David G. Beckwith, Ph. D
President

Dr. David G. Beckwith became President of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem in July 2004. He has been a member of the Board of Managers since 1981 and a Vice-President since 1994. He was also a singer in The Choir from 1976-2000 and was featured as a soloist, playing the roles of Pilate and Judas, in several performances of the Saint John and Saint Matthew Passions between 1984 and 1999. Dr. Beckwith is President and CEO of Health Network Laboratories. He received his doctoral degree in comparative virology from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. He is board certified in Medical and Public Health Microbiology by the American Board of Medical Microbiology and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. In 1997, Dr. Beckwith was named one of the most interesting laboratory innovators by The Dark Report. Dr. Beckwith served as Director of Clinical Microbiology at St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem, PA for 15 years before becoming Clinical Director of Laboratories at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA. In 1994, he was named Vice President of Operations at that hospital with responsibility for the professional clinical services. In 1998, Health Network Laboratories was established as a for-profit Pennsylvania Limited Partnership with Dr. Beckwith as President, CEO and Clinical Director. In addition to his laboratory work, he is Chairman of the Board of Health in Bethlehem, PA.

Greg Funfgeld
Artistic Director & Conductor
Greg Funfgeld is now in his 25th season as the artistic director and conductor of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem and The Bach Festival Orchestra. Under his leadership, The Choir of 100 dedicated volunteer singers, performing with The Bach Festival Orchestra and world-renowned soloists, has achieved a level of musical excellence that has been recognized internationally.

In 2003, Mr. Funfgeld led The Choir on a triumphant eight-concert tour of the United Kingdom that included performances at the Cambridge Summer Music Festival in Kings College Chapel, Usher Hall in Edinburgh, and the prestigious BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall. The program included music by Bach and Mendelssohn and the world premiere of I It Am, a cantata by Libby Larsen, co-commissioned by The Bach Choir of Bethlehem and the BBC.

Other Bach Choir tours have included a seven-city concert tour of Germany in 1995, including performances at Munich’s Herkulesaal and the Thomaskirche, Bach’s church in Leipzig. As part of The Bach Choir’s Centennial Celebration, Mr. Funfgeld directed performances by The Choir and Bach Festival Orchestra in Philadelphia, under the auspices of The Bach Festival of Philadelphia; at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.; and at Carnegie Hall. Under Mr. Funfgeld’s leadership, The Choir has also collaborated in performances with the Millersville University Choir for the 150th Anniversary of Millersveille University (2005), and with the Baldwin-Wallace College Choir for the 75th aniversary of the Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival in Severance Hall, Cleveland (2007).

Mr. Funfgeld has expanded the programs of The Bach Choir beyond the annual Bach Festival to include Christmas Concerts, a Spring Concert, a Family Concert, Bach to School – an educational outreach program that has been presented to more than 75,000 students in elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the Lehigh Valley and surrounding region – and Bach Choir choral scholars from Lehigh Valley high schools. In 2005, he initiated Bach at Noon, a tremendously successful series of seven free concerts a year at Central Moravian Church.

Under Mr. Funfgeld’s leadership, The Choir has released five Dorian recordings: Christmas in Leipzig(1988), Wachet Auf!(19890, the Mass in B Minor (1998), the Christmas Oratorio (1999), and the Ascension Oratorio with Cantatas 51 and 34 (2002), as well as the popular four-volume Christmas in Bethlehem series featuring traditional carols sung by The Bach Choir with organist Thomas Goeman, Philadelphia Brass, and soloists Marietta Simpson and William Sharp.

The Choir is regularly heard on NPR and has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, the BBC World Service and Deutsche Radio. Other significant media projects during Mr. Funfgeld’s tenure have included Make a Joyful Noise,the Emmy award-winning documentary on The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, produced by Lehigh Valley PBS and broadcast nationwide in 2004. As part of its 100th Festival Season, The Choir produced a film version of Classical Kids’ award-winning CD Mr. Bach Comes to Call in collaboration with Touchstone Theatre and GreenTreks Network. The DVD is currently being broadcast nationwide on PBS and is distributed internationally by The Children’s Group.

Mr. Funfgeld has collaborated with many of the most important artists active in Baroque music, including the late Arleen Auger. Performance collaborations with artists in other disciplines include the acclaimed Trisha Brown Dance Company and Taylor 2 Dance Company. His guest conducting engagements have included the Boulder Bach Festial in its 10th anniversary performance of the Mass in B Minor, and he has worked with Helmuth Rilling at the International Bachakademie in Stuttgart, Germany, and with David Agler, now music director of the Vancouver Opera. He supervises recordings of new releases for Warner Brothers Music and has served on the Choral and Opera Advisory Panel of the Music Program of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Mr. Funfgeld is a member of the advisory board of The American Bach Society.

