the PALS staff
The PALS faculty and staff build strong, caring, and inspired relationships with the students. PALS feels like a family to many students, as they get to work with the same teachers for up to eight consecutive years. The PALS faculty consists of an array of brilliant and experienced artists, who regularly perform in the Boston area and abroad.
Alysoun Kegel
Artistic Director
PALS’ Artistic Director since 2007, Kegel began singing as an 8-yr-old treble in the St. Luke’s Girls Choir of Evanston, Illinois, under the direction of Richard Webster. She recalls the experience as “certainly transformative, often transcendent. It kindled my passion for musical performance, and showed me that music has the power to nourish a child emotionally, cognitively, even spiritually.”
Alysoun is an accomplished conductor, music teacher and soprano. While on the faculty of Phillips Exeter Academy, she conducted the Women’s Chorus and the Glee Club, taught a performance master class, and gave private vocal instruction. Alysoun also was assistant conductor of the Concord Chorus and directed the choral program at the Phillips Exeter Summer School. In 2002, as musical director of Whim N’ Rhythm, Yale University’s elite women’s ensemble, she conducted performances in Japan, South Korea, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. As Artistic Director of PALS, Kegel has prepared children to sing under the batons of Sir Colin Davis, Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos, David Hoose, and Bernard Haitink. She has led workshops on movement and choral singing throughout the Northeast.
In her work as a singer, Alysoun cites the influence of conductors Simon Carrington and Robert Lehman. She was a charter member of the Yale Schola Cantorum, a 24-voice ensemble specializing in early and contemporary music. Alysoun maintains a career as a recitalist, and has worked in the Boston area as staff soprano at Trinity Church in Copley Square and at Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill. Alysoun graduated from Yale with a Bachelor of Arts in Music and English, and is pursuing a Masters in Dalcroze Studies at the Longy School of Music.
Johanna Hill Simpson
Founder & Artistic Director Emerita
One of the nation’s preeminent children’s conductors, Johanna (Jody) Hill Simpson has worked with young people of all ages and levels –from kindergartners through graduate students— at Dartmouth College, Lincoln Elementary School, Harvard University and the New England Conservatory. She founded the PALS Children's Chorus in 1990 and served as Artistic Director for 16 years, during which time PALS earned the reputation as one of the finest youth ensembles in the country. She has prepared children for performances under the batons of Seiji Ozawa, James Levine, Tan Dun, James Conlan, Marek Janowski, Keith Lockhart, Benjamin Zander, Stefan Asbury, and David Hoose. She also has supervised the preparation of children for the acclaimed world premiere of Shadows of Time by Henri Dutilleux, performances of Carmen on the Common, Tosca and The Little Prince with Boston Lyric Opera, and the world premiere performance of Boris Goudenow with the Boston Early Music Festival. Jody is a champion of new music and has commissioned several major works for PALS.
She received her BA in music from Dartmouth College and her masters in choral conducting from the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Lorna Cooke DeVaron. She was a member of the board of trustees of the New England Conservatory for ten years where she received an Outstanding Alumni Award in 2006. Jody is on the board of the Monadnock Music Festival, and most recently founded the Norway Pond Festival Singers and the Music on Norway Pond Concert Series. Though she retired from PALS in 2006, Jody currently serves as Artistic Director Emerita, continues to offer guidance to the current staff and chorus, and occasionally conducts PALS. Most recently, Jody hosted a VOICES concert in winter 2009 near her home in Hancock, NH, where she lives with her husband, Rick, and her standard poodle, Pearl.
Jill Carrier
Executive Director
Jill Carrier is a life-long New Englander. She was born in Boston and grew up in Burlington, Vermont. She graduated from Tufts University and earned a PhD in theoretical linguistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After a hiatus when she taught at Rutgers University in New Jersey, she returned to Boston and taught linguistics at Harvard University for nine years. She then moved from academia to industry, working on speech recognition software, most recently at Nuance Communications.
In 1999 Jill started volunteering for the youth chorus Boston City Singers. Her role rapidly expanded to that of program manager. It was there that she discovered her love of children's choral music and a passion for helping children blossom into accomplished and confident musicians and performers who can transfer these skills into other areas of their lives. During her tenure at BCS, the chorus underwent tremendous growth. It also traveled to choral festivals in Denver and Niagara, Ontario, and it went on tour to New Zealand and Australia.
