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An accomplished conductor, music educator and soprano, Alysoun Kegel was appointed conductor of PALS in 2007. From 2005-2007, Alysoun served on the faculty of Phillips Exeter Academy, where she conducted the Women's Chorus and the Glee Club, as well as teaching a performance master class and giving private vocal instruction. Kegel has also served as assistant conductor of the Concord Chorus and as director of the choral program at the Phillips Exeter Summer School. In 2002, she was named musical director of Whim N' Rhythm, Yale University's elite women's ensemble, and conducted performances in Japan, South Korea, Italy, France, and the UK.
As a choral director, Kegel has been influenced by her work under the direction of Richard Webster, Malcom Archer, Robert Lehman, and David Willcocks.She was a charter member of the Yale Schola Cantorum, a 24-voice ensemble founded by Simon Carrington. Kegel maintains her singing career as a recitalist, and is soprano soloist and section leader at Trinity Church in Copley Square. Kegel graduated from Yale with a BA in Music and English, and is currently pursuing a Masters in Dalcroze Studies at the Longy School of Music.
One of the nation's preeminent children's conductors, Johanna Hill Simpson has worked with young people of all ages and levels - kindergarteners through graduate students - at Dartmouth College, W.H. Lincoln Elementary School, Brookline Massachusetts, Harvard University and the New England Conservatory where she received her master's in choral conducting under Lorna Cooke DeVaron. Ms. Simpson founded the PALS Children's Chorus in 1990 and served as Artistic Director for 16 years.
Under her leadership, PALS has earned a reputation as one of the finest youth ensembles in the country. She prepared the children for performances under the batons of Seiji Ozawa, Tan Dun, James Conlon, Marek Janowski, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Keith Lockhart, Benjamin Zander and David Hoose. Maestro Ozawa credits Ms. Simpson with having "a genius way of teaching, of being able to get inside the mind of a child...a remarkable musician."
Jody supervised the preparation and conducting of the children's choruses for the Boston Philharmonic's Boston and New York performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 and the historic performances of Carmen on the Common with the Boston Lyric Opera. A champion of new music, Jody prepared the child singers for the acclaimed world premiere of Henri Dutilleux's Shadows of Time, and for the U.S. premiere of Tod Machover's Toy Symphony in Boston and New York. As part of PALS' 10th anniversary celebration in 2000, PALS committed to the commissioning and performing of new works each year. Richard Dyer of The Boston Globe writes "...there are not enough Johanna Hill Simpson's to go around."
This is Alisha's second year with PALS Children's Chorus. Alisha finished her BFA in Dance Performance at Ohio State University in 2005. She has been teaching dance for 6 years and performing since she was 4. In high school, she helped young people to be their personal best through speaking engagements as North Carolina's Junior Miss. Her motto for life is "be passionate" and loves to encourage people to be passionate no matter what they are doing - singing, dancing, learning, or even sweeping floors. She currently alternates her time between dancing in Cambridge, MA, having fun with her husband in Providence, RI, and working with PALS. She is very excited to be with these great children and looks forward to seeing their incredible growth this year.
Joy Lamberton, a Boston based actor/teaching artist with an Ed.M. in Arts-in-Education from Harvard GSE, trained at Shakespeare & Company and the London Academy of Dramatic Arts. She teaches in public/private schools and theatres throughout New England.
Herman Weiss has appeared locally and internationally as a composer, pianist and conductor. His music has been performed in Merkin Hall, the Marblehead Music Festival, Symphony Space, the Paros Chamber Ensemble (a music festival in Europe which he co-founded), and the Longy Contemporary Ensemble. A former Fulbright scholar to Paris where he studied with Olivier Messiaen and Michel Philippot, he holds a BM from the New England Conservatory and MFA and PhD degrees in composition and theory from Brandeis University.
His works have been commissioned and performed by the Cambridge Chamber Players, Leon Fleischer, the Longy Chorus and Orchestra, the Boston String Quartet, and others. Formerly Chair of Composition for the Longy School of Music, Dr. Weiss was with the Composers in Red Sneakers for many years and is involved in contemporary music as a composer, pianist, organist and conductor.