Mr. Funfgeld also serves as the director of music at First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem and has led the church choir on two European tours, including concerts in Munich, Vienna, and Salzburg and a 15-day concert tour of Scotland and England.

Mr. Funfgeld is a 1976 graduate of Westminster Choir College, where he studied under Dr. Joseph Flummerfelt. In May 1986, he received the Alumni Merit Award for excellence in musical performance. In 2007, Mr. Funfgeld was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Lehigh University in recognition of his musical accomplishments locally, nationally, and internationally.

Bridget George, Executive Director came to The Bach Choir as Executive Director in September 1997. She has led the administration of The Choir through the implementation of three strategic plans and ten concert seasons that have included the Centennial Celebration (1998-2000), performances at Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, the release of six recordings, the Lehigh Valley PBS production of Make a Joyful Noise—an Emmy-award winning documentary on The Choir, expansion of The Choir’s educational programs with annual Family Concerts and the Bach at Noon free concert series, the 100th Bethlehem Bach Festival in May 2007, and the successful completion of The Choir’s Second Century Fund Campaign. Ms. George was responsible for booking and administering The Choir’s eight-concert United Kingdom tour in 2003, including a performance for the BBC Proms in Royal Albert Hall, London.  Most recently, she was executive producer of the live action film Mr. Bach Comes to Call, based on the award–winning Classical Kids CD, produced by The Bach Choir in collaboration with Touchstone Theatre, GreenTreks Network Inc, and The Children’s Group, and broadcast nationwide on PBS in 2007.

Born in England and educated at Oxford University, with a BA in Philosophy and Psychology, Ms. George sang with Oxford’s Schola Cantorum and the Oxford University Opera. She also has a Diploma of Education from Goldsmiths College, London and was a teacher at Coburg Primary School, London, specializing in music and drama education. Since moving to Bethlehem in 1976, Ms. George has worked full-time in the field of arts administration. She co-founded Touchstone Theatre in 1981 and was the company’s Producing Director from 1990-95. Her accomplishments at Touchstone included producing Theatre of Creation, a two-week international festival celebrating the work of the renowned Ecole Jacques Lecoq, co-producing a play with Chile’s Teatro la Memoria that toured in New York City, Baltimore, and Santiago, and two successful capital campaigns. Ms. George has served on panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Karen Glose, Deputy Executive Director, joined the staff in September, 2001. Her professional experiences include serving as Volunteer Coordinator for Musikfest; Director of Development for The Weller Center for Health Education; Coordinator of Marketing and Special Events for The Lehigh Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross and Director of Recruitment and Admissions for the former Allentown Hospital School of Nursing.

A graduate of the University of Delaware with a BA in Communications, she is Director of Music at Assumption B.V.M. Church in Northampton PA, a position she has held for the past 23 years. Karen is a lifelong resident of Bethlehem where she currently lives with her husband Bill and their three sons.

Kathleen Link, Development Officer, joined The Choir in 2006 after nearly ten years of consulting to non-profit organizations in the fields of fundraising, marketing, management and campaign strategy. Her clients included entities in higher education, health and human services and the arts. Before establishing her consulting practice, Kathy was the Dean of Enrollment Management at DeSales University. She also served as Executive Director of The Bach Choir (1994-97). She holds an MBA from Lehigh University, and a BA in Management, Magna Cum Laude, from DeSales. She resides in Allentown with her daughter, Madeline.

Bonnie Lindsey, Accounting Manager, came to the Bach Choir in April 2008.  She brings to the table a professional background while working in the banking, insurance and income tax profession. Her most recent position held was with H&R Block as District Manager of Queens, New York, while overseeing 11 offices.  During her 19 year tenure at Block she held various positions, as bookkeeping supervisor, office manager, tax school instructor. She also served as Public Relations Director for the Reading district, winning awards of excellence several years in a row for the region in public speaking.  As a representative of H&R Block she served as treasurer for the Hamburg Business Association and as a member of the Kutztown Chamber of Commerce.  Ms. Lindsey is also a breast cancer survivor and is currently working with Native American women in support of awareness, early detection and treatment.

Sarah Baer, Administrative Assistant, began work with The Bach Choir in August, 2010. She is a 2005 graduate of Moravian College where she earned B.Mus. in Oboe Performance, graduating summa cum laude with honors in music and women’s and gender studies. Sarah then completed graduate work at Brandeis University, where her research interests included the largely forgotten lives and work of women composers. She was awarded a joint M.A. in Music and Women’s and Gender Studies from Brandeis in 2008.

In addition to her position at The Choir, Sarah is an active freelance performer and educator in the Lehigh Valley, teaching private oboe lessons through the Moravian College Music Institute. She is also adjunct faculty at Moravian College, teaching courses in music history theory, and is also on the faculty of the University of Phoenix (online campus), where she teaches foundational courses. In addition, Sarah is the director of research for Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy, a non-profit organization founded in 2008 which advocates for the inclusion of work by women composers in symphonic, choral, and chamber music programming. Prior to joining the staff at The Bach Choir, Sarah was Therapeutic Support Staff at KidsPeace, working with children on the Autism Spectrum to develop functional communication and social skills. She currently resides in Bethlehem.

Paul S. Larson, D.M.A., Chief Archivist & Curator, Dr. Paul Larson has worked with The Bach Choir as Manager of Historic Documents since 1986. He was recently promoted to Chief Archivist & Curator to recognize the significant expansion of the work of The Bach Choir Archives. He also serves as Chairman of The Choir’s Research and Scholarship Committee. Dr. Larson is a former professor of Music at Moravian College and author of "An American Musical Dynasty — a biography of the Wolle Family of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania." Dr. Larson is a graduate of Mansfield University, where he received a B.S. in Music Education. His M.A., also in music education, is from the Eastman School of the University of Rochester and has a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Temple University. Dr. Larson is Professor emeritus, Moravian College, in Bethlehem Pennsylvania, where he taught music education, non-Western music and music history. A resident of Bethlehem, he continues to be active in local history research and to be involved in area historical societies.

Jane Florenz, Choir Manager

Thomas Goeman, Assistant Conductor, has served as accompanist for The Bach Choir as well as organist for the Bach Festival Orchestra for 17 years. He also works with Greg Funfgeld as Associate Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church, Bethlehem, PA. He has been a frequent soloist with the American Boychoir and has toured widely throughout the united States, Europe and Russia, including a performances in St. Petersburg, Vienna, Salzburg, Leipzig, Munich, Copenhagen and London. Also in demand as a recording artist, he is organist for Angel, Virgin Classics, Dorian, Warner Brother and Alfred and Harold Flammer Publishing companies. His performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio and on the BBC. He has also accompanied for such notable conductors as Kurt Masur, Riccardo Muti, Andre Previn and Raphael Kubejik. Thomas Goeman holds degrees in church music and organ performance from Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI and Westminster Choir College, Princeton NJ, and has studied accompanying with Martin Katz at The University of Michigan.

Charlotte Mattax, Orchestra Manager, is a member of the Bach Festival Orchestra as harpsichordist and continuo organist and has also served as the orchestra’s personnel manager since 1997. She first gained critical attention as a top prizewinner in 1980 and 1983 at the International Harpsichord Competitions of Bruges and Paris. Sine that time, she has performed in the United States and Europe, including appearances in London, Geneva, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome and Salzburg. As a chamber music, she has appeared with New York’s Grande Bande as well as San Francisco’s American Baroque, and has toured Europe with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Her compact disc recording of solo harpsichord works of J.S. Bach, on the Koch International Classics label, has met with critical acclaim. She has also recorded for Dorian Recordings, Centaur Records, Newport Classic and Amon Ra Records. Ms. Mattax is currently on the faculty of the University of Illinois.

Elizabeth Field, Concert Master of the Bach Festival Orchestra, enjoys an active career as a chamber musician and soloist on both period and modern instruments. She has served as concertmaster for The Bach Choir of Bethlehem since 2001 and has served as a guest concertmaster in the Washington area, including for the Washington Bach Consort, The National Philharmonic, Opera Lafayette, and The Chorale Arts Society. Ms Field founded the period instrument group, the Vivaldi Project in 2007 and along with cellist, Stephanie Vial, directed her first Modern Early Music Institute (Historical Performance Practice for modern players) in June of 2009. She also plays with numerous chamber groups, including Hesperus, Harmonious Blacksmith and the 4 Nations Ensemble as well as with her mixed modern and period instrument chamber group, Arcovoce. A former member of Brandywine Baroque, Ms Field was also a founding member of the Van Swieten Quartet.  As a Baroque violinist, she has recorded for Hungaroton, Naxos and the Dorian label.

Ms, Field has a DMA in Historical Performance Practice from Cornell University and  is currently working on a collaborative DVD with fortepianist Malcolm Bilson, exploring the Historical performance Practice of 18th-century violin/piano repertoire.  As a modern violinist, she performs frequently with the Washington National Opera and with her husband Uri, is a member of the Novella Chamber Players.  Ms. Field's modern training was done with Oscar Shumsky and Joseph Silverstein. From 1982-1991, Ms. Field performed and recorded extensively for Deutsche Grammophon with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and also performed with leading New York ensembles such as  The St. Lukes Ensemble, The Brooklyn Philharmonic and the New York City Opera. For more info on Ms. Field please see thevivaldiproject.org and elizabethfield.com