Adjudicator Information

Charles Prestinari
Charles Prestinari currently serves as Acting Chorus Master of the New York City Opera, where he has worked since 2004.   Prior to that, he served as opera coach and chorus master for the Indiana University where he completed a master’s degree in choral conducting and is currently completing a doctoral degree.   Other duties at Indiana University included being director of the University Chorale and the Motet Choir; assistant director of Indiana University’s touring choir, The Singing Hoosiers; and assistant conductor and accompanist for the Indiana University’s top choral ensemble, the University Singers, working on a wide repertoire of choral masterworks.    Mr. Prestinari has also been an assistant conductor and coach at the Brevard Summer Music Festival and a guest chorus master at the Manhattan School of Music.   As an accompanist, Mr. Prestinari has also worked with the Carmel Bach Festival and The National Chorale.

Harold Rosenbaum
Harold Rosenbaum is one of the most accomplished and critically acclaimed choral conductors of our time. In recognition of his leadership in the interpretation and performance of contemporary music, G. Schirmer, Inc., the world's largest music publisher, has established its Harold Rosenbaum Choral Series, for which he composes, edits, and gives performance suggestions for conductors. A tireless proponent and advocate for contemporary composers and American composers in particular, he has created an annual choral composition competition, has commissioned twenty works, has conducted over 200 world premieres (including works by Ravel [in Paris], Schnittke, Henze, Berio, Perle, and Harbison), and has recorded contemporary choral music for SONY Classical, Albany, CRI, Bridge, Koch International, Capstone, and DRG.   He is also a three-time recipient of the ASCAP/Chorus America  Award for Adventuresome Programming of Contemporary Music , and a recipient of Chorus America 's American Choral Works Performance Award .

To fulfill his dream of conducting the most complex and masterful choral compositions of the 20th century, Mr. Rosenbaum established The New York Virtuoso Singers, an all-professional choir now in its 20th season. The New York Virtuoso Singers is regularly invited to perform with leading orchestras, and at prestigious institutions such as The Tanglewood Music Festival and The Juilliard School. It has premiered over 150 works by composers such as Luciano Berio, John Harbison, Hans Werner Henze, Louis Andriessen, Shulamit Ran, George Perle, Ernst Krenek, Thea Musgrave, Jonathan Harvey, Arvo Pärt, Andrew Imbrie. and many others.  

Prior to the formation of The New York Virtuoso Singers, Mr. Rosenbaum had already established his all-volunteer Canticum Novum Singers, as one of this region's premiere choirs presenting the music of all periods, with a special focus on early music. The Canticum Novum Singers has presented over 450 concerts in this country, and on four European tours.  Of the more than 500 singers who have been with the choir since 1973, over 100 have gone on to sing professionally, both as choristers and as soloists.   This choir has premiered over 60 compositions by composers such as Handel, J.C. Bach, Fauré, Bruckner, Harbison, Berio, Schnittke, Rorem, Schickele, and George Benjamin.

Mr. Rosenbaum has taught at four universities including The Juilliard School.  Currently he is Associate Professor at the University at Buffalo/SUNY, where he directs the choirs, heads the graduate program in choral conducting, and teaches other courses.

To celebrate The Canticum Novum Singers' 25th season, he conducted 25 Bach cantatas with professional orchestra and soloists. He conducted Verdi's Requiem, in Carnegie Hal for which he was awarded The Most Remarkable Ecumenical Achievement Award by The New York Times.

Mr. Rosenbaum has collaborated with such composers as David Del Tredici, Stephen Schwartz, John Harbison, George Perle, William Schuman, Milton Babbitt, John Corigliano, John Adams, Ned Rorem, Charles Wuorinen, Peter Schickele, Augusta Read Thomas, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, David Felder, George Tsontakis, Shulamit Ran, Andrew Imbrie, Tan Dunn, Earl Brown, and Tristan Keuris. He has also worked with actors Tony Randall, F. Murray Abraham, Werner Klemperer and Michael York, stage directors Jonathan Miller and François Girard , Barbara Cook, John Buccino, DJ Spooky, and recently with legendary film composer Ennio Morricone and The Roma Sinfonietta in concerts in the General Assembly of the United Nations and at Radio City .

