Welcome, Students!

October 10, 2019

Each autumn we welcome new students who bring a breadth and depth of diverse backgrounds to our interdisciplinary enterprise, and we welcome back our continuing students for another year of study and fellowship. Many of them accepted our invitation to tell a bit about themselves so that our alumni and friends can catch some of the enthusiasm that abounds at this time of year.

As usual, the ISM community celebrated the opening of the academic year at the ISM picnic at the Eli Whitney Museum in HamdenView the slideshow.

Compiled by Stephen Gamboa-Díaz.

Alexandra Barylski (M.Div. ’20) was born to beauty and the love of nature, inheriting from her parents—a gardener and artist—an abiding attention to detail, craftsmanship, and the life of the word. Her work tends and nourishes the creative life of the world through poetry, art, and writing. The managing editor of the Marginalia Review of Books, an award-winning poet, and an experienced educator, she also works as a consultant specializing in copywriting, and branding.

Maddie Blonquist (M.A.R. religion & visual arts ’21) received her undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University in 2018 where she pursued a double major in music and interdisciplinary humanities. While there she became involved with several curatorial and performance projects, many of which involved bringing music into exhibition spaces and engaging viewers in interdisciplinary museum experiences. She plans to pursue a career as a museum curator and specifically explore the ways various religious narratives influence the visual interpretation of the female form in contemporary art.

Nia Campinha-Bacote (M.Div. ’20) writes, “I grew up as a classically trained pianist for seven years and am also an avid percussionist. My heart beats for worship and I’m hoping to use my musical skills to help others tangibly encounter the love and presence of God. Additionally, I love belting out the Moana soundtrack at all hours of the day.”

EmmaRae Carroll (M.A.R. liturgical studies ’21) recently got her B.A. in musicology and is fascinated with the way people interact with worship and what that says about their view of God. She was able to study sacred music for a year at Oxford, which furthered her love for liturgy and Anglican evensong. She loves reading C. S. Lewis, spending time with friends and family, and cuddling with her cat.

Jerrick Cavagnaro (M.M. organ ’20) is a second year student at the ISM. He is a graduate of Westminster Choir College where he obtained bachelor’s degrees in both sacred music and organ performance studying under Alan Morrison. After gaining experience as a substitute organist in high school, he began working as an assistant organist and substitute in several churches throughout northern New Jersey. He was the music director at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Montville and Lincoln Park, New Jersey; organ scholar at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Morristown; and is now in his second year as organ scholar at Trinity on the Green Episcopal Church in New Haven. During his time at Westminster Choir College, Jerrick maintained several positions as a choral singer, solo singer, and accompanist, as well singing baritone in and accompanying the Grammy® nominated Westminster Williamson Voices, directed by James Jordan. In his free time, Jerrick enjoys baking and chocolate making.

Rhianna Cockrell (M.M.A. voice ’21)  hails from a small rescue farm in Compton, Virginia, but spent the last year living in D.C. working as a freelance musician and teacher. In the 2018–19 season, she joined the Oregon Bach Festival not only as a member of their prestigious festival chorus, but also as the alto soloist in their performance of Bach’s BWV 34 under the baton of Scott Allen Jarrett. Notable engagements of the season also include a two-week residency with the Internationale Bach Akademie Stuttgart as a member of their JSB Ensemble, joining the NoVA Lights Chorale as the mezzo soprano soloist in their performance of Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël, as well as singing with such ensembles as the Washington Master Chorale and Chorsymphonica (formerly Advent Project).

Gabriella Costa (M.A.R. religion & visual arts ’20) comes to Yale from Fordham University, where she received a B.A. in art history and English.  With a larger interest in the ethics of representation, her work focuses on commemorative art and practice in the first half of the twentieth century. Currently, she is exploring commemorative temporality and its implications for a just representation of suffering and loss.

