Who's Who in the Keystone State Boychoir
Joseph Fitzmartin, Music Director
 Joseph Fitzmartin was born in Philadelphia and studied piano,
organ and theory privately for twelve years before studying
composition and conducting at Catholic University in Washington
DC.
Joe’s first major post was at Girard College in Philadelphia
where he served for ten years as Organist and Choir Director.
He was also the Associate Director and accompanist for the Philadelphia
Boys Choir and Chorale, a post he held for twenty-one years
before founding the Commonwealth Youthchoirs. The CY presently consists of the Keystone State Boychoir and
the Pennsylvania Girlchoir.
He is also the Choir Director and Organist at Collenbrook United
Church in Springfield, Pennsylvania, and he teaches full time
and directs four choirs at the prestigious William Penn Charter
School in Philadelphia.
Mr. Fitzmartin holds writer/publisher memberships in the American
Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers. A recipient of
private, corporate and government commissions, he has composed
and arranged extensively for both choir and orchestra (published
by Hinshaw and Columbia Pictures Publications), one of which
was performed at the Academy of Music by the Philadelphia Orchestra.
His Concert Mass, a major work for symphony orchestra and choir,
received its world premier at Carnegie Hall and has since been
performed in Australia at the Sydney Opera House, in Berlin,
and in Russia by the Novgorod Symphony.
He recently won an international composition competition and,
in recognition of his long career composing music for children,
was awarded a grant from The Knabenkantorei Basel of Switzerland
to compose a major work for an international celebration of
youth choirs. The work featured the German text of the internationally
renowned poet Hans Dieter Husch and continues to be performed
throughout that country.
Mr. Fitzmartin has successfully combined a rewarding career
as a free-lance composer/arranger with a long and fruitful vocation
as a conductor and teacher.
Steven Fisher, Associate Music Director
 Steven Fisher is a conductor and a composer, and foremost, a
music educator.
He is co-founder of the Commonwealth
Youthchoirs, a non-profit organization that administers the Pennsylvania
Girlchoir and the Keystone State Boychoir, serving more than 200
young singers. He is director of the Singing City
in the Schools program, currently in residence at the E.
M. Stanton School. He is also the music director of the
West Philadelphia Children's Choir, in residence at the James
Rhoades School. From 1994 until 2001, Fisher served
as the assistant director of the Philadelphia Boys Choir.
Mr. Fisher has undergraduate degrees in music education and history,
as well as a Masters in Music from Temple's Esther Boyer College
of Music. He has studied conducting with Alan Harler, composition
with Richard Broadhead, arranging with Alice Parker, and piano
with Alexander Fiorello. In 1998, Temple University awarded
him the prestigious Presser Foundation Award, which recognizes “a
graduate student who has the potential to make an outstanding
contribution in the music world.”
In 1995, Fisher spent the summer in Kimberley, South Africa sharing
Western choral traditions with the people of Haleshewe township
and immersing himself in the enthralling choral traditions of
that country. He returned to Philadelphia and established Umcolo!,
an internationally-recognized exchange program for music educators. Recently
Chorus America’s magazine The Voice published Fisher’s
article on the African concept of ubuntu (“a person is a
person through other people”) and how it relates to the
importance of choral music in Western society.
Fisher is a composer of musical theater. His work, Mandela, has
been presented at the Tony award-winning Crossroads Theater, at
the John Houseman Theater in New York City, and at the Windybrow
Theatre in Johannesburg. His musical Isabelle and the
Pretty-Ugly Spell has been presented at the ASCAP Musical Theater
Workshop (under the direction of Stephen Schwartz), at the York
Theatre, at the Actors Playhouse in Coral Gables, Florida, and at
the New York Musical Theatre Festival, where it received a rave
review from the New York Times. An off-Broadway run is scheduled
for 2007, after which it will tour the country. Currently, Fisher
is collaborating with actress/director Blair Brown on the one-woman
musical In The Theatre.
Commonwealth Youthchoirs Staff
- Susan S. Ashbaker, Executive Director
- Steven Gearhart, Office and Program Coordinator
- Mary Ann Case, Membership Coordinator
- Pattie Michaux, Parent Liaison
KSB Artistic Staff
- Joseph P. Fitzmartin, Music Director
- Steven M. Fisher, Associate Music Director
- Joseph Gorman, Trainer
Instructor / Percussion Coordinator
- Kyle Norton, Trainer Assistant
- Anne Odland, Voice Coach / Concert Choir Instructor
- Russell Patterson, Concert Choir Instructor
KSB Logistics Staff
- Marcia Pasch, Choir Manager
- Alexis Paolini, Assistant Choir Manager
- Maria Silva, Break Coordinator
- Denise Clayton, Office Coordinator
Parent Committee Chairpersons
- Christa Bergmann-White, Recruitment
- John Grace, Grant Writing
- Pattie Michaux, Auction
- Mary Norton, Chorister Fundraising
- Jan Schleiger, Attire
- Kathy Settimi, Hospitality
- Kim and Geoff Shields, Golf Tournament
- Angela Wende-Minch, Marketing
Treble Choir Officers
- Jordan Thomas, President
- Jessie Furukawa, Towne Choir
- Garrett Shields, Concert Choir
Graduate Choir Officers
- Josh Schrager, President
- Stuart Case, Vice-President
- Marcus Simmons, Bass Section Leader
- Luke Butler, Tenor Section Leader
- Chip Hinkel, Graduate Concert
- Ben Schrager, Baritone Section Leader
- Joseph P. Fitzmartin, Music Director
- Steven M. Fisher, Associate Music
Director
Commonwealth Youthchoirs Board of Directors
- Ann Schmieg, Chair
- Rebecca Thornburgh, Vice Chair
- Larry Passmore, Secretary
- Heather Garrison, Treasurer
- David Binswanger
- Colleen Christian
- Dennis Creedon
- Linda Deis
- Georgette Macbeth
- Thomas Pasch
- Georgette Chapman Phillips
- Debbie Schrager
Commonwealth Youthchoirs Advisory Board
- Jack Asher
- Robert Capanna
- Robert Driver
- Dr. Donald Dumpson
- Dr. Ina Grapenthin
- Craig Hamilton
- Mark Juliano
- Ricardo Khan
- Douglas Neslund
- Dr. Kathy Robinson
- Maestro Ignat Solzhenitsyn
- Rabbi George Stern
- Joseph Steward
- Janet Yamron
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