Sean Berg is in his seventh season as conductor of the Celebration Singers in Cranford, New Jersey, where he conducts the Celebration Singers Adult Chorus. Mr. Berg received his BA in Music Education at Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa and his Masters of Music degree in Choral Conducting from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He has studied with Jeffrey Pappas and Paul Oakley.
Mr. Berg served as a graduate assistant in choral music at ECU and was the director of the ECU Men's Glee Club and two vocal jazz ensembles - Blackbeard's Ghost and Pamlico Sound. He also served as the conductor of the Tar River Symphony Chorus in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
During the 2002-2003 school year, he taught at the F.H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan (the FAME school). Sean has also conducted at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall. Among Sean's most noted conducting debuts, was at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. on April 16, 2005. There, with a professional orchestra and soloists, he conducted a festival chorus in a performance of the Schubert Mass in G.
In addition to his conducting and teaching appointments, Mr. Berg serves as the Director of Concert Operations for Manhattan Concert Productions and Director of MCP International where he coordinates festival and tour opportunities to qualified musical ensembles across the United States and Europe.
Tom Pedas received his B. S. in Music Education from Edinboro University, and his M. A. in Choral Music from Teachers College of Columbia University. The New Jersey Music Educators Association named Mr. Pedas “Master Music Teacher” of New Jersey. He is a past guest conductor for the New Jersey Region II High School Chorus and the Junior High all State Honor Choir.
As a past director of the Celebration Singers adult choir he directed the opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors”, which he again directed this past season. In 1995 Tom started the Celebration Children’s Choir and in 2006 he started the boy’s ensemble for boys with changing voices. Mr. Pedas is also the founder of the Linden Summer Playhouse and has directed musicals for the Scotch Plains Players, Mystic Vision Players, Hillside Avenue School, Cranford Dramatic Club, Cranford Repertory Theatre and directed “Les Miserables” and “West Side Story” at Scotch Plains Fanwood High School.
Mr. Pedas retired in 2004 after 33 years of teaching in the public schools of Linden and Cranford only to go back to teaching part time this year at Saint John the Apostle School in Clark.