Jake Cunliffe (M. Div. ’22) comes to New Haven from Columbus, Ohio. From the United Kingdom, he is preparing (God willing) for ordination in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. Recently, he has organized local churches for social justice; advocated for children as a guardian ad litem at his local county court; and worked as a researcher and evaluator for social service agencies. Prior study at the Centre for the Study of World Christianity (Edinburgh) focused on insurgent theologies and church movements in the Majority World and sociology of religion. He is particularly interested in strengthening partnerships between churches globally, particularly the Anglican churches in Angola and Mozambique. At the ISM, Jake hopes to study the relationship between liturgy and pastoral care, the role of preaching in Christian spirituality and liturgy, and collaborate with musicians to explore how congregations respond faithfully to music in worship. He likes to cook, hike, and follow sports avidly (particularly cricket!)

Well versed in classical, jazz, musical theater and contemporary music alike, James Davis Jr. (M.M. choral conducting ‘21) has supervised musical productions at Radio City Music Hall, Sony Music Hall, Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Apollo Theater in New York City; Arena Stage in Washington, DC; The New World Center in Miami, Florida; Charleston Music Hall in South Carolina and Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. He is founder and president of JDJ Music Inc., through which he curated a jazz festival in Lagos, Nigeria in 2013 and has held workshops on Negro spirituals and gospel in Germany for the past five years. From 2007–2017, he served as Director of Music Ministries & Fine Arts at Harlem’s historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in the City of New York. He has produced and arranged music for both film and television including Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer and a State Farm Insurance commercial commemorating the tenth Anniversary of 9/11. His musicianship and artistic sensitivity has afforded him the opportunity to collaborate with notable artists across genres including Alicia Keys, John Legend, Cyrus Chestnut, Jessye Norman, Ashford & Simpson, Lyle Lovett, Edwin & Walter Hawkins, and Richard Smallwood. A native of the Mississippi Delta, Davis is a 2004 cum laude graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Christian Detisch (M.Div ’20) comes to Yale from Washington, D.C. where he was working in digital strategy for an environmental nonprofit. He received an M.F.A. in poetry from Virginia Commonwealth University, and is interested in the intersections of religion and literature, social movements and the church’s place within them, and medicine and theology.

Jack Dewey (M.A.R. religion & literature ’20) was raised in Massachusetts and returns to New England after some years spent in California, Italy, and, most recently, Ireland.  He studies how literary techniques—e.g. narrative, allegory, irony—have been used to represent religious, ethical, and other understandings.  His goal is to better understand the means writers have developed for communicating psychological realities that are difficult to describe straightforwardly. He has particular fascinations with Dante, Plato, and the Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi.

Caryne Eskridge (M.Div. ’21) is a second year Master of Divinity student at YDS and is seeking ordination in the United Church of Christ. At the ISM, she enjoys drawing from her background in American material culture, having worked in curatorial roles at several institutions before coming to YDS. Caryne is most interested in exploring the embodied and sensorial experiences of objects and spaces, in contexts that are sacred, mundane, or somewhere in between. She brings these interests and questions into her ministry, believing that creativity in worship and spiritual practices can open up new and profound ways of communing with the Divine.

Benjamin Gee (M.A.R. religion & literature ’20) writes, “I graduated in May 2018 from Washington and Lee University, where I studied English, history, and Medieval and Renaissance studies with particular emphasis on early modern English literature; at the ISM, I aim to examine the resonances of post-Reformation intra-Christian division within period dramas, focusing especially on the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. I am excited and grateful to be at a place with so brazenly interdisciplinary an environment, to grow as a student of history and literature alongside such inquisitive peers and faculty!”

Berit Goetz (M.A.R. religion & music ’20) is a songwriter, musician, and specialist in worship and pastoral care for young adults. Her scholarship centers on theology and ideology in music; the resources of “secular” artworks for spiritual formation; and the relationship between text, witness, and sound. She was previously Artist in Residence at Messiah Episcopal Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, and before that directed an interdenominational campus ministry at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design, where she developed creative ministry curricula engaging the resources of scripture and the arts for theological reflection. A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, she earned her B.A. cum laude in music history, theory and composition, with a double-major in comparative literature, at Brown University.

