Joshua Harper, D.Mus.
Artistic Director & Conductor
Dr. Joshua Harper was recently named the next Artistic Director for the Choral Society of Northeast Pennsylvania. He is the Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at Wilkes University. At Wilkes, Harper conducts the Chamber Singers and University Chorale. He also teaches music theory, private voice, and serves as the musical director for all musical productions. He moved to Wilkes from Prescott, Arizona where he served as the Director of Choral Activities at Yavapai College from 2019-2023. At Yavapai, he conducted four choirs, taught music theory courses, and music-directed multiple musical productions including Phantom Of The Opera, Hello, Dolly (starring Toni Tennille), Chicago, and Jane Eyre. Praised for his “inspired” conducting (The Daily Courier – Arizona), Harper is thrilled to be returning to The Arizona Philharmonic podium for his fifth season with the esteemed ensemble. Harper is the founder of the Quartz Ensemble, a fully professional chamber choir drawing singers from across the country of international renown. They will present Bach’s St. John Passion in March ’25 with the Arizona Philarhmonic, and have performed multiple concerts including Brahms’ Requiem (2022) and Mendelssohn’s Elijah (2023). Harper’s 22-23 season began as a featured soloist at “Jazz at Lincoln Center” with the American Artists Project in New York City. He returned to NYC in March ‘23, leading the Yavapai College choruses to Carnegie Hall for a performance of Verdi’s Requiem.
His scholarly research focuses on composer Caroline Shaw and her Pulitzer Prize-winning work Partita for 8 Voices. His most recent article on her work was published in the Fall 2020 issue of The Choral Scholar & American Choral Review. Harper can be found on Parma Recordings’ 2019 release “Preach, Sister, Preach” featuring soprano Katherine Jolly, where he conducted the premiere recording of Katherine Bodor’s Absent an Adjustment. In January 2016, he made his Canadian debut as one of the five conductors in North America invited to participate in the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir’s “Emerging Conductor Symposium” where he conducted the Grammy-nominated Elora Festival Singers and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Joshua was selected as a Conducting Fellow at the Yale University Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in 2015 studying with Simon Carrington, where he also sang as a tenor. He has performed under the batons of many of the world’s leading conductors including Franz Welser-Möst, Sir Neville Marriner, Leonard Slatkin, Giancarlo Guerrero, John Butt, and Simon Carrington.
A native of Huntsville, Alabama, he holds a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance and Music Composition from Lipscomb University (Nashville, TN), the Master of Music degree in choral conducting from UMass Amherst and the Doctor of Music degree from the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University with a minor in Music History and Literature.
Ron Stabinsky
Collaborative Pianist
Ron received his first musical lessons at the age of five from Michael Hoysock, his grandfather. He was later a student of Anne Vanko Liva in Scranton, PA. In 1995 he received a Bachelor of Music degree from Wilkes University, where he was a student of Thomas Hrynkiw. He has been featured as piano soloist with orchestras including the Schuylkill Symphony Orchestra (Pottsville, PA) in 1991 and 1996 and the Wyoming Seminary/Performing Arts Institute Civic Symphony Orchestra (Kingston,PA) in 2008. Ron has spent many summers accompanying and teaching at Encore Music Camp of Pennsylvania and Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, PA. Ron has performed in Arizona, New Mexico, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and throughout the Northeast. Outside the United States, he has played in Germany, Spain, England and Belgium. From 2004-2008, Ron worked extensively on a series of performances of the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas with violinist Sophie Till. In January 2007, he began presenting a series of music performances, primarily but not exclusively focused on improvisation, in Wilkes-Barre, PA. He received Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts Project Grants in 2007 and 2008 for this series. Since 2000, Ron has been studying the Taubman Approach to piano playing with Edna Golandsky in New York City. He is also a piano student of Ilya Itin. His mentors in the art of improvisation include Bill Dixon in Vermont and Joel Futterman in Virginia. He also studies jazz through correspondence with Charlie Banacos. Ron was the 2008 recipient of the F. Lammot Belin Arts Scholarship.
Linda Phillips Orseck
Soprano Section Leader
Singing with the community choral groups in Northeastern Pennsylvania since her high school years, Linda received her first musical training studying piano as a child with Bronis Voveris and later as a student and graduate student at Wilkes College with Anne Vanko Liva and Richard Chapline. In addition, she has attended conferences/master classes on conducting and choral singing with John Rutter, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Shaw and “Chanticleer”. She serves as accompanist for the children’s choruses of the Choral Society of NEPA and section leader and assistant conductor for its adult symphonic choir. In addition, Linda is also active in local musical and theatrical organizations, portraying on-stage roles for some productions, and serving as musical director and pianist for others. In past years she has served on the boards of Community Concerts in Wilkes-Barre, Wyoming Valley Oratorio Society and the Music Box Dinner Playhouse as well as the Wyoming Valley Council of Churches. Her professional affiliations include MENC, PMEA, PSEA, CRCCM, NPM and ACDA. A former director of liturgical music at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Scranton, Linda has worked since 1970 as a director of music for churches throughout Luzerne and Lackawanna County. Currently employed as a choral director and teacher in the Mid Valley School District, Linda also serves as Director of Music and Liturgy for St. Rose Parish in Carbondale. She resides in Scranton and continues to maintain an active piano and voice studio in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Area.
