Artistic Director
Associate Artistic Director
Collaborative Pianist
Managing Director
President
Member-at-Large
Member Ex-Officio
Member at Large
Ladybugz Interactive Agency is a funky co-op of Boston-based web designers and digital marketers. Our journey began in 2020 with the rebrand of the Worcester Children’s Chorus with Morgatize, Inc. Our new color palette, logos, and fresh, modern look are the result of a joyful work relationship with Morgan Kropa. She invited us to work with Ladybugz Interactive Agency for our next big project – to create a new, vibrant, customer-friendly website that reflected our new brand. Thank you to Morgan, Frank Pereira, our web designer, and the whole team at Ladybugz Interactive for giving so much time, heart and soul to this project.
Artistic Director
Pamela Mindell has worked with a number of children’s choirs, including the Litchfield County Children’s Choir in CT and the Paradise City Children’s Choir, in Northampton, MA, which she founded in 2001.
In addition to her work with WCC, Pamela is also Music Director of the Cambridge Community Chorus. She has served on the faculties of Smith College, Clark University, and College of the Holy Cross. Under her direction, the Holy Cross choirs traveled to Italy and Spain, as well as throughout the Northeastern United States, singing in such venues as Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. Other performance highlights include a concert of Sacred Latin American music with renowned soprano Dawn Upshaw, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Pasion segun San Marco, as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. Pamela served as Artistic Director of the Hotchkiss Summer Portals Vocal Chamber Program (CT) for high school singers for ten years.
Prior to her college teaching, Pamela spent a year in Sydney, Australia, conducting and singing professionally. As a soprano, Pamela has performed in several recitals with mezzo-soprano Justina Golden. She has sung with The Boston Secession and Emmanuel Music in Boston. Pamela received her doctorate in Choral Conducting from Yale University, where she studied with Marguerite Brooks and David Connell. She holds a master’s degree in Music Education with Kodàly Certification from The Hartt School as well as a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Princeton University.
Director
Collaborative Pianist
Ilana graduated with a Master’s of Music in piano performance at Longy School of Music of Bard College; May 2017, under the direction of Leslie Amper. During her time at Longy she has performed at Pickman Hall, Sanders Theater at Harvard University, and the Dante Allegheri Society in Cambridge. She has collaborated with Longy’s Side by Side El Sistema program and the Boston Cello quartet. Being involved with Longy’s chamber program, Ilana has had the privilege to work extensively with Robert Merfeld.
She has performed solo and chamber works for the master classes of Peter Serkin, Frank Levy, Denis Kozhukhin, Wayman Chin, Randall Hodgkinson, Roland and Almita Vamos, Ming Feng Hsin and Wen Qian, Jennifer Koh, and Dylana Jenson.
Recently Ilana has joined flutist Maria Gabriela Alvarado, in presenting “Of Water and Clouds” a concert designed to highlight women composers and bring awareness to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. They have performed this concert in the New England area, and have been invited to perform in the Civic Morning Musical concert series in Syracuse, NY, as well as the Women in Music conference at the Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, Mississippi.
Ilana has been a faculty member of the Joy of Music Program in Worcester since 2017 and is a dance division pianist at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Boston Ballet School. She also works as the collaborative pianist of the Worcester Children’s Chorus and South Lancaster Academy’s Il Voce, the select traveling choir, with whom she will be going on tour to Portugal in the spring and have the privilege to work with John Rutter as a rehearsal accompanist for the festival.
When not at the piano you can find Ms. Cady out walking her beagle, Ivy Ives or in the garden cultivating her favorite flower, Dahlias.
President & Managing Director
Paige Burke (they/them/theirs) is a Worcester-based composer, vocalist, and music educator who aims to create music that is accessible to everybody. Music should prompt its listeners to both feel and learn—and this is the guiding principle behind Mx. Burke’s creative output, whether in the classroom or the concert hall.
Mx. Burke has been commissioned by several ensembles, including the Chamber Singers at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, the L.A. Choral Lab, and Longy School of Music’s Ensemble Uncaged. As a former member of the UMass Lowell Chamber Singers, Mx. Burke, an alto, has performed masterworks including movements from Bach’s Magnificat, Brahms’ Nänie and Schicksalslied, and Mozart’s Requiem, under the direction of Brian O’Connell and Dr. Jonathan Richter. Mx. Burke has also performed internationally, as a two-time participant in the Sarteano Choral Conducting Workshop in Italy, directed by Brian O’Connell, Simon Carrington, and Broni Falinska.
