Trudy Weaver Miller             Daniel Molkentin 

 

Trudy Weaver Miller 
Co-founder & Co-artistic Director

 
Trudy Weaver Miller was program director of the Schubertiade Festival at the Tisch Center for the Arts at the 92nd Street Y in New York for its ten-year run in the 1980s-1990s. During that time she worked closely with its protagonist, the late German baritone Hermann Prey, and produced concerts featuring Mr. Prey, along with pianists James Levine and András Schiff, and the Tokyo String Quartet, Juilliard String Quartet, and the New York Chamber Symphony, among many others. Each year the Festival integrated performances of Schubert’s music with gallery exhibits, day-long symposia, vocal master classes, and other humanities events. Ms. Weaver Miller and Schubertiade musicological advisor and writer, Dr. Christopher Gibbs (Bard College), were honored with the 1998 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for a 68-page Schubertiade concert program book, “Schubert’s Final Years,” published in 1997.
 
Ms. Weaver Miller has been involved in the classical music industry in many capacities. She began her arts administration career as an assistant in the vocal division with the Thea Dispeker Artist Management firm; she was a partner in Die Schöne Müllerin Music Services, a classical music production company; and she worked as a production consultant for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Landmark Performances at Town Hall, the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and for the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), based in Washington, DC. 
 
In 1998, Ms. Weaver Miller was named executive director of the Berkshire Choral Festival in Sheffield, Massachusetts. She retired as President & CEO of that organization in March 2010, having served for nearly twenty years in many capacities. She continues to be involved with the Choral Festival in the summers as its program editor.
 
It was through the Berkshire Choral Festival that Ms. Weaver Miller worked with Daniel Molkentin and discovered their mutual interest in learning, teaching, language, and singing. They are co-founders and co-artistic directors of SingersBabel, a web-based business providing musicians with lyric diction resources and tools for preparing texts in foreign languages.
 
Ms. Weaver Miller studied composition with Charles Jones at the Mannes College of Music. A mezzo-soprano, she performed as soloist with regional orchestras and opera companies and was an active professional chorister in the New York concert scene for many years. She now lives in the Berkshires with her family.
  

 

 

Daniel Molkentin 
Co-founder & Co-artistic Director

Daniel Molkentin, teaches English and German diction in the Mannes College Extension Division and has served as the German diction coach for many ensembles, including the Bard Summer Music Festival, Berkshire Choral Festival, Clarion Music Society, Liederkranz Opera Theatre, Manhattan School of Music Symphonic Chorus, Oratorio Society of New York, and Westchester Choral Society. Through his work with these ensembles he had the opportunities to collaborate with conductors Leon Botstein, Stephen Fox, Vance George, Jane Glover, Liz Hastings, Frank Nemhauser, Stephen Smith, and Kent Tritle on a wide range of works. Mr. Molkentin’s passion for teaching diction led him join forces with Trudy Weaver Miller to co-found and develop SingersBabel, a website dedicated to providing singers and musicians with lyric diction resources and tools for preparing texts in foreign languages. His translations and pronunciation guides of German choral and solo works such as Matthäus Passion, Die Schöpfung, Ein deutsches Requiem, Dichterliebe, and Winterreise, are being used with increasing frequency around the United States.

 

Mr. Molkentin also enjoys an active schedule performing works ranging from the 16th to 21st centuries. This season brings performances of Schubert’s Winterreise, Marschner’s Der Vampyr (Gadshill) with the Liederkranz Opera Theatre, and Mozart’s Requiem with Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of past seasons include Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus with Berkshire Bach Society, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (arr. Schönberg) with Orchestra Insonica, Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin at Steinway Hall, and Wolfgang Rihm’s song cycle, Das Rot, with Pocket Opera of New York (PONY). In addition, Mr. Molkentin and guitarist/composer Paul Smith present works exclusive to the voice and guitar medium in their collaborative project, Spoon River Duo.