Abigail Frost, Artistic Director is leading Chorus North Shore in a vibrant direction for her second season, mingling classical and modern composers and music. She has taught music at many levels and has sung in several ensembles.

Ms. Frost has taught at the middle and high school, community, and collegiate levels. Now in her ninth year at Ipswich High School (IHS), she is Director of Choirs, conducting the Ipswich High School Concert Choir, Bel Canto Treble Chorus and Chamber Singers. Her choral students are regularly selected to District and All-State Honor Choirs. She also teaches classical guitar and theory, and is Music Director for the spring musical. For fifteen years, she served as Choral Conductor for First Church in Wenham, where she led the Senior and Junior Choirs in regular worship and biannual works with orchestra including Amahl and the Night Visitors and the Faure Requiem.

Her extensive experience as a director, vocal coach and musical director for opera and musical theater includes productions at: Ipswich High School, Stage 284 at the Community House in Hamilton, Manchester Summerstage, Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School,
Miles River Middle School, and Stebens Children’s Theater.

Her own stage credits include plays, musical theater and opera, and many years of choral singing with
● Lyricora
● Lorelei Ensemble
● Boston Cecilia
● Tanglewood Symphony Chorus
● Tucson Chamber Artists (now True Concord)
● Tucson Symphony Chorus

Ms. Frost has presented at the All-State Convention for the National Association for Music Education and for the Massachusetts chapter of American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). She has served as guest conductor and has led clinics at the state and regional levels with singers of all ages. Ms. Frost has served on the MassACDA State Board as Repertoire and Standards Chair for Middle School.

Before coming to Massachusetts, Ms. Frost led singers in the Tucson Girls Chorus, the University of Arizona undergraduate choirs, public schools of Mason City, Iowa, and sacred choirs in both Tucson, AZ and Decorah, IA.

Ms. Frost earned a dual music education and performance degree from Luther College (IA) under Weston Noble, Sandra Peter, and Tim Peter, and she was chorus master for Luther College Opera Theatre and president of the Nordic Choir. She holds a Masters in Choral
Conducting from University of Arizona under Bruce Chamberlain and Elizabeth Schauer, as well as National Board Certification. A native Minnesotan, Ms. Frost lives in Ipswich with her daughter.

Kay Patterson, soprano, classical soprano based in Boston.

Equally comfortable on operatic and concert stages, with a specialty in early music, Kay has been praised as being a “delight” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) and hailed as “a soulful highlight” (Boston Classical Review).  She appears regularly with Boston Lyric Opera, Odyssey Opera, Emmanuel Music and Cantata Singers. Past engagements include appearances with:

• Boston Ballet
• Connecticut Early Music Festival
• Boston Modern Orchestra Project
• Andover Choral Society
• North End Music & Performing Arts Center
• Opera Providence
• Masterworks Chorale
• Castle of Our Skins
• Chorus North Shore
• Back Bay Chorale

She is also creator and host of the YouTube channel, The Organized Soprano which produces short films about home organizing,  homemaking, and life as a classical singer. Her home organizing advice has appeared in publications, daytime television and conferences
including Better Homes & Gardens, Consumer Reports, Real Simple, The Wall Street Journal & BuzzFeed. www.theorganizedsoprano.com

Grace Allendorf, mezzo-soprano

Flourishing mezzo-soprano Grace Allendorf is known for her “creamy timbre, evenness of color and coloratura agility.” A consummate musician, she is dedicated to performing opera, oratorio, art song, musical theatre, and new music. She is thrilled to be performing with
Chorus North Shore for the first time!

Grace made her debut with Opera 51 as a member of the chorus in their production of Faust and she performed the role of Dew Fairy in
Hansel and Gretel with Longwood Opera. She has shared the stage as a soloist with:

• Milton Community Concerts
• American Classics
• Concord Community Chorus
• Coro Allegro
• Andover Choral Society
• Metropolitan Wind Symphony
• Freisinger Chamber Orchestra
• Spectrum Singers

She was honored to premiere the role of Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty by Francine Trester as a second-year apprentice in the Nahant Music Festival in 2014. Other premieres include works by Charles Tarver, Josh Hummel, and Dominick DiOrio.

Grace has been a core member of Ensemble Lyrae since its formation in 2016. The pianist and four vocalists seek to illuminate musical works often unknown or under-played. They also premiere cutting-edge pieces written specifically for the Ensemble, including works by
Vartan Aghababian, Charles Tarver, Brian John, and Eva Kendrick.

