LPM Information

LPM METRO NEW YORK FACULTY 2002-2003

Biographical Information

James Dalton-Thompson is currently Rector of The Church of The Ascension, Rockville Centre, and Dean of South Nassau. In addition to serving other parishes in the Diocese of Long Island, he has been the instructor for Old Testament for the NY Metropolitan Synod of the ELCA’s Diakonia program and the Diaconal Studies program of the Diocese of Long Island, has taught the diocesan LEM course, and has been instructor for the liturgy portion of the Leadership Program for Musicians offered through the Mercer School. Father Dalton-Thompson served as Director of Campus Ministries at Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, CT, and was a translator and editor of Le Livre de la Prière Commune, the French edition of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Prior to ordination, he was Chairman of the Department of Foreign Languages and Classics at The Cranbrook Schools, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Richard Erickson serves as Cantor for Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in New York. In that role, he oversees the music life of the parish, including directing the renowned Vespers with Bach series. Vespers with Bach features Bach cantatas and other works sung in the context of Vespers on their appropriate liturgical day, and is the oldest series of its kind in the United States. Richard directs the Bach Choir (a professional ensemble of 10 to 12) and the Bach Players (period instruments) in an ambitious annual cycle of Vespers. New York magazine has called Holy Trinity “the place for bacchanalians.”

Erickson is in demand throughout the United States as hymn festival leader, conductor, lecturer and recitalist, and has also appeared in Sweden and Germany. Richard has appeared at conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, and the Hymn Society of America, among others. He can be heard on a number of CD’s, including “Bach for All Seasons” published by Augsburg Fortress. His choral arrangements are published by Augsburg Fortress and Kjos Music.

A native of Superior, Wisconsin, Erickson holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Superior, and the Eastman School of Music, from where he also holds the Performer’s Certificate. His teachers have included Lucile Hammill Webb, Russell Saunders, David Craighead, and Gerre Hancock in improvisation.

Richard served for four years as Assistant Professor of Church Music at the Eastman School, and has also taught classes in improvisation at the Juilliard School. Prior to coming to New York, he served as Director of Music at The Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word in Rochester, NY. He has also served as interim musician at New York’s Marble Collegiate Church. He served for six years as Councillor for Region II of the AGO, currently serves on the Board of the NYC chapter. Richard is an Associate in Ministry in the ELCA, and also currently serves on the Worship Committee of the Metro NY Synod.

Cynthia Holden, AAGO, is organist/choirmaster at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Bay Shore, New York. A student of Todd Wilson and John Weaver, she holds a Master of Arts degree in organ performance from Queens College. Additional studies at Stony Brook University and Westminster Choir College include work in conducting and church music. Ms. Holden has held office, lectured and performed at local and regional meetings of the American Guild of Organists, and presently serves on the AGO Committee for Educational Resources. She cocoordinated and was on the faculty for the first offering of LPM in the Diocese of Long Island in 1996-97 and returns in that same capacity.

David R. Caesar-Dare, serves as Minister of Music at Dobbs Ferry Lutheran Church, in Dobbs Ferry, New York, is a graduate of the Metro NY Synod Diakonia program and is currently a Synod Diaconal Intern. He has over 30 years of experience leading worship through the organ in numerous denominations and worship formats in small congregations, has led the LCA Word and Witness program and conducted Bible studies, Worship and Hymnody classes at the congregation and regional level. He has also taught classes in Total Quality Management and a variety of computer topics and is interested in helping congregations and musicians use the computer in carrying out their mission.

Gerard R. Gaeta is an intentional Interim Pastor under Call of the Metropolitan New York Synod/ELCA. Prior to this he served for over 30 years as Pastor in both urban and suburban congregations and as Director of an urban coalition of congregations.

Teaching experiences are as instructor of four courses at five sites in the lay formation program Diakonia for over twenty years and three courses at Mercer School of Theology, Garden City for the past year. For over nine years he is a staff member and occasional instructor of the Ecumenical Liturgy and Worship Seminar which convenes each August at Magdalen College, Oxford, UK.

As chair of the Metropolitan New York Synod’s Worship Team for over four years he oversees all Synodical liturgies, Worship Days and Ministerium Retreats.

In the former American Lutheran Church, he served on several planning committees for Lutheran Conferences on Worship and Music, and as president of the Metropolitan New York Conference, the Eastern District Council and the Executive Committee.

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