Dr. John Sinclair was appointed the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Bach Festival Society in 1990. He selects all choral and orchestral works to be performed for the Choral Masterworks Concert Series and the Winter Park Bach Festival, as well as contracting visiting artists for all series. He conducts all performances and rehearsals of the Bach Festival Choir as well as their weekly rehearsals. Under his leadership, the Winter Park Bach Festival has earned high critical praise and is widely considered to be one of the finest oratorio choirs in the state of Florida and among the best in the U.S.

Dr. Sinclair is the Director of Music for Rollins College and holds the John M. Tiedtke Chair of Music. A master teacher, he has received many awards, including the Hugh F. McKean Teaching Award and the Arthur Vining Davis Fellowship, the two highest awards bestowed on Rollins College faculty members. He was twice named United Arts of Central Florida’s “Outstanding Music Educator of the Year” in consecutive years.

Dr. Nola Reed Knouse holds degrees from Wake Forest University and the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, with specialization in eighteenth-century German music theory and performance.

She has held teaching positions at the Eastman School of Music, Oregon State University, North Carolina School of the Arts Community Music School, Wake Forest University, and Salem College. Her articles and book reviews have appeared in Current Musicology, Music Theory Spectrum, Journal of Undergraduate Mathematics, and the Moravian Music Journal. In addition to her work as Director of the Moravian Music Foundation, she is active as a flutist, composer, and arranger. She is a lifelong Moravian and a native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Donna Rothrock has been director of the Salem Trombone Choir since it was revived in 1984. Under her leadership, the choir has performed in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina. In 2008 they participated in the 11th Annual North Carolina Trombone Festival, for which they have asked to return in 2009. They also participated in the 2001 European Brass Festival in Berlin, Bläsertag 2001. She has arranged numerous works for the choir.

A lifelong Moravian, “Dr. Donna” is a member of Trinity Moravian Church (aka “Trinity South”) and serves as band director at Clemmons Moravian Church. She has taught instrumental music in both public and private schools in North Carolina, as well as in several area churches. She has held adjunct positions in music education at Appalachian State University and UNC Greensboro. She is currently the Fine Arts Center Librarian and Assistant Professor of Music Education at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she oversees the music library, conducts the chamber orchestra, and teaches brass and percussion methods. She holds degrees from UNC Chapel Hill, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and UNC Greensboro. In 2003 she had the pleasure to serve as Festival Trombone Choir Director for the 21st Moravian Music Festival. Her research interests include post-Civil War instrumental community music ensembles and musicians.

Rebecca Kleintop Owens is the Director of Music at the historic Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem, PA. She was previously the Senior Organist at the internationally televised Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Prior to her position in For Lauderdale, she held positions of Organist and Choir Director of the Woodside Presbyterian Church in Yardly, PA and organist of the West Side Moravian Church in Bethlehem, PA.

Rebecca graduated with an Artist Diploma in organ performance from the world-renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, PA where she studied on a full scholarship with John Weaver. Originally trained as a pianist, Rebecca’s musical interest turned to the organ while a student of Richard Van Auken at Moravian College where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Music Degree.

She is both an active solo recitalist and clinician, performing concerts and conducting workshops throughout the east coast, as well as an active accompanist. She was organist for the 2003 Atlanta Boy Choir European Tour and has also played for and with a vast array of notable artists including Marie Claire Alain, Roger Williams, Nielson and Young, Roger Blackburn, and Christine Anderson. While residing in Philadelphia, she served as an assistant organist at the famed Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, the largest playing musical instrument in the world.

In 1996, Laura Jane Fuller Kist founded the Messiah Choristers, sponsored by Messiah Moravian Church, to function both as a church choir and a community outreach program. She directed the chorister program from 1996-2008 for boys and girls in grades 3-12. In addition to singing monthly at Messiah Moravian Church the choristers sang for a variety of occasions in the community. Also included in the training scheme was a Primary Choir for grades K-2 to introduce children to musical concepts and singing in order to ease the transition into the full chorister program in the 3rd grade. Choristers received structured training in musical and vocal skills, Christian Education, and general rehearsal and worship discipline.

Laura Jane directs the Wake Forest University Divinity School Choir. Previously she has been music director at Messiah Moravian Church, Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, and assistant in the youth choral activities at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. She has taught in the piano preparatory departments of Southern Methodist University and Salem College, directed the piano preparatory program at Goshen College, and taught piano pedagogy at Salem College. She has been a frequent accompanist for both choral groups and soloists. After graduating from Salem Academy, she received a B.M. in Piano Performance from UNC-Chapel Hill and an M.M in Piano Pedagogy and Performance from Southern Methodist University.

