Artistic Director Christine R. Howlett

Christine R. Howlett is the Director of Choral Activitiesat Vassar College where she conducts the Vassar College Women's Chorus, Vassar College Choir and teaches music theory and voice. Her choruses have sung at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall and will be representing Vassar College at conferences for the American Directors Choral Association and the National Collegiate Choral Association in 2009-2010.  She is the Artistic Director of Cappella Festiva, an auditioned choral ensemble with athirty-five year history of performing in the Hudson Valley. In 2006, she co-founded the Summer Choral Festival at Vassar College with Susan Bialek; later, the Cappella Festiva Treble Choir was formed, an auditioned choral ensemble for treble voices ages 10-16.
 Ms. Howlett is active as a soprano soloist and has performed in many works including Bach's Magnificat, Mass in B minor, St. Matthew’s Passion, Actus Tragicus, Charpentier's Les Arts Florissants, Mozart's Coronation Mass, Britten's Ceremony of Carols, Mass by Stravinsky, and most recently, Poulenc’s Gloria.  She has sung in ensembles under Simon Carrington, Paul Hillier, Lorin Maazel, and Helmut Rilling. She is a member of Kairos: A Consort of Singers, an ensemble of sixteen voices whose members areartists-in-residence at the Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, NY.  She studied as an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, and earned both a Master’s Degree in Early Music Voice Performance and a D.M.A. in Choral Conducting from Indiana University.

Cappella Festiva Treble Choir Conductor
Susan Bialek

Susan Bialek holds a B.A in Music from Vassar College and a M.A. in Music Education from Manhattanville College. She served as the inaugural intern conductor for the Toronto Children's Chorus in 2001 under mentor, Jean Ashworth Bartle.  The Cappella Festiva Treble Choir sang under Mrs. Bartle as part of a special Mid America Memorial Day Concert at Carnegie Hall in 2009.  The CFTC has also performed at the rededication of Adriance Library, Poughkeepsie and at Dutchess Stadium.  Susan’s school choruses have sung with the National Children’s Choir at Carnegie Hall in 1998 and 2000 under Henry Leck and the Niagara International Choral Festival in Ontario, Canada in 2004 under the direction of Bob Chilcott. Susan directed the children’s choir for Syzonowski’s opera King Roger for Summerscape at Bard College in 2008.  She directed the children’s choir for the Hudson Valley Bach Fest in 2002, 2003 and 2009 and the children’s choir for Cappella Festiva’s performance of Benjamin Britten’s Saint Nicolas in December 2002. She has been guest conductor of all county middle school choruses in Westchester and Putnam counties and led workshops for elementary and middle school choral teachers in several districts in Dutchess County. Co-founder and director of the Cappella Festiva Treble Choir and CFTC Summer Choral Festival at Vassar College since 2006, Susan is currently Director of Music at Dutchess Day School in Millbrook, New York where she has taught since 1992.  Susan was previously assistant musical director for Millbrook Summer Theater and has directed over 30 middle school productions at Dutchess Day School.