Founder and Artistic Director

Night Song, founded in 2008 by Daryl Bichel, was inspired by the practice of compline at St. Mark's Cathedral in Seattle. A composer of sacred music, Bichel has contributed to the modern chant used at Night Song, as well as hymns, psalm settings, and choral works. To date he has written four unique chant settings for compline that are used as the basic structure for Night Song.

Bichel received the BA degree in music from Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and was awarded Master of Music degrees in performance of early music and in organ performance from the New England Conservatory. Holding a strong interest in singing, he has been a member of several church choirs, including the choir of men and boys at The Parish of All Saints, Ashmont. For many years he has sung in the bass section with the Seraphim Singers, and has sung for Night Song since its inception.

He has served on the board of directors for Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, Capella Clausura, and the Old West Organ Society, and is currently in his sixth year as president of the board for Seraphim. Throughout his career he has been an active member of the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, having served on the Executive Committee in many capacities, and is currently treasurer.

Bichel's sacred music posts have included Lutheran churches, Episcopal parishes, an Episcopal cathedral, and an Episcopal monastic community. He is currently organist at St. Joseph's Parish in Needham, Massachusetts.

Director, Beneficia lucis (on leave)

James Busby, is in demand throughout the Northeast as a vocal coach, collaborative pianist, and organist. An alumnus of New England Conservatory, he has recently been awarded the degree of Doctor of Music by Nashotah House Theological Seminary for "faithful commitment to excellence in sacred music."

James studied piano with Julius Chaloff and Kyriena Siloti and organ with George Faxon and Max Miller. He later studied with noted vocal coaches Felix Wolfes, Olga Averino, and conductor John Moriarty. While yet a student, he had the unique opportunity of playing for master classes and lessons with such luminaries as Jennie Tourel and Eleanor Steber. He has worked with many conductors including Sarah Caldwell, Thomas Dunn, José Serebrier, Erich Leinsdorf, and Arthur Fiedler. In addition to accompanying some of Boston’s finest voices, James was organist and choirmaster of S. Stephen’s Church in Providence, Rhode Island, from 1993. to 2022.

Recent performances include appearances with singers at Seiji Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood and Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, where he and mezzo-soprano Gale Fuller performed song cycles by Ned Rorem and Scott Wheeler, with the composers in attendance. As founding Music Director of Intermezzo Chamber Opera he oversaw numerous productions and premiers including the award winning Curlew River of Benjamin Britten, cited as best staged opera of that year by Boston Phoenix. Other appearances include recitals in England, France, Switzerland, and Germany, as well as broadcasts for The Voice of America.

James has performed at national conventions of the American Guild of Organists with Beneficia lucis as well as a fringe concert with the Boston Early Music Festival conducting chant and motets by Gesualdo and Stravinsky-Gesualdo. He has been heard frequently on WGBH radio, at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Newport Music Festival, and under the auspices of the Sears-Roebuck Affiliate Artist Program.

Co-Director, Beneficia lucis

Boston-based conductor Holly Druckman is in demand as a smart, sensitive performer of early and contemporary music. In addition to her work with Night Song, Ms. Druckman is the founder and artistic director of Carduus, a chamber choir dedicated to exploring the early and modern choral repertoire. In addition, Ms. Druckman is the director of Vox Lucens, choirmaster of Opera51, and regularly works with other local choirs and instrumental ensembles.

She has premiered and had pieces written for her by Stratis Minakakis, Derek David, Ty Bouque, Ben Yee-Paulson, Jacob Hiser, Mattia Maurée, Linda Chase, Max Grafe, and Bernie Zelitch. In 2022, she was the inaugural Mario Davidovsky conducting fellow at Brandeis’ annual Composer’s Conference, assisting Vimbayi Kaziboni and the Conference Ensemble. Most recently, she served as choirmaster and assistant conductor for Odyssey Opera’s production of “Awakenings” by Tobias Picker.

Director, Canticum vespertinum
Co-Director, Beneficia lucis

Jennifer Lester is among the outstanding choral conductors of her generation. Her expertise in chironomy, a method of directing the singing of Gregorian chant by hand gestures indicating the rise and fall of the melody, is particularly valuable at Night Song.

