Selected Biographies
Some of the members of the HMC have created thumbnail biographies. If you would like to add your biography, please contact the webmaster.
Our president:
Bob Fosteris currently President of the Huntington Men’s Chorus, Inc. He has sung Tenor II with the HMC since 1995.
<< under construction >> << and if he doesn't get me a picture soon, I'm going to put a picture here that will be very embarassing.
The Music Committee:
Music Committee Chairman
Ken Kress is Chairman of the Music Committee that selects the music the Chorus sings and the Auditions Committee that selects new members and soloists.
Kenneth Kress is a native New Yorker. He was born in New York City and moved Bellport (a small Long Island community) at the age of ten. He was schooled in electronics in Ohio and met his wife, of thirty seven years, at the University of Dayton. He has worked as an engineer for several Long Island Firms and holds six US and foreign patents.
His interest in music started in 1983 after he moved to Huntington and joined St. John’s Church where he became involved in their choral program. He studied music with the internationally renowned Hilden Tenor Mark Lundberg and Mezzo Soprano Leslie Valentine. He is presently a soloists and member of the Huntington Men's Chorus and is also a member of the Huntington Choral Society. For the past two years, has performed solos with the Choral Society in their Summer Concerts. He has also performed at the Huntington Town House, for the Huntington Arts Council and in a Benefit Concert at the Cathedral House in Garden City. He is presently a paid soloist at St. Johns Church, a member of their Choir and is one of the featured singers on the St. Johns web site.
Organist, Arranger and Alternate Accompanist
In September 2001, Charles (Charlie) Shipe retired from the faculty of Nassau Community College after 35 years of teaching. He was a Professor of Music in the area of Music Theory and Ear Training. Charlie continues as Organist and Choir Director at the United Methodist Church in Huntington-Cold Spring Harbor. His music degrees were earned at Bucknell University and West Virginia University.
"King Charlie" and Marilyn
For many years Charlie has been providing pre-concert organ music for the HMC. He also plays the organ accompaniment for pieces with both organ and piano parts, and fills in often as accompanist both at rehearsals and when the HMC plays in churches and synagogues and smaller venues. Charlie also frequently arranges music for pieces the HMC performs..
Charlie has been singing Baritone in the HMC in the fall of 1977 and is on the Music Committee.
Alternate Conductor
Mike Livorno holds a BA in music from Adelphi University and an MS in Music education from Queens College. He has also done extensive post graduate work in vocal technique and choral conducting. along these lines he spent 10 summers as assistant to the conductor of a chorus that performed with the Philadelphia orchestra during their August residence at the Saratogo Performing Arts Center. He has sung under the direction of conductors such as Eugene Ormandy, Robert Shaw, James Levine and many others. Mike taught in the Babylon School District for 27 years Directing Choruses on the Senior and Junior High level. He was the District Director of Music for the last 14 years of his tenure, His 2 older sons currently teach music on Long Island.
Mike loves to sing and enjoys being a member of the HMC.
Our Webmaster:
Todd Field, our webmaster, sings Baritone in the HMC. We put him between two people who actually can sing and tell him that, whatever happens, don't solo. Todd also does our concert program and is a member of our board of directors and has been a member since the spring of 1999.
Todd is a deacon at Old First Presbyterian Church, Huntington, where he terrifies the congregation by singing in the Bass section.
Todd has developed a unique way to guarantee an empty row of seats for the commute to Manhattan. He plays back digitized practice rehearsals on his computer and then sings to the computer. Several times he has gotten entire cars to himself utilizing this mechanism.
Meanwhile, his parents wait in high anxiety, hoping that their son will not become a tenor, like his father.
His son has no such worries. "He can't hit those E's at all. If he keeps messing up, I'll just play the sax louder. But I wish he'd stop singing in public!"
