Saint Thomas Girl Chorister Course Staff
Our staff is carefully selected to create a professional, positive, and nurturing experience for each girl. Many staff are in residence at the Choir School throughout the course and participate in all aspects of the course (except rehearsals) with the girls, including meals and outings. We strive to build a sense of community among one another, create a high-level musical experience and encourage an environment of kindness.
Course Co-Directors
Margaret White
During the school year Margaret is a full-time member of Saint Thomas Choir School’s residential faculty, teaching Latin to grades 6-8 and English to grade 5 and serving as Admission Associate. A lifelong New Yorker, Margaret attended the all-girls’ Brearley School for thirteen years and then Princeton University, where she earned her A.B. in English with minors in Theater and American Studies.
She began her career as a substitute teacher in all grades and several subjects at independent schools across Manhattan. After three years teaching middle school Latin and English at Marymount School of New York, she temporarily relocated to Massachusetts to earn her Ed.M. in Learning and Teaching at Harvard University. As a Choir School faculty member, a product of all-girls’ education, and a trained vocal musician herself, she is uniquely positioned to help oversee the next stage of the Girl Chorister Course.
Outside of the classroom, Margaret enjoys reading and writing stories for young people (she also holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults) and spending time with her dog, Blaze. Her other interests include musical theater, baking, board games, and learning new languages.
Rebecca Kellerman-Filsell
Rebecca Kellerman-Filsell is the Music Associate for Children and Youth as well as Concerts and Media Coordinator for Music at Saint Thomas Church. She comes to Saint Thomas after spending the previous 20+ years singing and teaching music in the Washington, DC metro area. Whilst in Washington, DC, Rebecca frequently appeared as soloist and chorister with The Washington Bach Consort, Opera Lafayette, The Washington National Cathedral and various other choral groups in the DC metro area and beyond.
Most recently, Rebecca served as section leader and Music Associate at Saint Alban’s Church, Washington, DC, where she reignited their children’s music ministry with a RSCM chorister program. She also served as vocal coach for the chorister program at Saint Paul’s K St. from 2014-2019. Her private studio includes students of all ages and abilities, but she specializes in teaching young singers. Rebecca holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Music from Shenandoah University, where she studied voice performance/pedagogy and music education. Rebecca lives in the heart of Manhattan with her husband, two sons and a leopard gecko.
2024 Guest Music Director -
Bruce Neswick
Bruce Neswick is the Artist-in-Residence at St. James by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, La Jolla, California. He most recently served as Canon for Music at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, Oregon, having come from Indiana University, where he was Associate Professor of Music in Organ and Sacred Music at the Jacobs School of Music. While at IU, he was Assistant Organist of St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church, Louisville, Kentucky. Before moving to Indiana, he was the Director of Music at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, where he directed the Cathedral Choir of Girls, Boys and Adults and had oversight of the musical life of that historic Cathedral.
Active in the field of church music, Mr. Neswick holds the Fellowship degree from the Royal School of Church Music, for whom he has conducted several courses for boy and girl choristers. He has served on the faculties of and performed for several church music conferences, including Master Schola, the Mississippi Conference, the Association of Anglican Musicians, Westminster Choir College Summer Session, the Montreat and Westminster Conferences of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, the Disciples of Christ Musicians, the Conference of Lutheran Church Musicians, the Sewanee Church Music Conference, Organ Alive!, the Shenandoah Conservatory Church Music Institute and the Evergreen Conference. In recent years, he has performed at St. Florian Abbey, in Austria, as part of the annual BrucknerFest; at the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative conference; and at the Yale Organ Week.
Mr. Neswick has been commissioned to compose for dozens of performers and churches throughout the United States, and his organ and choral music is published by Paraclete, Augsburg-Fortress, Selah, Vivace, Hope, Plymouth and St. James' presses. Mr. Neswick’s skill at improvisation garnered him three first prizes from the 1989 San Anselmo Organ Festival; the 1990 American Guild of Organists' national convention in Boston; and the 1992 Rochette Concours at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland.
A graduate of Pacific Lutheran University and of the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, Mr. Neswick’s teachers have included Robert Baker, David Dahl, Gerre Hancock, Margaret Irwin-Brandon and Lionel Rogg. A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, Mr. Neswick has served the Guild in many capacities, including chapter dean, regional convention chair, regional education coordinator, member of the national nominating committee and member of the national improvisation competition committee. Mr. Neswick was recently awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.
As a recitalist, Mr. Neswick has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe and has been a frequent performer at national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists. In 1994, he played the opening convocation for the national AGO convention held in Dallas, Texas, and he was a featured artist at the national AGO conventions in Seattle (in 2000), Washington, DC (in 2010) and Boston (in 2014). Mr. Neswick is represented by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists.
2025 Guest Music Director -
Maxine Thévenot
Canadian-American musician Maxine Thévenot is known for her skillful, musical playing, inventive concert programming, and passionate, informed conducting. She combines a profound commitment to her liturgical work as a cathedral musician with guest conducting, solo and collaborative organ recitals, and thrives on co-creating synergistic community experiences whilst continuing to strive for representation and access to music of all genres.
Canon Maxine Thévenot is director of cathedral music & organist and artistic director of the Friends of Cathedral Music series at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Under her leadership, the cathedral choir and choristers sing services and concerts, have made numerous commercial recordings with RavenCD, and fulfill part of their community outreach mission by undertaking national and international tours. Earlier this month, the cathedral choirs completed a 5-day tour to British Columbia, Canada singing services and a concert at Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria.
Dr. Thevenot is currently the instructor of organ at the University of New Mexico. Previously she taught music appreciation and music theory and directed the university’s women’s choir, Las Cantantes, for over 15 years. She is the founding & artistic director of Polyphony: Voices of New Mexico, the state’s first resident professional vocal ensemble.
In demand as a guest conductor and clinician, in 2022 Maxine was the liturgical service co-planner and conductor of the 45-voice ensemble, brass quintet, and two guest organists for the National Convention of the AGO in Seattle. In 2024 she was the first woman in its 26-year history to lead the Indianapolis Three Choir Festival. She recently served as music director for the 2024 RCSM West course, and as conductor/co-liturgy planner for the 58th annual Association of Anglican Musicians 2024 conference. In 2026, she will serve on the music faculty of the Church Musicians Workshop at Nashotah House. As an organ recitalist, she has appeared in concert halls and churches across the USA, Canada, UK, and Europe and in 2024 made her Icelandic debut. Her choral and organ recordings appear on the RavenCD label.
A published composer with Paraclete Press, her compositions include introits, psalm chants, and a setting of the Preces & Responses which has been performed in Great Britain and across North America.
A native of Saskatchewan, Canada, Maxine Thévenot received her bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Saskatchewan (with Distinction); and her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. At Manhattan School of Music, she was twice awarded the Bronson Ragan Award for ‘outstanding ability in organ performance’. Maxine is an Associate of the Royal Canadian College of Organists and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, and was made an Honorary Fellow of the National College of Music, London, UK in 2006 for her services to music.
Course Staff
Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek - Vocal Coach & Music History Teacher
Dr. Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, mezzo-soprano, was a member of the world-renowned vocal quartet Anonymous 4 from 2000-2016. She recorded twelve award-winning CDs with the group, including American Angels which twice topped Billboard’s classical music charts, and The Cherry Tree, one of the top selling classical CDs of 2010. Anonymous 4′s performance of the Irish lament “Caoineadh” on Christopher Tin’s album Calling All Dawns, with Jacqueline as featured soloist, led to a Grammy for Best Classical Music Crossover Album. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of ModernMedieval, an organization created to promote performance and education in early and new music. It includes ModernMedieval Voices, a female vocal ensemble which fosters collaborative projects featuring early music in conjunction with music from later periods and newly commissioned works.
She has a reputation as a versatile and accomplished soloist, specializing in early and new music on both the concert and operatic stage. She has collaborated with many composers including Judith Weir, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Orlando Gough, Richard Einhorn, Andrew Toovey, Andrew Lovett, Louis Conti, Daniel Thomas Davis, Gregory Spears, Phil Kline and David Lang, singing with such distinguished new music ensembles such as Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, Ensemble Intercontemporain Paris, Singcircle, Continuum, Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, Ixion, Dogs of Desire, Ekmeles, S.E.M. Ensemble and the Locrian Chamber Ensemble.
She has appeared as a guest soloist with many early music ensembles both in Europe and the U.S., including The Washington Bach Consort DC, The Sixteen, The Bach Sinfonia, Carmel Bach Festival, St. Thomas Church NYC, Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity Lutheran NYC, Baltimore Consort, Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Armonia Nova, The Folger Consort, Parthenia, Sonnambula, Abendmusik, Hudson Chorale, and Fairfax Choral Society. Repertoire includes the mezzo/alto solos in Bach Magnificat, St Matthew and St John Passions, B Minor Mass and many cantatas, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Handel’s Messiah and Dixit Dominus, Durufle and Faure Requiem, Paine Mass in D and songs from the Elizabethan era for Parthenia’s acclaimed program When Music and Sweet Poetry Agree. She is a frequent soloist with Distinguished Concerts International New York, performing Calling All Dawns at Carnegie Hall and David Geffen Hall.
Jacqueline is also a voice teacher. She is a member of the Performance Faculty at Princeton University where she teaches voice, directs the Early Music Princeton Singers, and is Associate Director of the Certificate program in Consort Singing.. She gives residencies and vocal masterclasses at universities all over the US and offers seminars on vocal pedagogy to student composers, collaborating with them to develop and perform new pieces for the voice. She also lectures on vocal pedagogy and gives Ensemble Technique workshops with groups ranging from trios to choirs with 100+ members. She holds degrees from Queens University Belfast, Teacher’s College Columbia University and has a D.M.A. from The Juilliard School.
Janet Yieh - Guest Organist & Music Theory Teacher
Janet Yieh is Director of Music at Church of the Heavenly Rest on the Upper East Side in New York City, where she oversees a vibrant music program for all ages, and plays the 138-rank Austin Organ. For seven years, she served as Associate Organist at Trinity Church Wall Street, where she played weekly services, founded the St. Paul’s Chapel Choir, accompanied the Grammy-nominated Trinity Choir and Trinity Youth Chorus, and worked closely with the music and liturgy departments.
An innovative concert recitalist and sacred music specialist, Janet has been lauded for her “expressivity and technical prowess” (The American Organist), and named one of ‘20 under 30’ promising artists by The Diapason magazine in 2017. She has performed concert tours throughout the United States and across the globe, with highlights including New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Washington’s National Cathedral, San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, Yale University’s Woolsey Hall, Taipei’s Aletheia University Chapel, and Japan’s Momoyama St. Andrew’s University Chapel. She has collaborated with the Paul Winter Consort, the Washington Chorus at The Kennedy Center, and Trinity’s NOVUS NY orchestra at Carnegie Hall. She has performed on the national stage at the American Guild of Organists’ 2022 National Convention in Seattle and the Association of Anglican Musicians’ National Conference in Richmond. She regularly premieres new works for the organ, and has been featured on the national radio show Pipedreams, New York’s WQXR, New Jersey’s WWFM, Connecticut’s WMNR, and two CD recordings, Julian Wachner: Symphony No. 1, Works for Orchestra and Voices (Musica Omnia/Naxos, 2014) and Celebrating the Skinner Organ (Schott, 2011).
A native of Alexandria, Virginia, Janet earned a Master’s of Musical Arts (2018) and Master’s Degree in Organ Performance (2017) from the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music and a Bachelor of Music in Organ (2015) from the Juilliard School. While at Yale, she was appointed Organ Scholar at Christ Church, New Haven and Trinity Church on the Green, while also serving as Director of Music and Organist of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. Janet’s former teachers include Thomas Murray, Paul Jacobs, John Walker, Wayne Earnest and Victoria Shields.
In 2020, Janet co-founded a new platform ‘Amplify Female Composers’ with Carolyn Craig, which launched a December Advent Calendar Project of daily Advent and Christmas music by women composers sung by 25 international parish, cathedral and university choirs, and has made over 65 video recordings of choral and organ music available online. She also contributes research to an international sacred music database called “A Great Host of Women Composers.” Janet taught on the faculty of the 2022 St. Thomas Girl Chorister Course, 2019 Cape Cod AGO Pipe Organ Encounter, and played as course organist for the 2019 RSCM Rhode Island Course and organ scholar for the 2018 RSCM Carolina Course at Duke University. In 2020 and 2021, she served on the AGO National Steering Committee for the internationally broadcast AGO OrganFest. She is a Colleague of the American Guild of Organists, an executive board member of the New York City AGO, and a member of the Association of Anglican Musicians. www.janetyieh.com.
Claire Griffin - Residential Life Coordinator
A previous Saint Thomas Girl Chorister Course participant and floor leader, Claire is excited to return to the course in a staff role. She attended the Girl Chorister Course for nine years, and recounts it as the best week of her summers. During the school year, Claire is the School Nurse and one of the Housemothers for Saint Thomas Choir School, where she oversees daily residential life and tends to the emotional, social, and health needs of the choristers. After receiving her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing, she started her career as a nurse on a cardiac surgical step-down floor in Wilmington, North Carolina. After working in the hospital, she transitioned to a position as a school nurse in a public school in Leland, North Carolina before moving to New York to pursue her dream of working at STCS.
Claire lives at the Choir School with her two dogs, Ziggy and Buddy, and her husband. In her spare time, Claire enjoys walking in Central Park with her dogs, crocheting, cooking, playing tennis, exploring the city, and playing board games.
Claire’s favorite moment of the course has always been the first rehearsal in the gym, where you can hear the resonance of many voices becoming one and truly feel that you are part of a greater whole. Claire is thrilled to return to the course as a staff member this year and looks forward to working with the girls and creating the meaningful, transformative experiences that are unique to the Girl Chorister Course.