Grace holds the position of Administrative Director of Community Performances and Partnerships at New England Conservatory, a community service based program designed to connect students with the community. Her role there has reinvigorated her passion for
giving back to the community through music. She has performed solo recitals at a number of senior care facilities including Fuller Village, Needham Council on Aging, Chestnut Hill Benevolent Association, Norwood Housing Authority, Café Emmanuel, and Hale House.

Grace currently serves as a section leader and Hunsaker soloist at First Parish in Milton. She holds a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance from Longy School of Music and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music with a minor in Theatre Arts from Brandeis University. Grace belongs to Beyond Artists, a coalition of artists that pledge a portion of their concert fees to organizations they care about and therefore publicize the nonprofit’s work. With every performance she supports Norwood Circle of Hope, established to support Norwood residents who need assistance due to a catastrophic medical occurrence.

Thomas Smoker, tenor

singer, pianist, and arranger who is the Choral Director for the Rockport Public Middle & High Schools, in Rockport, MA. Prior to that, he served as an Assistant Professor of Voice at Berklee College of Music.

Thomas has over 15 years of experience in performing, teaching, coaching, directing, leading workshops and symposiums. A member of many national music organizations for voice and educators he regularly directs, composes and arranges for community, collegiate, and high school musicals, concerts and special events. Thomas also performs in opera, oratorio, musical theater, solo concerts & cabarets and is often sought after throughout New England and Mid-Atlantic.

As an adjunct faculty member in the performing arts department at Endicott College, he directed music ensembles and taught performing arts classes. He was co-Founder & co-Executive Director at SoulCove Center for the Arts in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. On Thursday evenings in the summer of 2024, you would have found him soloing at the piano bar at the Emerson Inn in Rockport. Thomas holds a graduate degree in Vocal Performance & Opera from The Boston Conservatory.

Jacob Cooper, Baritone

As reported on the pages of the Handel and Haydn Society:

Jacob Cooper’s ebullient stage presence has been recognized on the opera stage (“stunning” – The Boston Globe), in recital, and as a dynamic omponent of ensembles. He is a member of many of New England’s premiere period ensembles, including solo turns with the Handel and Haydn Society, Emmanuel Music, Arcadia Players, and Cambridge Concentus. Other recent solo appearances have included the Blue Hill Bach Festival, Colla Parte sackbut ensemble, Juventas New Music Ensemble, the Weckmann Project, Monadnock Chorus, the Heritage Chorale, and the Falmouth Chorale. He has performed with a range of ensembles, including Boston Baroque, Boston Modern
Opera Project, Marsh Chapel Choir, and Odyssey Opera, among others. An active church musician, he currently sings at Church of the Advent in Boston.

Jeffrey Patch, keyboardist and music director who has worked extensively in the field of musical theater for dozens of high school, college, and community theater productions. He has been a performing member of the Melrose Symphony Orchestra and the Cape Ann Symphony
Orchestra.

In 2003, Mr. Patch joined the Ipswich Public Schools as choral accompanist for all schools. Two years later he was appointed Choral  Director for Ipswich High School, a position he held for 11 years. During his tenure, the program continued to strengthen, with the choirs
receiving continual recognition for outstanding achievement and excellence in performance. Since 2009 he has served as accompanist for the MMEA Northeast District Senior Festival Chorus.

Previously, he established a new, full-time music program at Bishop Fenwick H.S. in Peabody (1983), serving as its director for 14 years. During this time he also began a 25-year career in Music Ministry as music director, choir director, and organist/keyboardist
at several area parishes, most recently at St. Richard Parish in Danvers.

Jeffrey Patch earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in music education from The Catholic University of America’s School of Music in Washington, D.C., specializing in piano performance (studying with Antoinette Melignani and William Masselos) and choral conducting (studying with Robert Shafer).

Now retired from full-time teaching and music ministry, Jeff continues to freelance as a collaborative pianist for school and community choruses, vocalists, and instrumentalists, and remains very active as pit keyboardist for musical theater productions in the area.

Cover Design: Joanne Giallombardo
Program Committee: Annmarie Baldeserotto, Laura Dietz, Joanne Giallombardo, Anne Mills, Suzanne Munroe, Sarah Simon, BB. Wright
Printing: Minuteman Press, Newburyport
Webmaster: Marc Lemay

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