People
Dr. Mark Doerries
Artistic Director, Notre Dame Children's Choir & Sacred Music Academy
Head of the Graduate Choral Conducting Program
Contact: mdoerries@nd.edu
Dr. Mark Doerries is an Associate Professor in the Practice of Conducting for Sacred Music at Notre Dame. Doerries serves as the Artistic Director of the Notre Dame Children's Choir.
Doerries’ recent conducting engagements include appearances with the Girls’ Choir Festival of the Diocese of Leeds, UK, the diocese of Cleveland Children’s Choir Festival, and performances with the Jessica Lang Dance Company, jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada, the Organ Historical Society, Indiana Music Educators’ Association annual conference, National Pastoral Musicians’ Association Conference, Circle the State with Song, the College of New Jersey Chamber Singers, and Ampleforth College Choir, and at venues including the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, TX. Doerries has led students and ensembles on tours through major cathedrals in the United States as well as in Leeds, Liverpool, London, and York, UK.
With the Notre Dame Children's Choir Doerries recorded four albums: O Emmanuel, released in the fall of 2016, debuted at #1 on Billboard's Chart of Traditional Classical Music; O Day of Peace, released in the spring of 2017, a collection of hymn arrangements; Arturo Sandoval’s Christmas at Notre Dame (conductor and producer) is a collaboration with 10-time GRAMMY winner and jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval; and Magnificat: Evening Prayer with the Notre Dame Children’s Choir, a collection of commissioned Vespers and Evensong liturgies.
Doerries has commissioned and premiered over 30 works by composers such as Caroline Shaw, Phillip Moore, Mark Miller, J.J. Wright, Stephen Mager, John Duggan, Ruth Boshkoff, Eveylne Currenton-Simpson, and Daniel Justin. He is the founding editor of the Notre Dame Children's Choir Choral Series, published by MorningStar Music Publishers/ ECS Publishing Group, and appears on the Universal Music Group, Arsis Records, and Dynamic Catholic recording labels.
Doerries is the co-recipient of a $1.6 million Lilly Endowment Grant for sacred music that supports the Sacred Music Academy, Notre Dame Children’s Choir, children’s Organ Training Program, and graduate studies in Sacred Music at Notre Dame. He was recognized by the Chamber of Commerce of the City of South Bend for his work at the University and in the community with the Notre Dame Children’s Choir and inducted into the 2019 class of 40 Under 40 leaders in the region.
Past presentations include engagements with the American Choral Directors Association National Conference in Dallas, the Modern Language Association, Festival 500 Choral Symposium, and a TEDx Talk in 2015 titled, What If Children Were More Than Cute? Doerries’ research on chemosynthetic deep-sea ecosystems is published in the journals Deep-Sea Research and Marine Ecology.
Doerries founded the Luminescence Project in 2004 for the composition and performance of multi-sensory music. The Luminescence Project has performed in the Philadelphia Live Arts and Fringe Festival and the Bloomington Arts Festival with additional installations mounted in New York City, Vancouver, Kansas City, and Los Angeles. Original productions include staged performances of PASSIONATE CONVICTIONS, an electrified rock oratorio based on JS Bach's St. John Passion, and Dreaming in Darkness, a vocal music and light-art production.
Doerries previously served as the Director of Choral and Vocal Music at Olney Central College and as Music Director of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church of Indianapolis before his appointment to the University of Notre Dame.
For additional information, visit: Sacred Music at Notre Dame.
Susanna Villano
Executive Director of the Sacred Music Academy and director of the Cantabile Choir
Contact: skimvill@nd.edu
Susanna Villano joined NDCC in 2015 as the administrator of the growing program and established the Lyric Choir for children with special needs. Mrs. Villano has taught elementary and middle school in Boulder, Colorado and at St. Pius X Catholic School in Granger. As a musician, she studied voice in New York City while earning a degree in Political Science at Columbia University. She has sung for decades in choirs across the country and currently performs with Collegium Musicum at Notre Dame. Mrs. Villano also serves as a Cantor at her church in Granger. She earned a MA in Elementary Education from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a certificate for instruction of mild to moderate disabilities through the Alliance for Catholic Education at the University of Notre Dame. She directs the Cantabile Choir for 7-8 year olds and is working towards a Masters in Nonprofit Administration at the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame.
Cindy Berryman
Education Mentor and Director of Cherub Choir
Cynthia Berryman has been teaching vocal and instrumental music from preschool through university for nearly three decades. She is certified in Orff-Schulwerk music and has additional training in Kodaly and Dalcroze techniques. She is currently teaching music at Elm Road Elementary School. Her previous teaching includes high school choir, swing choir, and band; K-8 Orff-Schulwerk music and band at St. Joseph Grade School, South Bend; and music education adjunct teaching at St. Mary's College, Notre Dame. She has a B.S. in All Area Music Education from Ball State University; additional training from VanderCook College of Music, Chicago, and Westminster College, Oxford. Berryman earned a Masters' degree in Music Education, with an emphasis on fine arts integration and literacy, through Anderson University. She directs the Cherub Choirs for 5-6 year olds and is the Education Mentor for our directors.
Tara Vesprini
Early Childhood Music Specialist Instructor of the Prelude Choir
Tara Vesprini holds degrees in cello performance and music education from the University of Michigan. She directed school orchestra programs (4th-12th grade) in Michigan and New Jersey for nine years before finding her true vocation: early childhood music education. Now in her 17th year as a Preschool Music Specialist, Tara receives high praise from the children and adults who make music with her. She currently teaches music classes for children and their parents at the Women’s Care Center (2018-present) and formerly spent 9 years as a registered Music Together® instructor for children from birth to five years old in Chelsea, MI. She has presented workshops on the importance and practice of music education in early childhood and is an expert resource for parents, who desire to help their children develop into life-long music makers. Making music with children and parents is her passion and her energy and enthusiasm are contagious!
Tara and her husband raised four musical children and have been NDCC parents for the last 8 years!
Marcella Cloud Forslund
Communication and Production Manager
Marcella sang in our program as a chorister for 7 years and another 4 years served as a choir assistant while completing her degree in Studio Art at Holy Cross College. Prior to joining our team, she was the Director of Communications for St. Anthony de Padua parish and school. Marcella will serve as the primary point of contact between families and the NDCC at rehearsals and through email and choir genius.
Molly Burnham Cobler
Professional Educator and Co-Director of Descant Choir
Molly was a chorister in the NDCC for a decade and graduated from Ball State University with a degree in music education. She will work with the Descant Choir and support the graduate student directors. Prior to joining our team, Molly was a long-term music teacher substitute at St. Jude School and maintains her own piano and voice studio.