Throughout Europe Mr. Rosenbaum has conducted close to 100 concerts, working with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, L'Orchestre d'Europe, the New Prague Collegium, the Madeira Bach Festival Orchestra, and choirs from the USA and France .  Appearances include The Ludlow Festival and the Cheltenham Fringe Festival in England , The Madeira Bach Festival in Portugal , and The Siracusa Festival in Italy .

In this country Mr. Rosenbaum has collaborated over 100 times with leading orchestras such as The New York Philharmonic with James Conlon, The Brooklyn Philharmonic with Robert Spano, Lukas Foss, Dennis Russell Davies, Michael Christie, and Grant Llewellyn, The American Symphony with Leon Botstein, The American Composers Orchestra with Steven Sloane, The Riverside Symphony with George Rothman, The Orchestra of St. Luke's with Sir Charles Mackerras, plus The Juilliard Orchestra, Concerto Köln, The Bard Festival Orchestra, The Westchester Symphony, and many others. He has also collaborated with The Paul Taylor Dance Company, Continuum, P.D.Q. Bach in Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, with The Mark Morris Dance Group, Bang on a Can, The Glyndebourne Opera Company, S.E.M. Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, The New York Youth Symphony, and The Bel Canto Opera Company.

Mr. Rosenbaum's choirs have performed many times on Lincoln Center 's Great Performers Series, and have appeared on The David Letterman Show, and in concerts with James Galway, Tony Bennett, Licia Albanese, Marianne Faithful, Leonard Slatkin, and The Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society.

John Daly Goodwin
Music Director John Daly Goodwinhas been a driving force in the world of choral music for over 20 years. Over the last 20 seasons, Goodwin has propelled the New York Choral Society to greater musical achievement and wider geographic reach, as he builds upon the Society’s esteemed tradition of 49 years of choral excellence. The Society’s annual series at Carnegie Hall is a highlight of the New York City choral concert season.

Mr. Goodwin’s stewardship and vision have made the New York Choral Society the chorus of choice for such premier arts organizations as the American Ballet Theater, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation and the Opera Orchestra of New York. In addition, the Society has performed with such musical luminaries as Andrea Bocelli, Thomas Hampson, René Pape, Samuel Ramey, Bryn Terfel, Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, and Peter, Paul & Mary.

Mr. Goodwin has led the New York Choral Society in nine concert tours in Europe and Asia , performing in the People’s Republic of China , Czech Republic , Israel , France , Austria , Italy and Greece . He also has brought about noteworthy cultural exchange between orchestras and conductors from China and the Choral Society. On its fourth trip to China in 2008, the Society will sing at the Cultural Olympiad, a highly prestigious event preceding the Summer Olympic Games.

Mr. Goodwin and the New York Choral Society have received critical acclaim for outstanding performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, and the r equiems of Verdi, Mozart and Brahms. Goodwin has led more than 90 concerts around New York City , including 36 in Carnegie Hall and eight at Lincoln Center . While commanding a wide conducting repertoire, he has specialized in the music of 20 th century American composers. He has led the Choral Society in a number of commissioned and recorded choral works and has also performed works by such composers as John Adams, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Philip Glass, Charles Ives, Morton Lauridsen, Lowell Liebermann, Stephen Paulus, Bruce Saylor and Conrad Susa.

In addition, Mr. Goodwin has prepared choruses for such prominent conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Dennis Russell Davies, Yong-yan Hu, Yehudi Menuhin, Eve Queler, Julius Rudel, Gerard Schwarz, Leonard Slatkin and Robert Spano. Beyond the concert stage, he has conducted or prepared choruses for 17 national television broadcasts including the 1998 Grammy Awards, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala, and NBC’s Today Show.

With a strong personal commitment to music education, Mr. Goodwin has done extensive volunteering to benefit young, aspiring musicians and young children. Through Young Audiences, ArtsGenesis, and the New York Choral Society’s Mini-Maestros program, he has helped youngsters learn and appreciate music and the art of conducting in more than 50 New York City public schools.

Mr. Goodwin is a member of the music faculty of New York University , where he conducts the Choral Arts Society. He also has served as music director of the Westchester Concert Singers, the Choral Society of the Hamptons and the Richmond Choral Society. He holds a Masters degree in conducting from the University of Iowa and a B.A. in Music from Macalester College, and is completing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois.