Valerie J. Becker is a multi-faceted musician who is active as a pianist, conductor and music educator in the Boston area.  A native of Boston, Ms. Becker received both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Boston University where she was a student of Anthony di Bonaventura.  Her post graduate studies led her to the University of Illinois where she worked on a collaborative artist degree, to Austria where she studied German Lied and to Italy where she performed with the Rome Festival Orchestra. She has been soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra and has appeared in recital with many major artists throughout the world. As a former rehearsal pianist for the Boston Symphony, Ms. Becker had the occasion to play for world-renowned artists such as Midori, YoYo Ma, James Galway and Kathleen Battle. She served on the faculty of North Carolina School of the Arts, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and was Artistic Director for The Treble Chorus of New England for many years. Ms. Becker has adjudicated Northeast District Auditions, conducted the Northeast District Treble Chorus in concert and was a choral clinician for The Choristers Guild Southeastern Children’s Festival. Currently she is on the Performing Arts Faculty at the Commonwealth School, Needham High School, a faculty accompanist at The Rivers School and New England Conservatory, Music Director for the Congregational Church of Needham, Coordinator of the After School Lesson Program for the town of Needham, pianist for both the Andover Choral Society and the Kodály Music Institute of Boston’s summer program and coaches and teaches privately.

David Hodgkins is the Artistic Director of Coro Allegro in Boston, which Boston Globe critic Michael Manning deemed “one of Boston’s most accomplished choruses,” Artistic Director of The New England Classical Singers in Andover, Director of Music at The Commonwealth School in Boston, advanced conducting instructor at the Kodály Music Institute, and serves on the advisory boards of The Boston City Singers and the UMass/Amherst Music Department.

Mr. Hodgkins has performed with Coro Allegro at the Chorus America conference and the ACDA and GALA music festivals. He has made numerous appearances as guest conductor and clinician and his ensembles have collaborated with the Boston Celebrity Series, Boston Cecilia, Handel and Haydn Society, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, The New England String Ensemble, The Terezin Music Foundation, and the Boston Landmarks Orchestra.

Over the past 30 years, Mr. Hodgkins has conducted over 30 world and Boston premiere performances of works ranging from Marianne Martinez to Arvo Pärt. With Coro Allegro, he received the 2019 Chorus America ASCAP Award for Adventurous programming and the 2012 Chorus America Alice Parker/ASCAP Award for their collaborative premiere performance of Kareem Roustom’s oratorio Son of Man, with The United Parish Church of Brookline and Music Director Susan DeSelms. Coro Allegro also released the critically acclaimed CDs Awakenings and In Paradisum on the Navona label, which feature contemporary composers Robert Stern, Ronald Perera, and Patricia Van Ness and soloists Sanford Sylvan and Ruth Cunningham. Gramophone magazine noted of Awakenings that “Coro Allegro, led by David Hodgkins, performs each score with fine balance and interplay.”

Mr. Hodgkins has been featured in Choral Director Magazine, The Voice of Chorus America, UMass Amherst Magazine, and Haverhill Life. He has served as producer for three award-winning CDs by La Donna Musicale, Laury Gutiérrez, Artistic Director, In the Style of... for Terry Everson, trumpet, and Shiela Kibbe, piano on Albany Records, and a CD of trumpet concerti for the Boston University Wind Ensemble and Terry Everson, directed by David Martins.

David Hodgkins received his Bachelor of Music in voice, piano, and harpsichord from UMass/Amherst, a Masters in Choral Conducting from Temple University, and fellowships in choral and orchestral conducting at the Aspen and Sandpoint music festivals. His mentors include Wayne Abercrombie, Fiora Contino, Alan Harler, James Roth, Gunther Schuller, and Paul Vermel. Mr. Hodgkins has served on the faculties of the New England Conservatory, UMass/Amherst, Temple University, and Clark University.

Philip Montgomery is the Arts Department Chairman of the Fay School in Southborough, MA, an independent school for students in grades Pre-Kindergarten through Nine. He holds a Masters Degree in Organ Performance from The Boston Conservatory where he was awarded membership in Pi Kappa Lambda. He holds an additional Masters Degree in Music Education, with Kodály emphasis, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Mr. Montgomery is a certified instructor in both the Orff-Schulwerk and Kodály methodologies of music education. He also attended both the 25th and 26th International Kodály Seminars at the Zoltán Kodály Pedagogical Institute of Music in Kecskemét, Hungary. He completed levels 1, 2 and 3 of the "Creating Artistry Choral Conductors Workshop" with Henry Leck, founder and director of the Indianapolis Children's Chorus. Mr. Montgomery has served as Assistant Organist at All Saints Church, Worcester, MA and as Organist and Choirmaster of Saint Mark's Church, Episcopal, in Southborough, MA. He is currently Associate Director of the Worcester Children's Chorus where he conducts the “Da Capo” and “Young Artists” choirs. Philip has been a faculty member of the Kodály Music Institute since 2013.

Reagan G. Paras serves as the Director of Music Education & Choral Activities for Anna Maria College in Paxton, Massachusetts. He received his Master's Degree in Music Education from Gordon College where he studied conducting under Kenneth Phillips. He is currently pursuing his PhD of Philosophy in Music Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

A passionate conductor, singer, and educator, he has directed performance tours across the Unites States as well as abroad. In 2020, he was appointed Artistic Director for the Worcester All City Youth Choir and is preparing for a promising inaugural season. During the summer, he serves as an instructor for the Kodaly Music Institute while conducting the children's choir Sing! He co-founded two professional chamber choirs: Diamonds From The Dust and Vellichor where he continues to serve as a board member and singing artist. He is a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator for various music festivals across the country.

He is a passionate advocate for music education serving on various executive boards for music associations across the northeast. He is a proud husband to his amazing wife Lindsey and father of three of children ages 7, 6, and 3.

Susie Petrov holds a Bachelors degree in piano performance from the Peabody Conservatory, a Masters in music theory from Temple University and a Kodály Teaching Certificate. She gives workshops each year for national and regional Kodály music teacher associations. She has taught Level III Materials and has mentored Level IV participants at KMI. She is currently Co-Director of KMI. She has twelve recordings and two books of Scottish music to her publication credit. She recently retired from the Lynn, MA public schools after almost 40 years as a Kodály-inspired music teacher. Susie spends weekends and holidays teaching and performing Scottish music across the USA and in Europe with her ensembles, Local Hero and A Parcel of Rogues.

Gabor Virágh is Associate Professor of Music Theory and Supervisor of Ear Training at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford, who performs on both trumpet and coronet. He is classical-Jazz musician with a 5-year diploma graduate of the Franz Liszt Academy, Budapest, Hungary, and an M.M. from the Berklee School of Music, Boston.  Virágh studied at the Academie Musicala Ottorino Respighi Festival of Assisi, Italy. Mr. Virágh performs trumpet in both classical and jazz idioms. He is a revered solfège Professor at the Hartt School, University of Hartford, Connecticut and guest lecturer in Kodály courses in Nebraska, Kansas, and Colorado. His seven publications include an English translation and Edition of The World of Sounds and Living Harmonies: Anthology of Renaissance & Early Baroque Vocal Works. Mr. VIrágh is a featured soloist of the New England Jazz Ensemble and other big bands as well as Musica Mundi (Classical Hits) and Toodle-e labels (“Let’s Fall in Love” June Bisantz Evans sings Chet Baker.)

Kati Virágh teaches music theory at the Hartt School of the University of Hartford and performs as a violinist. She completed her study in the Béla Bartók Conservatory of Music and the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary. She was a member of the Hungarian National Opera when she had invited to the Orchestra Symphonica Tenerife in Canary Island, Spain. Since 1990 she is a resident of United States and is currently a member of the Hartford Symphony, and an adjunct professor of theory/ear-training at the University of Hartford/The Hartt School. Mrs. Virágh is a frequent guest clinician at Nebraska Wesleyan, the State University Wichita, New England Conservatory, and the University of Colorado. Mrs. VIragh won the Second Prize of the International Violin Competition, Czechoslovakia, was four times the First Prize Winner of the Hungarian National Violin Competitions. Among her teachers were the famous Russian violinist Semyon Snitkovsky and the outstanding master pedagogue of the Kodály movement, Melinda Kistétényi.

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