Dr. Jamie Spillane recently retired as Director of Choral Studies and Associate Professor of Music at the University of Connecticut, concluding a career that has profoundly shaped the choral landscape of New England.

In his decades of transformative leadership in secondary and collegiate choral programs, Dr. Spillane has taught and conducted thousands of students through his full teaching load, honor choirs, summer festivals, and guest residencies. Each ensemble under his direction reflected his exacting musicianship, expressive artistry, and unwavering belief in the power of choral singing to build community and deepen humanity. His students have gone on to distinguished careers as conductors, educators, professional singers, and arts leaders, multiplying his influence across the region and the nation.

At UConn, Dr. Spillane built and sustained a vibrant multi-ensemble program, including the UConn Concert Choir and Chamber Singers and five other choirs, mentored undergraduate through doctoral conductors, and led performances of exceptional artistic merit, including major collaborative works and premieres that resonated far beyond campus. Recent performances he has led include a collaboration with CONCORA to present Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard throughout New England; the world premiere of Steven Sametz’s A Child’s Requiem about the Sandy Hook tragedy; and a performance with Jacob Collier of World O World.

Prior to his collegiate career, Dr. Spillane taught public school music in Puerto Rico and Fairfield, Connecticut. For many years he was chair of the Ledyard, Connecticut, High School Music Department, where he directed a choral program that grew to include over four hundred singers performing in ten award-winning choirs that was twice selected as a Grammy Signature School as one of the top schools for music education in the United States.

Dr. Spillane studied conducting under Dr. Bruce Chamberlain, Dr. Peter Bagley, Lawrence Doebler, Helmut Rilling, and Robert Page. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Ithaca College, a Master of Music Education from the University of Connecticut, and a DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Arizona.

This past year ACDA Eastern Division named Dr. Spillane as the first recipient of The Jamie Spillane Award, which recognizes sustained service and leadership, strong character and integrity in a dedicated champion for the choral arts. The citation notes that, “In every capacity he serves, Jamie brings a philosophy of ‘cheerful flexibility’ and ‘easy joy’ as he ensures that all choral stakeholders feel a sense of belonging within the organization, and that they can benefit from ACDA.”

Dr. Spillane’s legacy is measured not only in performances and accolades, but in the generations of singers who learned from him that choral music is an act of service, empathy, discipline, and shared purpose. Choral Arts New England takes great pride in celebrating that legacy and honoring his decades of visionary leadership, transformative teaching, and steadfast commitment to choral excellence.

Dan Perkins, music director/conductor, is Professor Emeritus at Plymouth State University, where in 2007 he was appointed the first Stevens-Bristow Distinguished Professor. He is music director of the Manchester Choral Society and Orchestra and founder and music director of the New Hampshire Master Chorale. He is cofounder, with Dr. Patricia Lindberg, of the Educational Theatre Collaborative.

A passionate advocate for new music, Perkins’ ensembles have premiered over 30 works by Dr. Jonathan Santore, Oliver Caplan, Kim Andre Arnesen, and others. He has led international performance tours in more than 30 countries with his various choirs, including the New Hampshire Friendship Chorus. He was principal guest conductor for the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet in Hanoi and was also on the faculty of the Bassi Brugnatelli International Conducting and Singing Symposium in Robbiate, Italy. He is an international guest conductor and choral clinician with past engagements including South Korea, Pakistan, China, Ecuador, South Africa, Chile, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. Perkins conducted at Carnegie Hall for Mid-America Productions and in 2024 will conduct The Unarmed Child by Michael Bussewitz-Quarm at Lincoln Center. Perkins is also the director and pianist for Trio Veritas, a chamber music ensemble whose configuration changes with unique and varied repertoire.

He holds the degrees Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music in Choral Music from the University of Southern California, and Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Brigham Young University. He continued his studies as a Fulbright scholar in Helsinki, Finland.