Phoenix Gonzalez (M.A.R. religion & music ’20) hails from Miami, Florida and is pursuing a master’s in liturgical studies. The interdisciplinarity and performativity of the field are a natural fit for her prior experiences and interests, which include Medieval theater, musical theater, and technology. She joins the ISM after having performed in New York musicals and independent films, as well as having worked as a product manager at several tech startups at the intersection of film, media, journalism, and politics. Before that, she could be found pursuing her B.A. in religion at Princeton, performing across campus in almost every theater group, studying Medieval morality and mystery plays, and directing two of the latter in and around the Princeton University Chapel. She hopes to bring her varied experiences to bear on further study of Medieval theater and other Roman Catholic ritual performances in the Middle Ages, both intra- and extra-liturgical.

Richard Gress (M.M. organ ’21) is the recipient of the American Guild of Organists Pogorzelski-Yankee Memorial Scholarship and the 2018 Ruth and Paul Manz Scholarship, and is winner of the 2015 University of North Carolina School of the Arts High School Organ Competition. A graduate of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, Richard was in the organ studio of Dr. Jack Mitchener at the Townsend School of Music. He serves as Music Scholar at Rye Presbyterian Church in Rye, NY and is an active recitalist. When not on the bench, he enjoys nature walks and hikes, road trips to his hometown of Newmarket, NH, or a nice cigar out on the porch.

Ethan Haman (M.M. organ ’21) Ethan Haman from Fremont, CA studies organ with Prof. Jon Laukvik and is the organist of Noroton Presbyterian Church in Darien, CT. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.Mus. in Organ Performance studying with Prof. Cherry Rhodes and in Composition with Profs. Morten Lauridsen, Andrew Norman, Donald Crockett, Sean Friar, and Daniel Temkin. At USC, Ethan was organist for both Knox Presbyterian Church in Pasadena and the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, as well as an improvisation instructor for the San Francisco Peninsula Organ Academy. He went on four organ and improvisation study trips to Lyon and Paris (France) on scholarships from USC and the SFPOA. His compositions can be found at SheetMusicPlus.com. Ethan also enjoys recording organ videos for his YouTube channel as well as studying foreign languages; he currently speaks English, French, Spanish, European Portuguese, Cantonese, and is learning Mandarin Chinese.

Harrison Hintzsche (M.M. voice ’20) is a recitalist, concert singer, and ensemble musician from DeKalb, Illinois. He has enjoyed various musical adventures, such as singing choral music in an empty grain bin, jazz standards with his father in a small tapas restaurant, and Schubert lieder in London’s Wigmore Hall. He received a bachelor of music degree in vocal performance from St. Olaf College, where he sang and toured with the St. Olaf Choir under Dr. Anton Armstrong. Harrison enjoys drinking coffee and craft beer, looking at maps, and visiting lighthouses.

Rob Hopkirk (M.A.R. religion & literature ’20) grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and comes to Yale from Harvard University, where he graduated with a B.A. in comparative religion and English literature in 2018. Outside of the classroom, his passion for arts education led him to work as a museum guide and a K-6 theater instructor in the Boston area. In the classroom, his interests have broadly lain with the English Reformation, its reading cultures, and its contested literary legacies up to the present day. More particularly, his recent research has centered on the (post)secular fictions of Hilary Mantel and their vision of a modern Britain haunted by the seeming loss and perpetual return of its sacred past.

Madeleine Hutchins (M.A.R. religion & literature ’21) comes to the ISM from Yale College, where she did her B.A. in philosophy, with a focus on bioethics. She hopes to explore a variety of interests during her time here, but in particular the relationship between humans, land, and the sacred, the way in which we tell stories about those relationships, how those stories influence how we live and worship, and other interactions between these elements. Outside of Yale, she does what she can to stay engaged with her tribe (Mohegan), especially the youth, and is working on a conservation project for the reservation land.

