Center (MT), as well as at Washington’s Phillips Collection. He has given premieres of song cycles by emergent composers such as Aaron Jay Kernis, Joseph Hallman, and William Bolcom. Chamber music credits last season included Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs in Philadelphia, Ravel’s Chansons madécasses in Bethlehem, PA, and a staged production of Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch in Dallas. Recent solo engagements have taken him on tour to Rome, Buenos Aires, and as a US Embassy Cultural Artist in West Africa last summer. His orchestral credits include Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer in New York and Baltimore, orchestral songs of Jean Sibelius and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the North Penn Symphony. His engagements next season include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, debut performances with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony and Mid-Atlantic Symphony orchestras, as well as bass soloist for the Bach Cantata series at Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia.
Mr. Chu has sung numerous roles with opera companies in Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Baltimore, including Marcello in La Bohème, Morales in Carmen and the title role in The Barber
of Seville. As a Baltimore Opera studio artist he performed roles in Lakmé, Salome, Madama Butterfly and Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. He holds a degree in architecture from Cornell University and in graduate voice studies from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. A dedicated voice instructor, Mr. Chu teaches on the faculties of Muhlenberg College, Lehigh University, Rowan University and Swarthmore College.
Bass-baritone Raymond Bailey never wanted to be anything other than a Rock & Roll singer. Ironically, he spends most of his time working in other genres. A native of southeastern Virginia, he holds an undergraduate degree from Yale, where he majored in theatre, with a focus on directing. Some years later, he spent a year on staff at Yale’s prestigious School of Drama as an accompanist, vocal coach, and musical director. Mr. Bailey has worked as musical director of plays and cabaret shows in theatres up and down the East Coast, including the 2008 off-Broadway production of PERFECT HARMONY, for which he also wrote arrangements. He also serves as the New York Casting Supervisor for the Arundel Barn Playhouse in southeastern Maine. In demand as a voice coach and accompanist, he works regularly with a number of performers on and off Broadway. In addition to singing with Antioch, he has performed with the choirs of Trinity Church, Wall Street; St. Thomas Church, 5th Avenue; Christ Church, New Haven; St. Bernard’s Church, Bernardsville; Christ Church, Bronxville; Church of the Holy Family (The United Nations Parish); The Greenwich Village Singers; and Vox Vocal Ensemble. Over the past few years, he has entertained four Presidents (three American and one Russian). He is half of the core of the cabaret-pop outfit Autobahn-da-Fé and resides in Manhattan.
Pianist Christine Chang