Matt Alcombright was born and raised in North Adams, MA. He attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and completed his Bachelors Degrees in Music Education and Piano Performance. He later went on to study at St. John's Seminary in Brighton earning a Bachelors Degree in Philosophy and a Masters in Divinity. Matt serves as the organist/choir director at St. John the Baptist Church in North Bennington, VT, as well as the organist for the Second Congregational Church in Williamstown, MA. He currently works as the Program Director of Residential Addiction Treatment Services with the Brien Center.
Karen is Organist/Choir Director at St Philip’s Episcopal Church in Easthampton. She began organ lessons at age 11, took her first position at age 20, and has been employed ever since. Karen is a dual-career person, having decided early on that she wanted more than music. She holds an MSW degree from the University of Connecticut School of Social Work. Now retired from this career, Karen was a medical social worker for 25 years, working in women’s health, a neonatal intensive care unit, and a dialysis center. Ask her about doing both jobs at the same time!
For ten years, Karen was volunteer coordinator of a teaching program with incarcerated men at the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction. She is a vowed member of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross, serving as a volunteer organist at their retreat and conference center, Adelynrood. She sings in the Cetto Chamber Singers and in Journey Home (a hospice choir.) World traveling is her favorite pastime. Karen has been an AGO member since the early 1980’s and values the education, experiences, and friendships that membership has offered her.
Kell is currently part-time organist for Trinity Episcopal in Ware, MA. He plays as a substitute organist at various churches in the region, sings in the Grace Episcopal Church choir, and plays flute. He is a relatively new organist, studying seriously since 2019 and served as the COVID organist for Christ Church in Bay Ridge Brooklyn during the holy seasons of 2020. He has studied with John Wolfe, Andrus Madsen, Todd Beckham, Wesley Hall, and Noah Horn. He teaches meditation through Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare and the Tergar Meditation Community. Professionally, he served as Director of Clinical Research for 25 years at a large community health network in Brooklyn, NY. He has over 60 peer-reviewed medical publications, including four related to training health professionals to meditate.
Joy Herzig Mullen is the Director of Music and Organist at St Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Pittsfield, MA, where she conducts the Parish Choir and the Handbell Ringers.
She also is the Music Teacher at Richmond Consolidated School in Richmond, MA, where she teaches instrumental music, choral music, and general music classes.
She is a graduate of Syracuse University, with a BM in Music Education, with Performance Honors in Organ. She studied with Will Headlee. She received her MM degree from the University of Massachusetts where she studied with Dr. Ernest May.
She has been a member of the Berkshire Chapter AGO for 45 years. She has served as Dean, Treasurer, a member of the Executive Committee, and a member of the Steering Committee for the Regional Convention in 1997.
Dianne loves to be involved in the community and is one of those people who can be seen “everywhere.” She is a church organist and an award-winning Realtor in central CT. In addition to Real Estate, she organizes and volunteers at numerous events. She has served on the board of Musical Club of Hartford, Hartford Symphony Auxiliary, and chaired the Nutmeg Symphony Gala. She runs events, produces a TV show, created a choir for the homeless, creates her own business groups, and organizes foreign language experiences. She tries to “think outside the box,” making her time on earth more fun and enjoyable.
Her hobbies include gardening, playing chamber music, hiking cooking, travel, art history, sampling dark chocolate, and savoring life’s adventures.
Martha Sienkiewicz's first job was playing organ for her father’s small immigrant church after two years of piano lessons at age 14. She graduated from Valparaiso University (Indiana) with a BA in History/Education and minor in English. She holds an MS in Education and an MA in English. She began teaching at Westfield High School in 1963, retired in 2007 and went on to teach at Westfield State U. 2009–2019.
Martha joined the Guild in 1964 when she began lessons with Charles Page. She was on the committee/board in 1980 for the regional convention where the chapter made the money that funds the organ academy now. She’s been Dean twice (2010, 2020) and served as “dorm mom” for both POE’s in 2007 and again in 2016. Widowed since 1985, she has three grown children (and three grandchildren) in Denver, Minneapolis, and Nashville. They are all thriving… "I am blessed."
She has rarely been without an organ job and is currently organist/choir director for Grace Lutheran Church in West Springfield where she’s been since 1977. “Looks like my last job will also be playing organ. Can’t ask for anything better than that…”