As an educator, Mx. Burke has experience teaching all ages and skill levels, in both private studio and classroom settings. Their work with elementary- and middle-school aged students in the general music classroom, as part of their undergraduate coursework, has been heavily composition-based. Mx. Burke also teaches piano, voice, and composition lessons from their private studio in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Mx. Burke holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Studies from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, and a Master of Music in Composition from the Longy School of Music at Bard College. Their teachers include Meredith Borden (applied voice), Dr. Amy Beth Kirsten, and Dr. John Morrison (both composition). They currently reside in Central Massachusetts with their family and two cats.
Isabella Gentleman directs music programming and teaches Music, Diversity and Social Justice, and English at Eagle Hill School, a private boarding school for diverse learners in grades 8-12. She holds her bachelor’s degree in Choral Conducting and Church Music from St. Olaf College and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Educational Research from the University of Glasgow, specializing in inclusive educational policy and curriculum development.
During her time at St. Olaf, Isabella sang with the St. Olaf Choir, under the direction of Dr. Anton Armstrong, for which she served as soprano section leader and toured around the United States and Norway. Isabella was also Assistant Conductor of Manitou Singers, under Dr. Therees Hibbard. From 2019-2021, Isabella served as Music Administrator at All Saints Church, where she grew up singing and found her love of music. Isabella is the music director for Eagle Hill Theater productions and supervises Eagle Hill’s series of student-run Open Mics for student performances of the fine arts, now in its second year.
Isabella’s time in the rehearsal space and classroom, both as a student and now a teacher, has led to her passion for creating relevant, inclusive, and accessible music curricula that will provide opportunities for people of all abilities to make music together.
Treasurer
DeMisty D. Bellinger-Delfeld has an MFA in creative writing from Southampton College and a PhD in English from the University of Nebraska. She teaches creative writing at Fitchburg State University and serves as first violinist in the Fitchburg State University Community Orchestra. She serves as poetry editor at Porcupine Literary and Malarkey Books. DeMisty is also a writer whose work has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including The Best Small Fictions: 2019. Her chapbook of poems Rubbing Elbows is now available and her full-length poetry collection, Peculiar Heritage, is forthcoming with Mason Jar Press.
Susie Cabral serves as a board member and Chair of the Marketing Committee for WCC. Her daughter Katia has been singing with the chorus for over five years.
Susie works in technology marketing and owns her own consulting practice. Seen as a savvy Silicon Valley marketing leader with 15-year proven track record of delivering inventive marketing, creating high performing teams and consistently achieving results. Susie is involved in many local events and charities organizations. Passionate about advocacy for child causes as well as with dachshund rescues. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, International Business and Marketing from the University of San Francisco.
Robert G. Carson, MSHRM is the Associate Vice President for Human Resources and Chief Human Resources Officer at Assumption University in Worcester, MA where he provides strategic leadership and operational management on all human resources and workplace initiatives in concert with the institution’s strategic plan, mission, and culture. His duties included talent acquisition, professional development for staff, succession planning, performance management, benefits, compensation, labor relations, policy development, and human resources information systems management. Robert also serves as Director of Music and Organist at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church here in Worcester, MA, where he leads the music ministry of the parish.
Robert, who speaks English and Spanish, earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration-Management from the University of Phoenix and a Master of Science in Human Resource Management from the University of Scranton. He is an AIRS-Certified Diversity Recruiter and Professional Certified Recruiter currently pursuing certification as a Senior Professional Human Resources designation from the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM). Professional memberships held by Robert include The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), College and University Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR), and a Board Member of the Human Resources Management Association of Central Massachusetts (HRMA).
Mary is passionate about the arts and education. A graduate of Framingham State and Boston College, Mary spent two decades as an educator in Watertown, Mass. Public School System as well as Lesley University. As a parent of three children in the Westborough school system, Mary is involved in school and cultural programs.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-callahan-a398a722/
Chris is a Partner at Strategic Benefit Advisors, an employee benefits consulting firm based on Southborough, MA. He resides in Northborough with his wife Cindy and four children, who all enjoy making music in its many forms.
Chris grew up in a musical family and received instruction in classical piano and organ throughout his childhood years and in college. His father was an accomplished violinist and choir singer, his mother an organist.
