Founded in 1966 by conductor Joyce Keshner, Ars Musica Chorale has presented more than 50 years of great choral music in northern Bergen County. Ars Musica crafts excellent programs of a wide range of choral music; provides our volunteer singers with challenging, instructive, and rewarding opportunities to make music together; and enriches and educates the community by offering the excitement of live performance to a broad audience. Furthermore, Ars Musica is a community of musicians who support and encourage each other as we strive for excellence. We enrich the lives of our membership and Bergen County arts lovers alike by creating opportunities for joy, learning, and expression.

In 2014, Ars Musica Chorale developed the Encore Young Artist Program (EYAP), an artist-in-residence program for aspiring professional singers. The EYAP has provided performance and training opportunities to more than a dozen students who have gone on to budding careers in solo and choral performance at the national level.

Ars Musica Chorale’s patrons come from throughout the region. Local senior organizations and those serving people with disabilities enjoy discounted and free tickets to Ars Musica performances. Ars Musica always seeks to grow its audiences by expanding access and increasing appreciation for classical choral music.

Our Team

Michael McCormick, Music Director

Michael McCormick, originally from Oneida, New York, serves as Music Director of Ars Musica Chorale. He graduated from Westminster Choir College with a B.M. in Music Education (summa cum laude) where he was named an Andrew J. Rider Scholar, and received an M.M. in Choral Conducting from Rutgers University where he was awarded a Robert E. Mortensen Fellowship. In addition to his work at Ars Musica, Michael serves as the Choral Specialist and Associate Director of Choral Activities at Princeton University, and as the Music Director and Organist at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Basking Ridge, NJ.

An experienced choral singer, Michael has performed with some of the leading choirs and orchestras in the United States, such as the Westminster Choir, Philadelphia Symphonic Choir, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. His collaborations also include professional engagements with Spoleto Festival USA, Beloit Chorale, Norfolk Chamber Choir, St. Bartholomew’s Church NYC, and St. Vincent Ferrer Church NYC. His solo engagements include works by J.S. Bach, Joseph Haydn, Arthur Honegger, Lili Boulanger, and Claude Debussy with the Rutgers University Kirkpatrick Choir and Glee Club, Riverside Choral Society, and Highland Park Community Chorus.

As a conductor, Michael participated as a conducting fellow for the International Conductor Training Program at University of Cincinnati, Berkshire Choral International in Seattle, WA, and Yale School of Music’s Norfolk Chamber Choir. As a clinician, he has led workshops in high schools across the metropolitan area, as well as leading a program with the San Miguel de Allende (Mexico) Opera Choir. He also serves on the faculty of the SUNY New Paltz Summer High School Choral Institute and Chamber Singers programs. His guest conducting has included groups such as Amor Artis, Somerset Hills Chorus, Downtown Voices, and Lux Choir.

Michael is a board member of the New Jersey American Choral Directors Association, where he coordinates the New Jersey High School Choral Festival.

YiKyung Diana Hughes, Pianist

A native of Seoul, South Korea, Diana holds a Doctorate in piano performance from Rutgers University. She received both a Masters and Bachelors degree in piano from the Mannes School of Music in New York City. As a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral pianist, Diana has performed in South Korea, Spain, the USA and Canada. In 1989 she was a finalist in the Young Artist International competition in NYC. In 1994 she performed at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. In 2002 she was one of three organists to receive the George Bryant award for organ.

Diana has been an artist-in-residence at York College, PA, the Evaristo Valle Museum in Gijon, Spain and a faculty member of Teajon College in Seoul, South Korea. Currently she is on the faculty at Montclair State University and Bergen Community College. She is also Choir Director/Organist of the New City United Methodist Church and pianist for the Rockland Camerata. Diana freelances as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist in the greater New York area.