Musician Biographies

Angela Bartholomew, Soprano, graduated from West Chester University in 2014 with a Bachelor's in Music Education where she studied voice. In addition to being associate musician at Church of the Holy Spirit, she taught elementary music in Philadelphia until 2017, and has now been teaching Family & Consumer Sciences in Upper Dublin School District since 2019. Angee has been a member of Holy Spirit since 2002 and is raising her two daughters here as well. Angee has a passion for working with children and teaching music and enjoys singing in the Holy Spirit choir.

Peter Christian is a composer and singer based in Philadelphia. His music, described as “inexplicably ethereal” (Philadelphia Inquirer), has been featured at the Philadelphia Fringe, Cannonball, and Neighborhood House Play Festivals. His collaborations with multidisciplinary artist Bethany Collins, described as “materially resonant” (Artnet), have been showcased at Prospect New Orleans, Alexander Gray Associates, and Crystal Bridges Museum. As a singer, he has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Barnes Foundation, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center with ensembles such as The Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia, and The Crossing. He appears in the Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro (2023) and sings on its Grammy Award-winning soundtrack (Deutsche Grammophon), conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Peter is a PhD candidate and Lecturer in music at Rutgers University and previously studied at West Chester University.

Shannon Coulter has performed as a soprano soloist and chorister for four decades. Currently, she can be heard singing in choirs at Christ Church Philadelphia, with Singing City and the Temple University Singing Owls, and at the High Holy Days at Rodeph Shalom on Broad Street in Philadelphia. Shannon has performed operatic roles including Susanna in the Marriage of Figaro and premiered works by current composers like Andrea Clearfield’s Women of Valor (East Coast premiere) and Rollo Dilworth’s “Weather.” She is currently finishing a degree in Respiratory Therapy and looks forward to working in healthcare in the new year.

Sue Ellen Echard is Minister of Music, Arts and Formation at Church of the Holy Spirit, Episcopal, Harleysville, PA serving this parish for 26 years. Over her career she has worked as choral director, workshop leader, Kindermusik® teacher, recitalist, teacher of organ and piano, spiritual director and Christian formation director. She specializes in choir and community building through music and formation and was recruited early in the founding of Church of Holy Spirit to build music, arts and youth ministry programs. Under her leadership, the choirs have grown to over 60 youth and adult participants in singing, instrumental and handbell choirs and early in the parish life she developed and integrated the Journey to Adulthood youth program. The church continues to grow and thrive. In recent years, Sue Ellen led choral residencies at Bristol Winchester, Lincoln and Exeter Cathedrals in England,has served on the music staff of Bel Canto Children’s Chorus and the Royal School of Church Music at the King’s College Course, the executive committee of the American Guild of Organists Philadelphia Chapter and the Liturgy and Music and Prayer Book renewal committees of the Diocese of PA. She holds degrees in theology and sacred music from Cairn University and Westminster Choir College. She completed studies in choral conducting at the Choral Institute at Oxford and training and certification in Spiritual Direction through the Adelynrood School for Spiritual Direction.

Matthew Eng is a keyboardist living in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Raised in Moorestown, New Jersey, he studied piano with Emma Brailovsky and Veda Zuponcic, participating in regional, national, and international competitions and festivals. In his post-secondary studies, he completed a degree in piano performance under Professor Douglas Humpherys at the Eastman School of Music. He has performed across the country in both competition and recital, from Georgia to Maine, Utah to New York, Texas to Minnesota, and internationally in Austria and Japan. He enjoys collaborative performance, having played with vocalists and instrumentalists in both solo and chamber settings, as well as in orchestras as a violinist and percussionist. Most recently, he has had the honor of studying organ under Parker Kitterman, music director and organist at Christ Church in Old City, Philadelphia, and this evening’s conductor. Matt balances music with a full-time career in the IT and Data Center field. In his personal life, he enjoys cooking, judo, and making new friends.

Parker Kitterman is a keyboardist, composer, conductor and collaborative musician. Since 2010 he has served as Director of Music and Organist at historic Christ Church, Philadelphia, where in 2018 he oversaw the installation and dedication of a landmark pipe organ, C.B. Fisk’s Op. 150. As soloist and accompanist, Parker has performed with a wide range of artists, including the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Piffaro Renaissance Band, and Singing City Choir. Parker holds degrees from Duke University, the Yale School of Music/Institute of Sacred Music, and the Brussels Conservatory, where he studied organ on a Fulbright Fellowship. He was a finalist in international organ competitions in Toulouse and Musashino (Tokyo). 