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Dr. André de Quadros has been described as “one of the most inspiring human rights educators of our time” by the Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights. He is a human rights activist, conductor, ethnomusicologist, music educator, and writer whose work has taken him to the most diverse settings in 40 countries including professional ensembles, projects with prisons, psychosocial rehabilitation, refugees, and victims of sexual violence, torture, and trauma.

Dr. André de Quadros is a professor of music at Boston University. He leads the following ensembles: VOICES 21C (Boston), the Manado State University Choir (Indonesia), and the Muslim Choral Ensemble (Sri Lanka). In addition, he directs the following choral projects: Common Ground Voices, an Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding and reconciliation initiative, Common Ground Voices / La Frontera (Mexico-US border), and the World Muslim Choral Ensemble (Sri Lanka).

Dr de Quadros has served ACDA, IFCM, and NCCO in governance positions. He has numerous books, book chapters, and journal articles to his credit, as well as more than 50 choral editions. He is the director of The Choral Commons, a media platform. He has received several awards including from ACDA and Chorus America. In 2019, he was a visiting faculty member at the University of Cambridge, and in 2024, at the University of Melbourne.

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One of the pathfinders for African-American choral conductors, Dr. Peter Bagley is Professor Emeritus of Music and former Special Assistant to the Dean of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Connecticut. He received a B.S. in Music Education at the Crane School of Music, State University of New York at Potsdam, and his M.M. and D.M. in Choral Music under Julius Herford at Indiana University.

Dr. Bagley began his music teaching career in 1957 in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he was the first African-American teacher in the public schools. While teaching in Greenwich he also sang with the Collegiate Chorale in New York City, led by Robert Shaw. Dr. Bagley served for 16 years as Professor of Music at SUNY New Paltz, and was appointed Director of Choral Activities at UConn in 1984. He led the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus in New London from around 1995 through at least 2001, was one of the key mentors in the founding of Con Brio in 1997, and throughout his career lent his support and inspiration to choral musicians throughout the state.

Dr. Bagley has been invited as guest conductor and choral clinician for numerous festivals throughout the country, including at least 14 all-state choirs. He conducted the MENC All-Eastern Division Chorus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and launched his international career as choral clinician with a ten-city tour of New Zealand sponsored by the New Zealand Choral Federation. In 2011, he traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, to conduct the Nairobi Chamber Choir and the Safaricom Community Choir and Orchestra in a performance of Vivaldi’s Gloria. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in June 1997, conducting the University of Connecticut Festival Chorus and Orchestra in Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem.

Dr. Bagley has been an active member of the American Choral Directors Association, and in 1990 was named Connecticut Choral Educator of the Year. At the 2009 national ACDA convention, he appeared on a panel with five other esteemed conductors entitled “Legends in the American Choral Tradition." He has also been an active member of the Boards of Chorus America and the Hall Johnson Institute.

Active in Greater Boston's choral community for nearly 40 years, John Finney has long been recognized as one of the area's premiere musicians. Throughout his distinguished career, he has played a leading role in four distinct choral genres—professional choirs, adult choral societies, collegiate choirs, and church choirs—while simultaneously building a stellar reputation as an organist and orchestral conductor. He has brought great choral music to audiences everywhere, and has inspired and educated singers at all levels—church choirs and parishioners, college students, community volunteers, and world-renowned professionals—to bring that music to life.

Finney was Associate Conductor and Chorusmaster of Boston's Handel and Haydn Society for 24 years, from 1990 to 2013. He was Conductor of the Heritage Chorale in Framingham from 1987 until his retirement last year; for 34 concert seasons, he led the Chorale in acclaimed performances of major choral works with orchestra as well as lighter Pops programs, and he directed the Chorale during three international concert tours. Named Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Boston College in 1999, Finney has been Director of the University Chorale of Boston College since 1993 and Director of the Boston College Symphony Orchestra since 1999. He continues to serve as Director of Music at the Wellesley Hills Congregational Church, a position he has held since 1984.

An internationally known organist and expert on early music, Finney holds degrees in organ performance from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and The Boston Conservatory. He has served on the organ faculty of The Boston Conservatory and has taught at the Academy for Early Music in Bressanone, Italy. Since 2013, he has served as principal keyboardist, as well as Conductor and Choral Director, at Blue Hill Bach in Blue Hill, Maine.

