Kathleen Bartkowski, Associate Music Director
Con Brio is delighted to announce the appointment of Kathleen Bartkowski as its new Associate Music Director, commencing in August 2025.
Kathleen Bartkowski has an extensive background in accompanying community, college, and professional ensembles. She is frequently invited to perform at choral festivals, musicals, and with school choirs. Currently, Kathleen serves as the collaborative pianist for the Vernon Chorale since 2006, an auditioned community choir based in Vernon, CT, and as the Associate Music Director for Con Brio. For more than forty years, she has served as organist and choir director in churches across New England. Presently, she holds the position of Organist at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Gales Ferry, Connecticut, a role she has fulfilled for 19 years.
Kathleen earned her Master of Music in Piano Accompanying from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she accompanied the University Chamber Choir, Chorale, and numerous vocalists and instrumentalists. While pursuing her degree, she received the Eugenie M. May Award for Piano Performance. She also holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Connecticut, where she was the accompanist for the choral department and was awarded both a University String Scholarship and the Victor Borge Scholarship.
Notable achievements in Kathleen’s career include accompanying two National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Eastern Division Honor Choirs (Philadelphia, PA and Hartford, CT), New England Music Festivals from 2008 to present, the 2012 NY Area All-State (Suffern, NY), and the 2011 American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Mens Honor Choir (Chicago, IL). She has also accompanied groups such as the Hartford Chorale Chamber Singers, the Mystic River Chorale, Mak’hela (Jewish Chorus of Western Massachusetts), Ledyard High School Choral Department, and NAfME and ACDA honors choirs and conference sessions on the local, state, and national levels. She has accompanied numerous Connecticut Eastern Region and All-State Honors choirs. Her work has taken her on tours in Europe with the UMass choirs and the Mystic River Chorale, and she has collaborated with esteemed conductors including Dr. Peter Bagley, Charlene Archibeque, Andre Thomas, Z. Randall Stroope, and Janet Galvan.
Kathleen has contributed her expertise as a Member-at-Large on the Connecticut ACDA Executive Board and the Board of the New London County Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. She lives in Colchester, CT, with her husband Douglas and their two cats, Milo and Marmalade.
