Contributors

Susan Bennerstrom, Artist

Regular concert attendees know that Susan Bennerstrom’s art has graced innumerable Chorale posters, postcards, and program covers over the years.  In fact, Chorale members are sometimes suspected of simply keeping posters for their own living room walls, rather than posting them around town. Local folks may not realize that the well-known local artist is also a first-rate second alto. She has sung in the Whatcom Chorale for over 45 years!

 Susan lives in Bellingham and works in her home studio. She is represented by Woodside Braseth Gallery in Seattle.  Susan has been the recipient of several honors, including a Pollock-Krasner Award, the Seattle Art Museum’s Betty Bowen Special Recognition Award, a SOLA Award, three Artist Trust GAP Awards, and the Bellingham Mayor’s Art Award. She has also enjoyed two painting residencies in a small village in Ireland as a Fellow of the Ballinglen Foundation.  While painting, she likes to listen to music, often choral music, so the consonance between her work and what we do as a chorale is not surprising. Susan says, “Singing and painting have been parallel themes in my life.” 

Born overseas to a military family in 1951, David Scherrer began producing photographs under a house on stilts when he was 10. David had his first exhibition—Turkish streets scenes—while a high school student in Ankara. He studied photography at Western Washington University, taught by Robert Embrey, and traveled throughout the West in the late '70s, attending workshops in Carmel and Yosemite taught by Ansel Adams, Arnold Newman, and Bret Weston. In 1978 David studied film and photography under Hal Halberstadt as a graduate student at the University of Oregon. He then moved to Seattle, and in the early '80s he was a founding member of "Lightworks," an organization of photo artists established to hold exhibitions in nontraditional locations. 

 David has created works in various media, including B/W, Cibachrome, dye transfer, and digital inkjet. He has taught photography classes for WWU, Whatcom Community College, North Cascades Institute, National Wildlife Federation, and Allied Arts. David was awarded a Ballinglen Arts Foundation Fellowship and served a photography residency in County Mayo, Ireland.  Recently David has had an exhibition of his work at the Jansen Art Center in Lynden, as well as a three-person exhibition at Bellingham’s Geheim Gallery with his painter son and ceramic artist grandson.

David resides in Bellingham, where he makes his living as a freelance photographer and artist.

Holly Zwolinski, Photographer

Other Important Contributors

Judy Barton, David Donohue, Kristi Hein,
Amy Nielsen, Megan Taylor, Joanna Wiebe – Public Communications Committee

Judy Barton – Graphic, Program, and
Webpage Designer

Rocky Champagne – Concert Manager

Kristi Champagne – Registrar, Audition Coordinator

David Donohue, Joanna Wiebe and Judy Barton – Webmasters

Nancy Goldfogel – Copy Writer

Steve Johnson – Videographer

Amy Nielsen and Jon Roney – Librarians

Steve Johnson  – Video Recording

Larry Menninga – Practice File Preparation

Joanna Wiebe – Member Communications Chairperson, Administrative Assistant to the Artistic Director