The award is presented at the Choral Arts New England 2021 Awards Ceremony (no ceremony was held in 2020 due to the pandemic).

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Marguerite Brooks, the 2019 Alfred Nash Patterson Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, has enriched the choral community in New England and throughout the United States through her inspirational leadership, teaching, and artistry. She joined the Yale faculty in 1985 as chair of the choral conducting program at the School of Music and director of choral music at the Institute of Sacred Music. As founder and conductor for over 30 years of the Yale Camerata and Chamber Choir, she has brought together students, faculty and staff as well as community members from throughout New England to perform choral music from virtually every age and genre. Active as a guest conductor, teacher, and clinician, she has been a juror for the Eric Ericson conducting competition in Sweden, and has conducted, given master classes, taught, and adjudicated in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

Brooks’s broad vision for music-making has been passed on to her students, who can be found in positions of musical leadership throughout New England and around the world. Among her students are the founding conductors of the Grammy-­‐nominated vocal ensembles Conspirare, Roomful of Teeth, and Seraphic Fire, the Music Directors of major New England chorus such as Chorus pro Musica, CONCORA, and Seraphim Singers, and numerous leaders of church and religious music programs. In a recent survey, alumni often cited her as their primary reason for attending Yale and as the person who influenced them the most.

Brooks has served on the faculties of Smith and Amherst Colleges and was director of choral music at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She has been cited by the Yale School of Music for cultural leadership in music and has received alumni awards for distinguished work in her field from both Mount Holyoke College and Temple University. The Connecticut chapter of the ACDA honored her with its 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Dr. Gwyneth Walker is a revered New England composer whose works have been widely performed throughout the country. Her career, spanning a lifetime of composing, has given the choral world many beloved pieces, ranging from long-form works for SATB chorus and orchestra to shorter pieces, some for women’s voices or children’s choirs. Walker is one of the most frequently performed modern composers of concerts listed in the Choral Arts New England calendar, with her compositions being explicitly named on 37 different programs since 2012.

Born in 1947, Walker grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut and is a graduate of Brown University and the Hartt School of Music. She holds B.A., M.M., and D.M.A. degrees in music composition. In high school (Abbot Academy/Phillips Academy Andover) and in college, she performed in vocal octets for which she created all of the choral arrangements. In 1982, she relinquished a faculty position at Oberlin College Conservatory to pursue a career as a full-time composer.

The music of Gwyneth Walker is beloved by performers and audiences for its energy, beauty, reverence, drama, and humor. Walker’s catalog includes over 350 commissioned works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, chorus, and solo voice. A special interest has been dramatic works that combine music with readings, acting, and movement. Her work appeals to modern sensibilities yet is also traditional and accessible.

“My pieces always have melody and form and a rhythm that’s right there for you,” she says.

Among Walker's more popular works is "Songs for Women's Voices," a cycle of choral works based on six poems by the American poet May Swenson, and "A Vision of Hills," a piano trio that Walker says was inspired by her experiences living in Vermont.

Walker is the recipient of the 2000 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Vermont Arts Council and the 2008 Athenaeum Award for Achievement in the Arts and Humanities from the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum. In 2012, she was elected a Fellow of the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences.

For nearly 30 years, Walker lived on a dairy farm in Braintree, Vermont. She now divides her time between her childhood hometown of New Canaan, Connecticut and Randolph, Vermont. Over the decades, she has traveled to many states to work with instrumental and choral ensembles, soloists, and educational institutions as they rehearse and perform her music. A number of these visits have developed into ongoing relationships. In 2018, Walker was named Composer‐in‐Residence for the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra in Petoskey, Michigan.

The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented on November 4 at Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass.—about halfway between Walker’s current bases in Vermont and Connecticut—in a ceremony that will include performances of her works by the Mt. Holyoke Glee Club and Mt. Holyoke Chamber Singers.