Laura Jane is an avid student of the Alexander Technique. She is a frequent participant in continuing education opportunities and has in recent years attended the McClosky Institute of Voice, Westminster Choir College’s Summer Sessions, Furman University’s annual Church Music Conference, the VoiceCare Network’s Impact and Conducting Courses, East Carolina University’s Religious Arts Festival, and the Royal School of Church Music’s Summer Courses.

Laura Jane is married to Werner and they have three sons – Jefferson, Hans and Morgan.
In her “non-musical” life, she works in the purchasing department of Wake Forest University.

Alex Helsabeck has regretfully withdrawn from participation in this year's Moravian Music festival. We are delighted to introduce Adam Micah Ward who will lead the vocal techniques workshop for men.

Adam Micah Ward is the Director of Music Ministries at Providence United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. At Providence, Adam oversees a large music ministry program, and will be involved with instituting a music academy for the community. His work also involves leading the church’s organ committee in the design and procurement of a new organ for their worship space.

Before coming to Providence, Adam served as the Organist and Choirmaster at First United Methodist Church of Salisbury, North Carolina for ten and a half years, where he also directed the Concert Choir, Inc. of Salisbury.

Receiving the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Organ Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Adam also studied piano, harpsichord, voice and choral conducting at the University. Adam will complete the Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ Performance at UNC-G in December of 2009. During his time at the University, Adam has accompanied the University Chorale, the University Men’s Glee Club, and has been an adjunct lecturer in organ. He is the Past Dean of the American Guild of Organists Greater-Greensboro Chapter.

Having performed throughout the Southeast United States, Adam has presented recitals at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC, at St. Philip’s Cathedral in Atlanta, and at Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg. He has also performed at the York Minster in Great Britain as well as recitals in Treviso and Torre del Greco in Italy.

Adam is the proud father of his three-year old son, Benjamin Michael Ward.

Diane Thornton has been a part of the festival team for some months and it is only the oversight of the committee that her biography is being added at this late date. She will lead the vocal techniques workshop for Women.

Diane Thornton has performed as a soloist with a number of opera companies and orchestras, as a chamber music artist, and as a recitalist across the United States, garnering solid accolades that include five Opera News reviews. She performed roles in eight different engagements for Piedmont Opera Theater, was repeatedly invited to sing roles for Greensboro Opera and Opera Carolina, and was a guest artist for other opera companies in the eastern United States. Combining her interest in opera with that of contemporary music, she premiered works by American composers Sam Dennison and Joseph Summer through the Billings Institute of American Music and the Contemporary Opera Company of America, respectively. Among other venues through which she has premiered American vocal works are the Carolina Composers Symposium, the Penn Composers Guild, the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival, and the Davidson College Concert Series. Contemporary pieces (along with a variety of “classical” genres) have also been featured in recitals she has offered at institutions such as the Reynolda House Museum of American Art, The ACS New Music Festival, and the Weymouth Artist Series. Even orchestral performances have sometimes involved contemporary works; but the bulk of Thornton’s orchestral engagements has been that of pre-twentieth century composers and, especially, baroque music through such organizations as the Charlotte Symphony, the New England Symphonic Ensemble in Carnegie Hall, the Kansas City Symphony, and the South Carolina Philharmonic.

In the midst of her performing career, Thornton found herself transitioning from mezzo-soprano to contralto as the result of being a breast cancer survivor.

While teaching at Davidson, Thornton has created and overseen initiatives to aid in the total musical growth of vocal students. In addition to producing many special workshops, performances, and masterclasses, she has created chamber music opportunities for vocal students in recital, encouraging dialogue between instrumentalists and singers and emphasizing the importance of collaborating with others towards the complete communication of the “marriage” of music and text. Towards a deeper understanding of such a collaboration, Thornton herself regularly offers solo recital and chamber music concerts on the Davidson campus.

Gwyneth Michel, Assistant Director of the Moravian Music Foundation, is a graduate of Moravian College and Westminster Choir College, from which she received a master's degree in Church Music. A veteran of nearly thirty years in the music industry, Gwyn was in charge of the church music divisions of Shawnee Press, Belwin Mills, and Warner Bros. Publications. Her responsibilities at Warner Bros. included the retention and expansion of the esteemed H.W. Gray catalog, home to some of the earliest and most beloved Moravian Music editions.

Gwyn is an active church musician. She has served numerous Moravian churches as organist/choir director, including her current position as Director of Music at College Hill Moravian Church in Bethlehem, PA. She also spent two years in Germany as Director of Music at the Moravian congregation in Neuwied-am-Rhein.