Gabe Kepler (M.Div. ’21) graduated from Life Pacific College with a B.A. in transformational ministry. His primary passion and calling reside in pursuing international ministry, thus far having traveled to ten different countries and conducted various types of mission work, teaching and local outreach. He also has a love for music and worship, as he himself is a drummer of sixteen years and has served in worship ministry since the age of ten. He has taught workshops on percussion and worship in Mexico, Malaysia, and Japan, and plans to continue to use his love for music and time at the ISM to equip him better for ministering cross-culturally.

Daniel Kim (M.A.R. liturgical studies ’20) writes, “born in the United States and raised in South Korea, I grew up in a Korean Presbyterian church in which I played various instruments for the worship services. Even after I moved back to the United States in 2010, my interest and commitment to church music grew. I studied choral music and philosophy, politics, and law at University of Southern California and worked for Korean Central United Methodist Church as a music director for the past four years. During my studies here at the ISM, I hope to deepen my theological and historical knowledge of Christian worship, as well as developing as a young scholar with an interdisciplinary mind.”

Chase Loomer (M.M. organ ’20) is a first-year M.M. student at the ISM studying organ with Martin Jean. Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, Chase completed a B.M. in organ performance at the Eastman School of Music in 2018, where he was a student of David Higgs. In the future, he hopes to continue his work as a church musician, build a performing career, and, eventually, teach organ at the college level. Chase’s other interests include jazz piano, weightlifting, and biking.

Adrienne Lotto (M.M. voice ’20) is the first year soprano of the Voxtet. She earned a B.F.A. in vocal performance with a minor in creative writing from Carnegie Mellon University in 2015. Her interest in early music led her to a job singing with the Governor’s Musick, the resident baroque ensemble of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, where she worked before coming to Yale. Outside of singing, Adrienne enjoys reading, writing poetry, and practicing the baroque guitar, which she began learning last year.

Molly Martien (M.A.R. religion & visual arts ’21) recently graduated from The New School with an M.A. in the history of design where her primary research topic was “Theories of 20th-Century American Material Culture.” Currently, Molly is interested in the intersection between American vernacular material culture, the built environment, and religion in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She is very excited to be part of the ISM and the innovative interdisciplinary work taking place there.

Skyler Neberman (M.A.R. liturgical studies ’20) was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. He received his bachelor of arts in theology and philosophy from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, where he made undergraduate publications with New Liturgical Movement and Mallorn: Journal of the Tolkien Society. His interests broadly cover the intersections of liturgical theology and Gregorian chant, Medieval liturgical rites, and the liturgy as a liminal point where the sacred emerges upon the world through the arts and works of the people of God. He is also interested in the work of chant restoration and has restored three antiphons for the Nuptial Mass from eleventh century sources, which were first sung at his own wedding mass. At leisure, he enjoys brewing mead, painting, and writing poetry and fiction.

Sarah Noble (M.M. choral conducting ’20) is from the Detroit area and earned her B.M. with a concentration in vocal music education from Wayne State University, summa cum laude and with departmental honors. As an undergraduate student, Noble was a professional chorister at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Detroit and was a counselor and assistant conductor at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. She is passionate about cross-curricular and interdisciplinary study and pedagogy, specifically within the realms of music, literature, and the performance arts. Noble enjoys teaching, making music of all kinds, traveling, and performing in musical theater productions.

Andrew Ogletree (M.Div. ’21) is in his second year of study. Besides being part of the ISM he is also part of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and is seeking holy orders in the Episcopal Church. Andrew is a second-career student, having spent nine years at Sotheby’s in New York, specializing in English and European decorative arts, and four years in the antiques market in New York. Andrew graduated from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, with an M.A. (Hons) in art history in 2006.

Oscar Osicki (M.M. choral conducting ’20) writes, “I am co-director of music at Battell Chapel with the University Church in Yale. I also compose music for film and TV, working with studios in the United Kingdom, and student films in the United States. I create videos on music education, which have been watched and shared millions of times globally. I like exercise, cooking, reading, and fighting.”

