We welcome our new choir director and organist June Hale and her husband Van who is a talented singer and choir director in his own right, as well as being extremely knowledgeable about American and Canadian art.

June is currently a part time teacher at St. Thomas’s Episcopal Day School in New Haven where she is the music teacher to 150 children, ages 5-13. Until this September she was the Music Director at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Madison where she directed a very active music department comprising five choirs, involving members aged 5-78, and a broad range of musical activities, including music for Sunday services ranging from traditional hymnody and service music, renaissance, baroque, and classical anthems to gospel, jazz and contemporary styles.

They also had a very active drama component including the recent production of musicals, Godspell, Joseph and the Amazing TechnicolorDreamcoat, Moses, the Musical Saga, and the opera, Amahl and the night Visitors. They also presented annual Masterworks with chamber orchestra, such as the Faure Requiem last Good Friday and Handel’s Messiah last Christmas.

When asked what excites her about coming to work at St. Peter’s June replied, “one of my gifts is the ability to set up an environment in which people come together to make an artistic statement of affirmation about the joy of being. My job is to make a safe place for folks to stretch themselves, to bare their souls before God and their fellows, for the purpose of expressing their faith through music and soulful worship. I perceive that there are people at St. Peter’s who are willing to explore the challenges of these endeavors. I am looking forward to learning and growing with you as we open ourselves to God and his plans for us together.” We are very blessed to have June and Van in our midst and welcome the new opportunities that will be created as we together explore how to “make a joyful noise to the Lord!”