“wonderful musicianship and that extra ingredient: love for the composers, musicians, singers and the audience.”
Award-winning organist, music director and conductor, Dr. Claudia Dumschat is the Organist and Choirmaster at the Church of the Transfiguration (“The Little Church Around the Corner”), a New York City landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places, in the heart of Manhattan with a rich liturgical and musical tradition. There she administers and conducts the professional Choir of Men & Boys and Girls (the oldest such choir in the country), the Cherub Choir, and Camerata.
One of her first conducting positions was Director of the Cornerstone Chorale in Upper Manhattan. That was followed as she became the Founding Artistic Director and Conductor of The One Hundredth Street Concerts Association (OSCA) on the Upper West Side. Prior to that she was Artistic Director of neXus Arts, which created works combining music with dance, poetry, and the visual arts and performed in various Manhattan venues, including University Settlement and Theatre 80 St. Marks on the Lower East Side. She is currently Artistic Director and Conductor of the Arnold Schwartz Memorial Concert Series, which features local and international performers in an eclectic mix of concerts, music dramas and operas.
Claudia has been a professional church organist and conductor since the age of twelve, when she became the Organist and Choir Director at her hometown church in Livingston, New Jersey. After working at various other churches while still in school, she became the Associate Organist at Columbia University’s St. Paul’s Chapel and then Acting Director of Music at St. James Episcopal Church in Manhattan, before assuming her current position in 1999. She has given organ recitals nationally and internationally and has also made recordings for radio, television, and CDs.
She earned her Doctor of Musical Arts, Master of Music, and Bachelor of Music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied organ with Fred Swann, John Walker, McNeil Robinson, and Alec Wyton. She also studied conducting with Dennis Keene, Giacomo Bracali, plus workshop studies with Margaret Hillis and Gregg Smith.
Claudia’s extensive organ and conducting repertoire ranges from medieval to contemporary music. She has also commissioned and premiered both operas and choral works. As a champion of new music, Claudia collaborates as organist with the New York Composers Circle. A passionate teacher, Claudia is committed to developing young voices in the classical choral tradition, and her choirs have performed with distinction in liturgical and popular settings, both here and abroad. In 2022 she was named Music Director of The Dalton Chorale and, for her first concert, conducted the Mozart Requiem.
“Under her skilled baton…all of the singers were impressive and were a heavenly blend…woven together by the genius of conductor, organist, and conductor Claudia Dumschat.” ”
“CLAUDIA’S RENDITION OF AN ALL-BACH ORGAN CONCERT WAS DESCRIBED AS “BRILLIANTLY ASSERTIVE”