Shirley Pan (M.A.R. religion & visual arts ’20) was born in Shanghai but grew up close to Philadelphia. She attended New York University for her undergrad where she majored in art history and completed a senior thesis on Medieval pietà sculptures from the fourteenth and fifteenth century. Her research interests include Medieval and Renaissance devotional sculpture, particularly from the Mosan and Rhineland regions of northern Europe, and their associated popular lay devotional practices.

Sean Rodan (M.Div. ’20) is a 2017 graduate of Harvard College, where he received a B.A. in music. As a composer he has written pieces for chorus and chamber ensemble, and has led several undergraduate theater productions and orchestra concerts as a conductor, including the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera Ruddigore and the Handel oratorio Alexander’s Feast. After college, he spent a year cultivating his Tenrikyo faith, becoming a lay minister and engaging in mission work at the Tenrikyo diocese in Los Angeles. At Yale, Sean is primarily interested in studying Christian theology, examining how it has influenced the development of Tenrikyo theology and how the theologies can continue to inform each other today.

Sarah Rodeo (M.A.R. religion & music ’20). writes, “I am full-time music director at St. Francis Catholic in New Britain, where I am implementing a traditional Western sacred music program that is fully integrated with the liturgical, intellectual, theological, evangelical and social life of the parish, which is the new campus ministry center for Central Connecticut State University next door.”

Hopewell Rogers (M.A.R. religion & literature ’20) comes to the ISM from Yale College where, as an English major, she focused on literature emerging from individual and communal experiences of violence. At the ISM she continues this work of “unearthing unconventional (but potentially therapeutic!) forms of narrative that come more or less naturally to survivors of violence but have not yet been explored or embraced by the field of clinical psychology.” Outside the classroom, she tries to put these principles into practice as a clinical staff member in a neuroscience lab doing mental health histories and trauma intake interviews, and as a childcare provider for Connecticut’s foster system. You can often find her exploring the woods around New Haven, baking, petting dogs, and daydreaming about cabin-building. When school’s out, she splits her time between central Baltimore and rural Florida. (Ask her why manatees are the best aquatic mammals.)

Hannah Sachs (M.Div. ’20) is an applied theatre artist and director from Virginia. She studied directing, religion, and social change at Smith College and has recently returned from a year teaching and directing in the Czech Republic as a Fulbright scholar. She has been blessed to serve and learn from many marginalized communities, including Syrian refugees, sex trafficking survivors, and people experiencing homelessness. Hannah is passionate about exploring historical and contemporary connections between faith and the arts, as well as specifically using her theatrical skills within diverse ministry contexts.

Elizabeth Searcy (M.Div. ’22) is an art historian and photographer by training with a Ph.D. in African American art. Her dissertation examined the early photography of Carrie Mae Weems. Also affiliated with Andover Newton Seminary, she is interested in exploring the connections between ministry and the visual arts. She is an avid knitter and has two cats who try to attack and eat her yarn. As a native of the great state of Arkansas, she is happy to be somewhere cold enough to knit.

Corey Shotwell (M.M.A. voice ‘20) is a tenor in the Voxtet. A native of West Michigan, he received his B.M. from Western Michigan University and then his M.M. from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Recent concert engagements include performances with Theatre of Voices at Carnegie Hall, the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, The Newberry Consort, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Haymarket Opera Company, and the Bach Collegium of Fort Wayne. He has been a young artist apprentice with Apollo’s Fire and the Boston Early Music Festival, and was most recently the tenor fellow of the Virginia Best Adams Masterclass at the Carmel Bach Festival. He has been an instructor of voice at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the College of Wooster, and Cleveland State University. When not indulging in music-related activities, he enjoys hiking, petting cats, and brewing coffee.

Leah Silvieus (M.A.R. religion & literature ’21) is the author of three poetry collections, most recently, Arabilis (Sundress Publications 2019), and is the co-editor, with Lee Herrick, of The World I Leave You: An Anthology of Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit (Orison Books 2020). She holds a B.A. from Whitworth University and an M.F.A. from the University of Miami. She is a Kundiman fellow and a National Book Critics Circle emerging fellow, and is interested in the intersections of religion and contemporary poetry, Christianity and adoption/orphan narratives, and literature and hospitality.

Christy Stang (M.Div. ’22) graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 2019 with a B.A. in psychology and English. Now studying at Berkeley Divinity School, she is on track for ordination to the priesthood in the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota. She is passionate about the ways in which faith and creativity intersect, and in 2011, she contributed to research and led quantitative analysis in the international effort to examine the speaking women of the Bible, ultimately published in 2014 in Lindsay Freeman’s book, Bible Women: All Their Words and Why They Matter. In 2017, she collaborated with the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music in the international Episcopal Church to transcribe and analyze interviews pertaining to prayer book revision. More recently, she continues her love of faithful creative expression through preaching, which she has been pursuing since age sixteen. In her free time, she continues to explore the themes of spirituality and the arts through poetry, singing, and dancing.

Meghan Stoll (M.M. choral conducting ’21) joins the ISM having recently received her bachelor of music degree from Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied conducting with Dr. Gregory Ristow and voice with Timothy LeFebvre. She has conducted with Oberlin Chamber Ensembles and Oberlin Musical Union. In addition to her work as a choral conductor, Stoll is active on the operatic stage. She has portrayed Mère Marie in Dialogues des Carmélites and Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti with Oberlin Opera Theater.

Bailey Sullivan (M.A.R. religion & visual arts ’20) returns to the ISM for her second year as a M.A.R. student in religion and visual art. Born and raised on the Connecticut shoreline, she received her bachelor’s degree in art history at Southern Connecticut State University in 2018. Bailey specializes in the art and material culture of late-medieval Europe and engages with medieval conceptions of gender and sexuality, particularly in the material production—and reader reception—of devotional manuscripts.

Chris Talbot (M.M. voice ’21) is the first-year baritone in the Voxtet. Prior to arriving at Yale he lived in Boston, where he performed throughout the area as a soloist and ensemble singer. Recent highlights include Carson Cooman’s Acts of the Apostles with the Harvard University Choir, performing and recording music of Schütz in northern Germany with Canto Armonico, and premiering newly commissioned choral works with the chamber ensemble Carduus. He earned his undergraduate degree in music and Spanish at Drew University, and spent a term studying voice and composition at IUNA, a national conservatory in Buenos Aires. A Massachusetts native, Christopher got his start at age eight as a treble in the choirs of of All Saints Church, Worcester. When not singing, Chris has worked professionally in computer programming and IT, and is interested in the intersection between music and technology.

Aaron Tan (M.M. organ ’20) is a Canadian organist, engineer, and pianist. He currently serves as organ scholar at Church of the Resurrection, New York City, and as chapel organist and co-director for the Berkeley Divinity School. Previously he served as organ scholar at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Detroit, Michigan, artist in residence at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit, and assistant organist at Christ Church Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. As a scientist, Aaron holds a Ph.D. in materials science from the University of Michigan and worked there as a postdoctoral researcher after earning his degree, studying polymer thin films.

Daniel Tucker (M.M. choral conducting ’20) graduated summa cum laude in 2018 from Western Michigan University with a bachelor of music degree in choral music education and a bachelor of arts degree in comparative religion. While at Western Michigan, he studied choral conducting with Dr. Kimberly Dunn Adams, organ with Dr. Karl Schrock, and piano and harpsichord with Dr. Silvia Roederer. As a comparative religion student, he received the university’s highest honor—the Presidential Scholar Award—and his capstone project focused on the recitation of the Qur’an as a form of sacred music. Daniel has previously served as a singer, choir director, and organist at various churches, and currently serves as cantor and assistant choirmaster at St. Ambrose and St. Mary parishes in North Branford and New Haven.

