Music Director - Peter Stoltzfus Berton

Peter Stoltzfus Berton began as Director of Music at St. John's Church in October, 2010. He directs the Adult and Youth Choirs, plays the organ for services, and oversees the growing music programs of the Parish. His past positions have focused on community outreach through intergenerational choral traditions. Most recently he was Organist and Choir Director of All Saints Church, Worcester, Massachusetts, where he spent seven years rebuilding and directing the All Saints Choirs.

A native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Peter began his professional career as a church musician while still in high school. He earned the B. Mus degree from The University of Michigan School of Music and the M. Mus degree from the Yale University School of Music. Integral to his training was serving as Assistant Organist at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit, Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven, and Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York. Prior to moving to New England in 2003, he was Minister of Music and Organist of Christ Episcopal Church, Los Altos, California, and Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn Heights, New York. His principal teachers have been David Bartlett, Robert Glasgow, Gerre Hancock, Charles Krigbaum, Walden Moore, Thomas Murray and Carl E. Schroeder. He is active as a composer, choral clinician, organ recitalist and recording artist, and is a singing member of and organist for Mastersingers USA, a men's touring ensemble. He has served as an officer of several chapters of the American Guild of Organists, and as a faculty member of four of the Guild's Pipe Organ Encounters for young organists. His hobbies include reading, rowing, model railroading and exploring with his daughter Sophie (age four).