Directors

R. Benjamin Hutchens, II
Conductor

Jason L. Gottschalk
Conductor

Ben is a native of Statesville, North Carolina. He holds a BA-Music (Furman University) and a MM-Violin Performance (University of Alabama) and a DMA-Choral Conducting (University of North Carolina Greensboro). Ben has performed with many professional symphonies including an appointment as Guest Concertmaster, Oak Ridge (TN) Symphony and Assistant Principal Second Violin, Tuscaloosa (AL) Symphony Orchestra. He has been the assistant conductor for the Johnson Symphony Orchestra, Alabama Chamber Orchestra and Kingsport Youth Orchestra. While in Tennessee, he was Chorusmaster of the Kingsport Symphony Chorus and Director of Music Ministries at the First Presbyterian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. He has performed several times in Carnegie Hall under the direction of the late Robert Shaw as a member of his Festival Singers. Currently, Ben is the Director of Music at Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church in Durham, NC and is the Associate Conductor of the Raleigh (NC) Boychoir.

Jason L. Gottschalk holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral conducting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the Master of Sacred Music degree in organ and choral conducting from Luther Seminary and St. Olaf College (Minnesota) and the Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance from Wheaton College and Conservatory of Music (Illinois). He maintains an active performance career as an organist and conductor. He has directed ensembles throughout the southeastern United States and on concert tours of Germany, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Currently Jason is enrolled in the graduate program in Musicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is Director of Music at Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Greensboro, NC.