New Jersey native Maura Tuffy (M.M. choral conducting ’21) is a conductor, vocalist, and collaborative artist. She holds a bachelor’s degree in choral music and vocal arts from the University of Southern California, where she studied with Jo-Michael Scheibe and Thomas Michael Allen. While at USC, she conducted the USC Thornton Concert Choir, USC ACDA BA Choral Lab, and served as the Concerto Chamber Orchestra’s first choir director. During the latter half of her collegiate studies, Maura focused on integrating other art forms, such as dance and visual art, into choral music. Through her music, she aspires to catalyze collaboration across all artistic fields.

A Dayton, Ohio native, Grant Wareham (M.M. organ ‘19) began organ studies in 2007. He earned his B.Mus. at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied organ with Ken Cowan, graduating cum laude and with distinction in research and creative work. While at Rice, Grant served as Moseley Memorial Organ Scholar at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church in Houston and then as associate organist at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church. Winner of both the first and audience prizes at the 2017 Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition in Hartford, Connecticut, Grant has appeared as a featured artist at the 2017 National Convention of the Organ Historical Society in St. Paul, Minnesota, and as a semifinalist in the 2019 Longwood International Organ Competition. Grant studies organ with Jon Laukvik after studying with professor Thomas Murray in his final year of teaching last academic year. He serves as the organist and choirmaster for the Episcopal Church at Yale, and also as organ scholar at Christ Church New Haven, where he works alongside Yale University Organist Emeritus Thomas Murray.

A Connecticut local, Karolina Wojteczko (M.M. voice ’20) has been singing in New Haven area churches since shortly after immigrating to the U.S. at age twelve from the small town of Dabrowa Bialostocka, Poland. She is a cantor at Saint Thomas More Chapel at Yale and at Saint Theresa’s and Saint Catherine’s churches in Trumbull, Connecticut. She holds a B.A. in vocal performance from Western Connecticut State University and has taught music at Saint Mary-Saint Michael Elementary School in Derby, Connecticut. Karolina enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She also enjoys traveling, great food, and fine wine.

Madeleine Woodworth (M.M. choral conducting ’20) hails from Oak Park, Illinois, and comes to Yale by way of the Eastman School of Music, where she graduated with a bachelor of music in organ performance in the studio of Nathan J. Laube. She has sung, conducted, and played in many contexts across the country including concert, competition, workshop, and church settings. She is a member of the international music fraternity Sigma Alpha Iota, as well as the Association of Anglican Musicians, the American Guild of Organists (where she serves on chapter boards), the Organ Historical Society, and the American Choral Directors Association. Outside of coursework, she serves as the minister of music at Trinity Lutheran Church in Milford, Connecticut.

Bin Xia (S.T.M. ’20) was born and raised in Wuhan, China. He is from the independent/house church movement in China. He majored in humanities studies and received his B.Phil. from Wuhan University. He had six years of leading campus ministry and church ministry in East China before going to the Boston area to study for his M.Div. More recently, he was doing church planting and theological education in Southwest China. He is interested in studying Anglican liturgy and how liturgy could shape Christian identity. Bin is married to Nan Xu and they have one son, Thomas.

Other students: Benjamin Bond (M.Div. ’22), Carolyn Craig (M.M. organ ’21), Meg Cutting (M.M. organ ’20), Alexandra Dreher (M.A.R. religion & music ’21), Mark Florig (M.A.R. liturgical studies ’21), Clara Gerdes (M.M. organ ’21), Ingrid Goetz (M.A.R. religion & visual arts ’21), Haven Herrin (M.Div. ’22), Ryan Kennedy (D.M.A. organ ’24), Joe Lerangis (D.M.A. choral conducting ’24), Alex Longnecker (M.M.A. voice ’21), Kelly Norris (M.A.R. religion & music ’21), Wyatt Reynolds (M.A.R. history of Christianity ’21), Kyler Schubkegel (M.A.R. religion & literature ’21), Andrea Walker (M.M. voice ’21), Abe Wallace (M.M. organ ’21).