Conductor  Assistant Conductor Accompanist

Susan Medley       Bryan Sable   Jim Burns

(see bio below)  (see bio below) (see bio below)

Junior Mendelssohn singers are led in sectional rehearsals and instructed in vocal technique by adult voice faculty, made up of members of the Mendelssohn Choir's professional core.  This allows students to interact regularly  with highly trained professional vocalists, and allows a student-faculty ratio of 7-1 or less.

Soprano Section Faculty	Nancy Klimcheck
Altos Section Faculty	Katy Shackleton Williams
Tenors Section Faculty	Bryan Sable
Basses Section Faculty	Bruce Klimcheck

 Bryan Sable, Assistant Conductor and Tenor Faculty Member

Bryan Sable graduated cum laude with a BA in Music Education from West Liberty State College where he studied piano with David Zapka, and composition with Dr. Kenneth Mahy. Sable also holds a M.Ed. in Administration, K-12, from California University of Pennsylvania. He has been a member of the Professional Core of The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh for four years, and is thrilled to be back as the Assistant Conductor of Junior Mendelssohn for his second season with the group!

Sable serves as a faculty member at City Charter High School, a highly successful urban charter school in the Cultural District of downtown Pittsburgh. There, he teaches Introduction to Music, World Music Drumming, Guitar, Piano, and Chorus. Prior to City Charter High School, Bryan served the Ohio County School District in Wheeling, WV, as an elementary and middle school music teacher.

Sable served as Music Director at Christ United Methodist Church, Wheeling, and is currently the Music Assistant at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Mt. Lebanon.


Nancy Klimcheck, Soprano Faculty Member

Nancy M. Klimcheck is a graduate of West Virginia University with a Bachelors Degree in Vocal Performance and a Masters Degree in Music Education. She is a Pittsburgh Concert Society Award winner, toured Europe with W.V.U. ‘s Collegium Musicum and with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, and made her Pittsburgh Symphony debut in 2005 as the Soprano soloist in Haydn’s Mass in Time of War. She and her husband, Bruce, sang in Marvin Hamlisch’s Music Man production at Heinz Hall, featuring Shirley Jones, in October of last year. Nancy played the role of Eulalie Mackecknie Shin.

Nancy has been a member of the Professional Core of the Mendelssohn Choir for seventeen years. When she was sixteen, she was the youngest auditioned member of the choir prior to the creation of the Junior Mendelssohn Choir. She has also been a teaching staff member of the Junior Mendelssohn Choir for nine years.

Nancy currently teaches private lessons in her home studio and at Washington & Jefferson College, and teaches the Advanced Voice class at Point Park University‘s Summer sessions.


Katy Shackleton Williams, Alto Faculty Member

Katy Shackleton Williams has gained local popularity with her involvement in the Mendelssohn Choir, Pittsburgh Symphony, River City Brass Band and Pittsburgh Opera. Ms. Williams has been a featured soloist for the Pittsburgh Symphony Holiday Pops concert series and Fiddlesticks Concerts many times, and she made her Pittsburgh Symphony Mellon Grand Classics debut in September 2005. She has toured with the River City Brass Band as a featured soloist in their concerts. She was a soloist in the Heinz Hall performance of The Lord of the Rings, and has performed with the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. Operatic roles include ‘Adele’ in Die Fledermaus, ‘First Mother’ in Dead Man Walking, ‘Love’ in Orfeo and Eurydice and ‘Barbarina’ in The Marriage of Figaro. Notable solo engagements include performances of the Bernstein Chichester Psalms, Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem, Handel Messiah, Bach St. John’s Passion, and Cantatas 74, 51 and 202, Dubois Seven Last Words of Christ, Barber Prayers of Kirkegaard, Holst Christmas Day, Archer, Brahms, Durufle, Faure, Mozart and Rutter Requiem, and Poulenc, Rutter and Vivaldi Gloria.

Ms. Williams has recorded Leonardo Balada’s Encenas Borracones with New World Records and his La Muerte de Colon under the Naxos label. Currently, she is a member of the professional core for the Mendelssohn Choir, chorister in Pittsburgh Opera and a staff member of the Jr. Mendelssohn Choir. She is the soprano soloist at Rodef Shalom, Oakland, Artist in Residence at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mt. Lebanon, and is on the voice faculty at Washington & Jefferson College. Ms. Williams is an honors graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Vocal Performance. She resides in Mt. Lebanon with her husband and two children.


Bruce Klimcheck, Bass Faculty Member

Bruce Klimcheck has been a member of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh for fifteen years. This is his third season as bass faculty member for the Jr. Mendelssohn Choir. He serves as the Bass Section Leader and quartet member in the Westminster Presbyterian Church Choir.

Klimcheck graduated magna cum laude from West Virginia University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education. He starred in the role of Frankie for two years in Pittsburgh’s first production of Forever Plaid at Station Square Theater, and recently appeared in Marvin Hamlisch’s Music Man production at Heinz Hall, featuring Shirley Jones.

In his “day job,” Klimcheck is a Postmaster for the US Postal Service. He resides in Bethel Park with his wife Nancy.

 Susan Medley leads the organization as Music Director of the Junior Mendelssohn Choir and Associate Conductor of the (adult) Mendelssohn Choir.  Medley also serves as Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor of Music at Washington & Jefferson College. Under her direction, the W&J Camerata Singers have appeared at the MENC Eastern Division Conference, the PMEA State Conference, and by invitation at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City.  In 2010 the Camerata Singers became the first recipients of American Prize in Choral Performance, College/University Division. The Junior Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh followed suit in 2011, winning The American Prize in Choral Performance, High School Division. Prior to coming to the Pittsburgh area she served as Associate Director of Education at Carnegie Hall in New York City and founding conductor/clinician of the Carnegie Hall High School Choral Festivals.  She also held the position of Music Director of The Central City Chorus, a 60-voice community chorus that performed three annual concerts in midtown Manhattan.  Medley’s choral work has taken her to Malaysia, where she served as guest conductor of the 2006 Kuala Lumpur Young Singers Choral Festival and led workshops for choirs and conductors throughout the country.  The 2011 recipient of the PMEA District 1 Citation of Excellence Award, Medley holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral conducting with a cognate in music theory from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.  She holds an M.M. in accompanying from the University of Akron and a B.M. in music education summa cum laude from Kent State University, where she studied piano with Naumburg Award-winning pianist Margaret Baxtresser.

James Burns is now in his eleventh season as accompanist for the Junior Mendelssohn.  Mr. Burns has performed extensively throughout the region for the past decade with such groups as The Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, The Pittsburgh Ballet, and accompanied the Mendelssohn Chamber Singers in their highly acclaimed performance at the Library of  Congress.  He has performed in over thirty-five productions of the Civic Light Opera and  will participate in its upcoming season.  As an organist, he has appeared at Trinity Cathedral, Temple Rodef Shalom, and Heinz Chapel.  He has had the pleasure of bringing music to young students through his work with educational outreach programs for Gateway to Music and the Pittsburgh Opera.

Staff bios and publicity photos can be downloaded from the Press section.

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