Jessica Hitchcock
Soprano Section Leader
Jessica Hitchcock is a classically trained soprano who is a section leader and regular soloist for both the Choral Society of NEPA, and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Pro-Cathedral, Wilkes Barre. Jessica is also a professional choir member at Temple B’nai B’rith, Kingston, and has performed as a featured soloist with the Arcadia Chorale and the Northeastern PA Philharmonic. Jessica has sung throughout the United States, notably in New York City at Carnegie Hall and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. She has also performed outside the country in Austria, Germany, Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey.
Aside from her regular performances as a soloist and chorister, Jessica owns and operates The Vocal Studio of Jessica Hitchcock, which is now in its seventeenth year offering high-quality voice and piano lessons to students of all ages. Jessica’s students have had continuous success at PMEA District, Regional, and State choir festivals, and have been accepted into music and theater programs at universities such as Carnegie Mellon, the University of the Arts, and the Catholic University of America. Jessica’s students have also had much success with receiving lead roles in both school and regional performances of musicals. Her studio focuses on teaching proper vocal technique, sight-reading and solfege, music theory, and proper diction in many languages (English, Italian, German, French, Latin). Jessica excels in audition preparation, and her studio has a strong emphasis on recital preparation and performance.
Jessica is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Mansfield University, with a degree in vocal performance. She lives in Blakely with her husband, Adam, and daughter Rachel.
Adam Hitchcock
Tenor Section Leader
Adam Hitchcock is an experienced tenor section leader and soloist, with over 20 years of performing in choral groups such as the Choral Society of NEPA, the St. Stephen’s Episcopal Pro-Cathedral choir, and the Mansfield University Festival Chorus. Adam is a frequent soloist throughout NEPA at weddings, funerals, and other events. Adam is also an experienced trumpeter, playing with ensembles and as a soloist throughout New York and Pennsylvania. He has been a founder of several brass quintets in New York and played in the Syracuse Jazz Festival with Wynton Marsalis. Adam lives in Blakely with his wife Jessica and daughter Rachel.
Zackery Drake
Bass Section Leader
Graduating from high school with a focus in music, Zackery Drake is now pursuing higher education at Wilkes University with a focus in Computer Science. As a musician, he regularly performs with the Choral Society of NEPA, the St. Stephen’s Episcopal Pro-Cathedral choir, the Wilkes University Chamber Singers, and plays clarinet for the Civic band of Wilkes University.”
Alan L. Baker, D.M.A.
Director Emeritus
A Professor of Music at Bloomsburg University, Alan Baker has served as the Society’s Artistic Director since its formation in 1999. Conducting the Society’s Symphonic Chorus and its adult chamber ensemble, the Choral Artists of Northeast Pennsylvania, he also guides and performs with the professional vocal ensemble, The Lyric Consort. From 1994-1998, Dr. Baker served as the Artistic Director of the Wyoming Valley Children’s Chorus, and coordinated the choral/vocal programs of the Encore Music Camp of Pennsylvania, and from 1999-2001, he assumed similar responsibilities with the Young Artists program of Wyoming Seminary’s summer Performing Arts Institute in Kingston, Pennsylvania.
A native of Springfield, Missouri; Dr. Baker holds advanced degrees from Temple and Stanford Universities, and has taught on the faculties of Temple University, California State University-Chico, Glassboro State College, and Wilkes University, where as Director of Choral and Vocal Program from 1993-1997, he founded the University’s Opera Workshop and Early Music Ensemble and was honored in 1996 with an “Outstanding Faculty” designation from the School of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. In 2002, he was similarly honored with the “Dean’s Salute to Excellence” from Bloomsburg University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Baker has served as president of the Pennsylvania Collegiate Choral Association and the Repertoire and Standards Chair for Male Choruses with Pennsylvania ACDA. He has also served the executive committee of the latter organization as its treasurer, and has twice been invited to sit on the choral/opera review panel for the PA Council on the Arts. Dr. Baker has recorded for Lyrichord Records with the studio ensemble, Schola Discantus, for Stanford University Recordings, and most recently with The Lyric Consort for WVIA and Lyric Discs.
Dr. Baker was appointed Director Emeritus by the Board of Directors of the Choral Society in November 2024.