American composer Nancy Wertsch has a strong affinity for vocal music that has inspired her to write a large body of choral music, anthems and concert pieces. Her works are widely performed in churches and concert halls, and have been heard at various and music festivals and conventions throughout the United States and Europe. She has been commissioned by numerous organizations, including the New York Treble Singers and New York Concert Singers, and The Interchurch Center, First Presbyterian Church and Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City. Her most recent commission, Hail, Holy Light, was premiered by the University of Utah Singers, and awarded first place in the International Chamber Choir Competition in Germany. Her work for triple chorus, Antiphon for God the Father, may be heard on the Dale Warland Singers CD Bernstein and Britten. A native of Wisconsin, Nancy Wertsch was first an accomplished pianist, having studied with Edith Oppens and Leonard Shure at the Aspen Music Festival and subsequently with Gunnar Johansen at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. After vocal studies at the Music Academy of the West and the Yale University Summer Music School, she entered the Curtis Institute of Music on a full scholarship as a voice major. Following graduation, she received a Fulbright Grant and attended the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin for two years. Upon her return to the United States, she served on the voice faculty at the University of Memphis until 1979 when she relocated to New York City where she has lived and worked ever since. Harold Rosenbaum maintains an active and distinguished career as a choral conductor. He established The New York Virtuoso Singers, an all- professional choir considered to be among the region"s premiere choirs. With The NYVS he received a Chorus America award for Adventuresome Programming and also their American Choral Works Performance Award. He has created an annual choral composition competition, conducted numerous premieres and commissioned hundreds of works from many of the leading composers of our time. Mr. Rosenbaum has conducted performances throughout Europe, working with the Budapest Symphony, L"Orchestre d"Europe, New Prague Collegium, Madeira Bach Festival and choirs from the United States and France. In the United States he has collaborated with leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Brooklyn Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra and Orchestra of St. Luke"s. He has also worked with the New York Youth Symphony, Da Capo Chamber Players, P.D.Q. Bach, and the Glyndebourne and Bel Canto Opera companies. As a recording artist, he has appeared on the Sony Classical, Albany, CRI, Bridge, Koch International, Capstone and DRG labels. He is currently Associate Professor at SUNY Buffalo, Artistic Director of the Society for Universal Sacred Music, and Organist and Choir Director at St. Luke"s Episcopal Church in Katonah, New York. Founded in 1988, The New York Virtuoso Singers has become a leading exponent of contemporary choral music, with an emphasis on the commissioning, performing and recording of music of contemporary American composers. From its early days as an offshoot of a chorus-in-residence created for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, The NYVS has evolved into a professional ensemble dedicated to presenting both seldom-heard works by past and contemporary masters, as well as premieres by today"s composers, commissioning more than 50 works since its inception. The ensemble has been featured many times on radio and television, and in 1993 appeared as the first-ever guest chorus at the Tanglewood Music Center"s annual Festival of Contemporary Music. The ensemble has collaborated with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke"s, American Symphony, and others.