Jennifer is the founder and Music Director of the Seraphim Singers. She is a strong supporter of new music and that of young and emerging composers, having commissioned over 20 new works, mostly for Seraphim’s repertoire.

She has served as Music Director at the Church of Our Saviour in Brookline and as Associate Music Director and Organist of St Paul Parish in Cambridge. She is a past dean of the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

A Fulbright scholar, Jennifer holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and Yale University.

Director, Lux Arcana

Teri Kowiak finds her home at the polar ends of vocal repertoire, bringing to life both medieval song and new works by living composers. Valued as a soloist, collaborator, and director, Teri has performed early music and new music with Cappella Clausura, Wholetone Opera, Red Shift, and Vox Futura.

Teri’s love of medieval music led her to found Meravelha, an ensemble of singers and instrumentalists. Teri has served as artistic director since their first performance in 2012, designing multimedia concerts that include medieval art (and sometimes food). Meravelha has been featured on the Society for Historically-Informed Performance (SoHIP) Summer Concert Series multiple times.

Teri’s work in new music includes premieres and recordings of works by composers including Patricia Van Ness, Hilary Tann, Kile Smith, and Timothy Takach.

Teri made her Carnegie Hall debut in July 2022, singing in the world premiere of Heidi Breyer’s Amor Aeternus: A Requiem for the Common Man. Her history with the piece began in 2020, when she and a small team of singers remote-recorded the work during the pandemic.

Also in Summer of 2022, Teri took part in the premiere recording and world premiere performance of Linda Chase’s oratorio For Our Common Home. The lyrics were adapted from Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’, and the musical styles include chant, modern choral, gospel, pop, and klezmer.

No stranger to musical creation herself, Teri has committed music to paper as a composer and arranger. She can improvise in several styles, including jazz, baroque ornamentation, pop/rock harmonies, medieval-inspired modal, and free improvisation with an instrumentalist partner.

Teri holds a Master of Music in Early Music from Longy School of Music and a Bachelor of Music in Performance from Ithaca College.

Modal Improvisateur

Composer, pianist, and author Ben Schwendener sustains a unique voice in contemporary creative music and is a leading authority on George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. Based on work presented in his book Organic Music Theory, he has given lectures, workshops and seminars at Universities and institutions around the world.

Schwendener has been on the faculty at the New England Conservatory and Longy School of Music of Bard College for 30+ years, and recently began teaching a new course he designed in Applied Modal Analysis (the title of his forthcoming book).

He has also designed classes for non-musicians, based on the inter-discipline correspondences of Organic Music Theory for the Creative and Critical Thinking Department in the Graduate College of Education at UMass Boston.

As a touring artist, his groups include the Bach Trio with Domenico Bothelo and Henry Godfrey, Mobile Trio with drummer Kenwood Dennard and bassist Marc Friedman, LYRIC with singer Carley DeFranco, and collaborations with Angelo Dello Iacono and the Swiss dance company ADN Dialect. 

Staff Composer, First Church in Cambridge

Composer, violinist, and poet Patricia Van Ness draws upon elements of medieval and Renaissance music to create a signature voice that has been hailed by musicians, audiences, and critics.

She has been called a modern-day Hildegard von Bingen (1, 2) with her ability to compose music “ecstatic and ethereal,” “both ancient and new” (2,3). As in medieval aesthetics, her music and poetry explore the relationship between beauty and the Divine.

Her work-in-progress is Music for the Psalms, creating a new anthem for each of the 150 psalms. Her psalm settings are sung regularly at Night Song.

She has been commissioned, recorded, and performed by many ensembles, including The King’s Singers; St. Martin’s Voices, St. Martin in the Fields; The Heidelberg New Music Festival; and Chanticleer, among numerous others, and performed internationally.

For more information and scores please go to www.patriciavanness.com.

1. Gary Higginson, Music Web UK
2. Gaby Beinhorn, Suedwestrundfunk, Germany
3. Susan Larson, The Boston Globe