Staff | Msws

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Meet The Team

Edward Tyler, Artistic Director

Edward Tyler, a native of Auburn, New York, received his Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Connecticut, where he served as Graduate Assistant to Dr. Peter Bagley. He earned his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the Crane School of Music, where he studied conducting with Brock McElheran & Calvin Gage, and composition with Elliot DelBorgo.

Mr. Tyler recently retired from music education after 35 years. He was the Director of Choral Music and Drama at Manchester High School for 33 years, where he directed four choral ensembles and a handbell choir, taught courses in music theory, piano, digital music, and theatrical design, and directed the school’s dramatic and music theatre offerings for 26 years. Mr. Tyler has also taught music theory and ear training at The University of Connecticut and conducted the University Chorale at Central Connecticut State University. He has been a professional vocalist his entire adult life, as both a freelance soloist and as a member of The Woodland Scholars, CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists), and several church choirs in the greater Hartford area. In 2019, he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Connecticut Chapter of The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), and in 2022, his students created an annual scholarship in his honor.

Mr. Tyler is a composer of choral music with over 70 titles to his name, and he has enjoyed performances of his works by groups across the United States and Canada. During a brief hiatus from writing music, he turned his attention to educational materials and completed two textbooks: “Music Literacy for the High School Vocalist, Volumes 1-4,” and “A Comprehensive Study of Music Theory.” His music literacy books are currently being used by more than two dozen school districts in Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania. Mr. Tyler is a popular clinician, lecturer, and adjudicator, and has presented programs throughout New England and New York.

Since his retirement from teaching, he keeps finding new ways to keep himself amused, useful, and hopefully out of trouble. Away from the music world, he finds respite in dogs, travel, golf, writing, and cooking. To help sate his love of golf, he now manages a course in Westborough. As a self-taught cook, one of his “Bucket List” items is preparing something on the Food Network, and he delights in finding new recipes he can loosely follow.

Mark Bartlett, Accompanist

Mark Bartlett is an active performer, accompanist and chamber musician in the Boston area. A native of central Illinois, he received his degree in piano performance from Northwestern University, where he studied with Laurence Davis. More recently he was a student of Konstantinos Papadakis at New England Conservatory.

A lifelong choral singer, Mark was a member of the bass section of Masterworks Chorale under Allen Lannom for 20 years. During that time he served two terms on their board of directors and also filled in as rehearsal accompanist on occasion. He played his first Summer Sing with them, the Mozart C Minor Mass, in Lexington in 1992 and has returned almost every year since. In 2009 Mark became a singing member of Assabet Valley Master Singers directed by Dr. Robert Eaton, an association which continued for 8 years. He has performed as accompanist with them for several of their summer sings and regular concerts, including Carmina Burana, and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle.

In 2011, Mark sang with New World Chorale directed by Holly Krafka for the first time, and in 2014 became their regular accompanist. In 2017 he was appointed accompanist for the Master Singers of Worcester under Edward Tyler, and in 2018 began as accompanist for the Northborough Area Community Chorus, conducted by Elinor Armsby and David Rose. His association with all three groups continues today. In the fall of 2022 he became accompanist for the Apollo Club men’s chorus under Steven Lipsett.

As a pianist in recent seasons Mark performed with the Metrowest Wind Quintet in sextets by Poulenc and Thuille, and twice in the Claflin Hill chamber series in Grafton, featuring the Copland sextet and pieces by Max Bruch. He has performed with Seele Musicale in the Beethoven Society concerts, and also given concerts of solo piano repertoire along with trios by Schubert and Mendelssohn. In June 2019 he made his choral conducting debut with New World Chorale, which included an arrangement for chorus, organ and percussion of the last 15 minutes of Mahler’s Symphony No 2.
Mark has worked in the Boston financial services industry for over thirty years, most recently as a systems analyst and project manager. When not focused on music he is an avid reader, science fiction enthusiast, and recreational runner.

Michael McCarthy, Rehearsal Accompanist

Michael McCarthy is a freelance choral conductor, organist, adjudicator, clinician and accompanist in the New England/New York area. Choral groups under his direction have been invited to perform at MENC Eastern Division conferences and ACDA state conferences. For three decades, he was the Director of Renaissance Revival, a community choir specializing in music of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He has spent 35 summers teaching at the New England Music Camp in Sidney, Maine. In this capacity, he serves as Director of Music, conducts the mixed chorus, and teaches voice and music theory to campers ranging from eleven to eighteen years of age.

A church organist for over fifty years, Mr. McCarthy retired from full-time work in November of 2018 after thirty years as Director of Music and Organist at Saint Joseph Church in Willimantic, Connecticut. He continues to serve as Pontifical Organist for the Diocesan Choir of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich, in which capacity he has appeared as organ soloist in Handel’s The Cuckoo and the Nightingale Concerto and Liszt’s Via Crucis. He also serves as an accompanist for the Mastersinger of Worcester (MA) and has been heard as organist in their performances of Haydn’s Small Organ Mass (Saint John of God) and the Fauré Requiem, among others.

In addition to recital appearances, he has also appeared as organist with the Concert Choir of Northeast Connecticut in Duruflé’s Requiem and with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus. He has performed at various churches throughout eastern and central Connecticut, including the world premiere of Peter Niedmann’s New Every Morning at the First Congregational Church of Cheshire and the Rutter Requiem at the Storrs Congregational Church.

Mr. McCarthy is a Past Dean of the Northeast Connecticut Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He is also a member of the Organ Historical Society. He has been inducted into such honorary and professional fraternities as Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Kappa Phi, and Alpha Chi. Mr. McCarthy holds Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Education and Applied Bassoon from the Hartt School of Music and a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from The University of Connecticut. As he has done for the last forty years, he continues to work with numerous school and community choirs and theaters. He is enjoying retirement greatly, but still appears as a substitute organist throughout eastern and central Connecticut (unless he feels like taking the weekend off!).

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