Jill is currently pursuing a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Institute for Nonprofit Management & Leadership at Boston University's School of Management. She joined PALS in July 2009, as its third executive director.
Risher Reddick
Drama Instructor & Stage Director
Risher Reddick is an actor, director, producer and teaching artist. Risher joined the PALS staff in 2008, and he enjoys working with children of all ages. As a teaching artist Risher has collaborated with Shakespeare & Company, Huntington Theatre Company, New Repertory Theatre, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Boston Arts Academy, The Strand Youth Theatre Project, Belmont Day School, Fayerweather Street School, UMASS Lowell, Boston University, Boston Public Schools, Montessori Schools, and Shakespeare Now!
Risher spends most of his time working on Orfeo Group, a company he co-founded in 2007. He received a bachelor of fine arts at Boston University and has trained with Shakespeare & Company and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Regional acting credits include: Desire Under the Elms (American Repertory Theatre), Queen Meg (Shakespeare & Company), Titus Andronicus, Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure For Measure (Actors’ Shakespeare Project), Romeo & Juliet (New Repertory Theatre), Mojo (WHAT), Comedy of Errors, Beard of Avon (Publick Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Boston Theatre Works), Spinning Into Butter (Gloucester Stage Company), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet (Shakespeare Now!). Risher recently assistant directed Coriolanus with The Actors' Shakespeare Project and directed for Boston Theatre Works, Company One, and Orfeo Group.
Ceit Zweil
Dance Instructor and Choreographer
Senior PALS
Ceit Zweil has been the dance instructor and choreographer for Senior PALS since 2000. In that time, she has choreographed such PALS productions as Bye Bye Birdie, Guys & Dolls, Once on this Island, Carousel, Sound of Music, 1776, Pippin, and Into the Woods. Her work in arts and media for young people has also included serving as dance instructor/choreographer for the Lyric First Stage program at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, and seven years as a multi-media producer of national PBS Kids web sites at WGBH Educational Foundation. Prior to WGBH, she developed grade school curricula using dance to teach science and physics to early elementary grades, and taught drama and dance in area public schools. As an actor, singer, and dancer, favorite performance credits include the East Coast premiere of The Sparrow, for which she was Dance Captain, and the Stoneham Theatre productions of A Year with Frog & Toad (Turtle), Pal Joey (Gladys Bumps) and The Girl in the Frame (Laney). Her voice can be heard in various WGBH/PBS promos and national websites. Professional choreography credits include The Paisley Sisters Christmas Special at both the ICA and Worcester Foothills. Having trained in the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) tradition, she received her BA in History from Smith College and her MA in Theatre Education (with special interest in interdisciplinary education through the arts) from Emerson College.
Tom Krusinski
Dance Instructor
Junior PALS
Many PALS students first met Tom Krusinski as toddlers in his classes at the Brookline Music School, where he teaches creative movement, dance, and harmonica. Tom’s bachelor of arts in psychology includes a minor in elementary education. He has trained in New York and Boston at Jacob’s Pillow, Harvard Summer Dance and Naropa Institute, and performed in modern dance and interdisciplinary events with architects, sound sculptors, poets, and visual artists. Tom was a professional dancer for 15 years working mostly in Massachusetts. During this time he also toured the USA with different dance companies. He has been teaching dance for 25 years. Non-Western disciplines such as Japanese tea ceremony, Zen archery, Aikido, Qigong and Tibetan Buddhist meditation inform both his teaching style and his choreography. His Western passions are cooking, tennis, and advanced driving techniques of cars and go-karts. He teaches at nursery and elementary schools throughout Massachusetts and is guest teacher and speaker at colleges, PTO, and teacher training events.
