Artistic Staff
Sarah A. Michal - Artistic Director and Conductor
Sarah A Michal has proudly served as the Artistic Director of the New Jersey Gay Men’s Chorus since January 2016. She is also the director of choirs at Drew University and is on the board of the New Jersey state chapter of the American Choral Directors’ Association. Michal holds an M.M. in Sacred Music from Westminster Choir College and a B.A. in Music Education from Fresno Pacific University. She has been a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra Symphonic Choir since its inaugural season, most recently performing Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin. An accomplished choral scholar, she was a member of the critically acclaimed Westminster Choir and the award-winning early-music ensemble Westminster Kantorei. As a member of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, she has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She has worked closely with Dr. Joe Miller, Dr. Amanda Quist, Dr. Steve Pilkington, Dr. Roy Klassen, and Sir Simon Carrington, and was a Fellow of the 2015 Yale School of Music Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. She has a particular penchant for Baroque music and new compositions, and recently sang in the Philadelphia, PA, and Providence, RI, performances of the world tour of The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses. Originally from beautiful Central California, Michal enjoys teaching musicians of all ages and is a lifelong church musician. She currently lives in Madison, NJ, with her husband, Dr. Matthew Michal, and their cat, Alexander Hamilton.
Thomas G. Myers - Assistant Conductor
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Tom has been a member of the New Jersey Gay Men's Chorus since 1997 and has served as Assistant Conductor since 2002. He also serves as Bass Section Leader and Secretary and has previously served as Treasurer and Chair of the Artistic Committee. He has had a long career as a church musician, serving currently as a supply organist and choir director for various churches throughout central New Jersey.
Tom currently resides in Holmdel, NJ. He graduated from Lebanon Valley College with a B.S. in Actuarial Science and a Secondary Concentration in Music. He works as the Enterprise Chief Actuary for the Plymouth Rock Insurance Group in Woodbridge, NJ.
David Hughes - Accompanist
David Hughes has performed at the Kennedy Center, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, and the Spanish Embassy in Washington, DC. Other engagements include a solo recital of American works at the USA Foundation of the Cité Universitaire in Paris. He can also be heard playing four different keyboard instruments on John Zorn’s violin concerto, “Contes de Fées,” on the Tzadik label.
He has a strong interest in contemporary music and received third prize in the Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition—one of the world’s premier competitions for new music—as a member of Outer Banks Duo with saxophonist Stacy Wilson. This was followed by the release of their debut CD, L'Incandescence. David is a founding member of Arcana New Music Ensemble, a Philadelphia-
based collective dedicated to performing modern music, as well as a past recipient of a fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center and a prizewinner in the MTNA National Chamber Music Competition. During the 2014-2015 season, David was featured on Philadelphia's WRTI in an hour-long segment of solo repertoire.
David currently resides in Philadelphia where he teaches and works as a freelance musician. He holds a doctoral degree in piano performance from Indiana University.