Featured Artists

 Jonathan Wessler has served since 2016 as the Kantor at First Lutheran Church of Boston where he oversees a thriving music program specializing in the finest liturgical music of the Lutheran tradition. Under his direction, the FLC choir and orchestra present music of Bach, Praetorius, Schütz, Handl, Hassler, Senfl, and others as well as liturgical chant as retained in the Lutheran missals. He is honored to play the church’s fine Baroque pipe organ, built in 2000 by Richards, Fowkes & Co. Known as “Boston’s Bach Organ,” it renders the music of Bach and his contemporaries with the utmost authority. He also serves as the artistic director of the annual Boston Bach Birthday, which draws hundreds in celebration of Bach’s contributions to sacred music. He additionally conducts research in early Lutheran liturgy and music.

Jonathan received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ Performance from the Eastman School of Music, studying with William Porter. He previously earned a Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studying with David Boe, and a Master of Sacred Music degree the University of Notre Dame, studying with Craig Cramer. He additionally mentored under Sherry Seckler and Christiaan Teeuwsen. He holds the Associate Certificate from the American Guild of Organists and was a finalist in the 2007 Arthur Poister Organ Competition.

Jonathan previously worked as the Assistant Organist at the Church of St. Paul in Harvard Square and St. Paul’s Choir School, where he accompanied the Choir of St. Paul’s, trained the Probationers, directed the St. Paul Parish Choir and the Schola Cantorum, and taught music theory in the Choir School.

Jonathan lives in suburban Boston with his wife, Joy, and their children, Julia, Matthew, Benjamin, and Lucas.

An expansive musical career has taken EmmaLee Holmes-Hicks across Europe, Japan, South America, Canada and the United States and has included performances in New York's Carnegie Hall, Giants Stadium and Madison Square Garden. EmmaLee is equally at home as concertmaster or soloist on stage and as chamber musician in more intimate settings. Her interests span classical, baroque, and contemporary repertoire as well as traditional fiddle music. A firm believer that music can move people, quite literally, she takes the lead in string bands across New England and the Midwest, where her vibrant fiddle tunes drive spirited, old-time dancing.

During her formative years, EmmaLee studied with Peoria Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Marcia Henry Liebenow.  She earned her doctorate from SUNY Stony Brook and is on faculty at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and the Birch Creek Summer Performance Center. She serves as principal second violinist with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra and performs with other regional orchestras, including the Boston Pops, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Cape Symphony and Boston Festival Orchestra. An active chamber musician, she takes the stage in the South Coast Chamber Music Series. She tours with Larksgrove, the duo that melds fiddle music with classical traditions. She served as founding director of the Newport String Project, a groundbreaking program for young musicians. And it has been EmmaLee’s great pleasure to play in the Peoria Bach Festival since its inception in 2003.

Courtney Huffman Frye, soprano, placed first in the National Association of Teachers of Singing competition and made her New York solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall.  She performed in Long Beach Opera's United States premiere of Vivaldi’s Motezuma to critical acclaim.  Her stage credits include Yadwiga in Ben Moore’s Enemies, A Love Story, Violetta in La Traviata, Betty in Lowell Liebermann’s Miss Lonelyhearts, Frasquita in Carmen, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. An equally accomplished concert artist, she has been a featured soloist with Boston Baroque performing the role of Amor in a semi-staged version of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and appearing as the soprano soloist in Bach’s Wedding Cantata and Coffee Cantata. Appearing frequently with the Peoria Bach Festival, she has been the soprano soloist in Handel’s Samson and Silete venti and Bach’s Cantata 187 and 172. She has also been a soloist with the Peoria Municipal Band, Symphonic Winds at Bradley University, Colorado Bach Ensemble, High Desert Chamber Music Series, Andover Chamber Music Series, First Church Nashua Concert Series, Centrum’s Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival, Masterworks Chorale’s Summer Sings, Classical Music Series’ Live at the Lounge, New York City’s Orchestra Insonica and the Sunriver Music Festival Orchestra in Sunriver, OR, under the baton of Maestro Lawrence Smith. 

Her love for recital work has taken her overseas, including a ten-day concert tour throughout Southern China, and her passion for contemporary music has given her the opportunity to work with and premiere pieces by Alan Chan, Lori Laitman, Ben Moore, Timothy Takach, and Marc-André Dalbavie.   She taught voice at Gordon College in Boston from 2013 to 2017 and currently serves on the voice faculty of Bradley University.

 Trevor Mitchell’s career has taken him across the United States as well as to Austria, Italy, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and other destinations in Europe. Recently audiences heard him in Bach’s B-Minor Mass, Weihnachts-Oratorium (Christmas Oratorio), St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Cantatas 76, 135, 177, Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Vivaldi’s Beatus Vir, Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus and Messiah, and in recital. He also sang concert versions of the Handel operas Semele and Ariodante. With Chicago a cappella, he just completed a recording of Hanukah music to be released in the winter of 2023. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch described Trevor’s voice as a “large and remarkably sweet sound.” And, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote about his “…warm sound and technical ease.” Trevor, who has frequently performed on WFMT (Chicago), has recorded albums with Cedille Records, Gothic Records, and is a featured soloist on a Sony Classical release of Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Choirs and Orchestra of St. John Cantius. Upcoming projects include Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passion, Telemann’s Cantata, "Ich weiß, daß mein Erlöser lebt," Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Symphony No. 9. In the spring of 2023 he returns as guest soloist with Bella Voce and The Newberry Consort in a collaboration of an all Praetorius program.

  Dr. Gerard Sundberg (MN MFA, DMA) is presently Professor Emeritus of Voice at Wheaton Conservatory of Music (Wheaton, Illinois), where he taught studio voice and vocal pedagogy. He is currently living in the Twin Cities (Minnesota). He has performed frequently with various organizations in Chicago, including Chicago Master Singers, Ars Viva Orchestra, Chicago Chorale, the Apollo Chorus, and the West Suburban Choral Union. And also with Duke University (North Carolina). He recently celebrated his 20th consecutive performance of Handel’s Messiah with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Chorus. He has been the bass soloist in the Peoria Bach Festival for most of its 20 years. His performances for this 2022-23 season have included/will include Handel Messiah with St. George Chamber Singers (St. George, Utah) on 12/22; Tyndale Oratorio on 8/22 with Deo Cantamus (Minneapolis, Minnesota); Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Nova Singers on 5/23 (Galesburg, Illinois); and Cantatas BWV 26 & 39 with the Peoria Bach Festival on 6/23.