Kai-Ching Chang
Collaborative Pianist
Senior PALS and Circle of PALS
Kai-Ching Chang received her BM from Soochow University in Taipei and her MM and AD at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge. Her principle teachers include Wayman Chin, Ingrid Tsung and Ju-Ying Song. As a soloist, collaborative and orchestral musician, jazz and contemporary music performer, Chang has developed a widely varied repertoire. Chang won the Longy School of Music Concerto Competition and performed Shostakovich Piano Concerto No.1 with Longy Chamber Orchestra in 2009. In 2008, Chang was a finalist in the NTDTV Piano Competition in New York City. In March, 2007, she was invited to perform as a guest artist in UMass, Dartmouth. As a collaborative pianist, Chang appeared as a performing associate in International Bowdoin Music Festival in summer in 2007. She has collaborated with Roger Tapping, Sergey Antonov, Jayne West, Dennis Shafer and Shadie Ebrahimi. In 2005, she worked as an assistant accompanist in National Symphony Orchestra of Taipei. She also appeared in The Landis Hotel and Grand Hotel and played “My Funny Valentine” and “Kiss of Fire.” She enjoys playing contemporary music and is proud to have premiered works by Joel Shank and Timothy Dusenbury. She also enjoys doing music outreach programs in senior houses and hospitals. As a collaborative pianist, Chang appeared as a performing associate at the International Bowdoin Music Festival. In 2009, she joined the group Sounds in Bloom and collaborated with artists and dancers to produce new and improvised works. An accomplished teacher, she has taught at PALS and the New School of Music in Cambridge since 2007.
Brett Hodgdon
Collaborative Pianist
Senior PALS
Brett Hodgdon is a versatile collaborative artist, vocal coach, and teacher living in the Boston area. He has performed both song and instrumental recitals at venues and festivals throughout the United States, including The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory (NEC), the Aspen Music Festival, and the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival. He has appeared with NEC’s Contemporary Ensemble for the Boston premiere of John Harbison’s Milosz Songs for soprano and piano. An avid performer of new music, Hodgdon made his New York City debut in 2008 with the Mimesis Ensemble in its opening season at Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufmann Center. Away from the recital stage, Hodgdon is the vocal director and music advisor for Guerilla Opera, a Boston-based contemporary chamber opera company. In April 2008, he participated in the company’s world premiere performance of Andy Vores’ No Exit, and will coach the world premieres of two operas for the group’s upcoming season. Currently, he serves as a music coach for the NEC Undergraduate Opera Seminar, as well as the Opera Seminar for graduate students. He is also a pianist for Emmanuel Music (Boston), where he was named a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow for the 2008-09 season. This summer, Hodgdon performed regularly as a fellow at the Tanglewood music festival. A doctoral candidate at New England Conservatory, Hodgdon has studied collaborative piano with Irma Vallecillo and Cameron Stowe. Brett has been a collaborative pianist for Senior PALS since 2007.
Megan Henderson
Conductor
Circle of PALS
Megan Henderson graduated from the New England Conservatory with a degree in piano performance. She is on the faculty of the Village Harmony summer camp, a singing based camp in Vermont, and is currently the interim choral director at the Winsor School in Boston. She has sung for many years with the Schola Cantorum of Boston and has made numerous recordings with the Boston Camerata. Megan is also the pianist and outreach director for the Winsor Music Outreach program. As a pianist, she has collaborated for many years with instrumentalists and vocalists of all ages and abilities. She was the director of the PALS Girlchoir from 1999-2004 and is thrilled to be working with PALS once again.
Eric Kamen
Collaborative Pianist
Junior PALS
Eric Kamen joined PALS in spring 2002 as the pianist for Junior PALS. He received master of music and bachelor of music degrees from New England Conservatory. Eric has performed in the American Repertory Theatre orchestra, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Jordan Hall, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Sanders Theatre, and WGBH-TV, and has toured and performed in Poland and Mexico City at the University of Mexico. As composer-in-residence with City Stage Company in Boston, he has had works commissioned by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Education Collaborative. His original compositions including his full length musical theater piece, Rough & Tumble, musical cabaret Yvette and oratorio Boston: Best of the Old, Best of the New have been performed at the Massachusetts State House, the Brattle Theater, and The Boston Center for the Arts. He is on the faculty of Indian Hill Music Center where he teaches piano and theory and is the accompanist for the adult choir at the Kodaly Summer Institute, New England Conservatory School of Continuing Education. He lives in Jamaica Plain where he maintains a private teaching studio.