A winner of the 2021 King’s Singers New Music Prize for his choral piece “The Singing Bowl,” Kitterman is a composer with wide-ranging interests and influences whose music can be heard on a weekly basis at Christ Church. One large-scale work, Requiem for the Charleston Nine was described as “producing a seamless fabric in which plainchant, modern classical, and jazz styles not merely co-exist but come together to proffer a whole greater than the sum of their individual parts.” (Chestnut Hill Local)

Soprano Jessica Mary Murphy began her performing career as a child singer/actor in Minneapolis, MN. After graduating from the University of Michigan's Musical Theatre Program, Ms. Murphy was cast in several regional productions in the Midwest and Northeast, as well as touring companies in the US and Asia. Favorite roles include Sister Margaretta (The Sound of Music), Kate Murphey (Titanic), and Madame de la Grande Bouche/ u/s Mrs. Potts (Disney's Beauty and the Beast). Her voice always classically inclined, Ms. Murphy returned to academia to complete her graduate work in classical voice performance at Westminster Choir College (Princeton, NJ). Hailed as an “exceptional soloist,” who “demonstrates great control while singing at an incredibly soft dynamic, especially at the top of her range," Ms. Murphy's favorite opera roles include Frasquita (Carmen), Giulietta (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), and Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare). Ms. Murphy is a Soprano on the Chorus Roster with Opera Philadelphia under Chorus Master Elizabeth Braden and is the Soprano Section Leader/Soloist at Christ Church in Philadelphia.

Tenor Ryan Ordnung received his bachelors of music in vocal performance from Penn State University, where he studied a variety of musical styles ranging from early baroque to contemporary musical theatre. Much of his studies were focused on choral music which has also been his main performance focus since leaving school. He has worked in, and around Philadelphia with such groups as; Apollo’s Fire, Vars Nexus, the Parson Brown Singers, and Christ Church Philadelphia.

Baritone Geoffrey Schmelzer, a Skokie, IL native, has been a Resident Artist at Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) and Section Leader at Christ Church since September 2023. Geoffrey’s AVA credits include Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, the Count in Capriccio, David in L’amico Fritz, Valentin in Faust, and Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Other professional engagements include Opera Baltimore, Opera Saratoga, The Glimmerglass Festival, Central City Opera, and Finger Lakes Opera. His concert credits include Carmina Burana, Requiems of Duruflé and Fauré, Ravel’s Histoires naturelles, Handel’s Messiah, and various excerpts in AVA’s sacred music concert, Jubilate! This summer, Geoffrey will sing John Cree in Kevin Puts’ opera Elizabeth Cree as a Lehrer Vocal Institute Fellow at the Music Academy of the West. Geoffrey has won First Place at Opera Mississippi’s John Alexander National Vocal Competition (Young Artist Crossover), Northwestern University’s Concerto Competition, Third Place at AVA’s Giargiari Bel Canto Competition, and Encouragement Awards from the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. He holds degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois. 

Seth Trumbore graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor's in Piano Peformance and Piano Pedagogy, where he studied with Harvey Wedeen. In addition to being an associate musician at Church of the Holy Spirit, Harleysville, Seth is also a piano technician serving the greater Philadelphia area. He has a passion for chamber music, and enjoys collaborating with other musicians whenever he can and has served on the collaborative piano staff of Westminster Choir College.

Cecilia Wagner was born into a very large, singing family in Quincy, Illinois.  Choir rehearsals and being part of an organized team were a way of life from the beginning.  After her masters' degree work at the Marjorie Lawrence Opera Theater Department at Southern Illinois University, she made a connection to esteemed voice teacher Barbara Honn and moved to Philadelphia for further study. In the past three decades, she has sung dozens of seasons with multiple area ensembles, recording with a small early music ensemble In Clara Voce, and the professional quartet at Congregation Rodeph Shalom where she still sings in the octet for High Holy Days.  For twenty-five years she organized summer choir camps in Cape May, NJ and was the creator of all things fun for the kids in St. Peter's Church Choral Sholar program.  Cecilia is currently the Parish Administrator for Christ Church and, of course, sings in the choir.