Rev. Mark Schaefer is the tenth University Chaplain in American University's history, appointed to the position in September 2016 after having served for 14 years as AU's United Methodist Chaplain. He is a graduate of Wesley Theological Seminary and is an ordained elder in the Baltimore-Washington Conference of The United Methodist Church. Mark has also been teaching as an adjunct professor in the Philosophy and Religion Department since fall 2006. He has also been a summer instructor in Biblical Greek and New Testament at neighboring Wesley Theological Seminary. Prior to his ecclesiastical career, Mark was a practicing attorney in the District of Columbia and is a graduate of the George Washington University Law School. Mark holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Russian Language and Literature from the State University of New York at Albany. A native of New York State, he was born in Buffalo and grew up in Center Brunswick, near Albany.
Mark Schaefer
Mark Schaefer
Sean Doyle
The music of composer Sean Doyle (b. 1982) displays a unique personal voice committed to the emotional capabilities of artistic expression. His various works include music for large ensembles, art song and choral music, solo and chamber works, incidental music for plays and dance, film scores, and opera.
Sean’s work Letters from Zelda, for soprano and chamber orchestra, was described by the Washington Post as a “vivid, eventful score… brilliantly written, full of the anything-goes spirit of the Jazz Age”. Sean maintains an active role as a conductor, overseeing many premieres of his own works as well as repertoire both traditional and contemporary. As well as writing works for the concert hall, he continues to pursue his life-long interest in songwriting, and is currently completing a full-length album of original songs. Sean is currently based in the Washington DC area, and is on the full-time faculty of American University, where he teaches composition, music theory, and musicianship. He holds a DMA in music composition from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, and MM and BM degrees in composition from SUNY Fredonia. He studied privately with composers Donald Bohlen and Kevin Puts.
​
Piraeus Symphony Orchestra
​
Piraeus Symphony Orchestra was founded in August 2018 by the Greek conductor Georgios Galanis, along with a group of young Greek musicians and music enthusiasts. During the 2018-2019 concert season, the orchestra has given a series of five concerts in Piraeus Society Music Hall, its official home. For Summer 2019 Piraeus Symphony Orchestra will make its debut at Piraeus Municipality Theater with “il Barbiere di Siviglia” as well as the Aegean Arts Festival in Crete.
Georgios Galanis
​
Georgios Galanis has a distinguished place among the most talented Greek conductors of his generation. Having been elected as the orchestra's favorite during the 1st and 2nd Pan-Hellenic masterclasses for conductors he was chosen to debut with Athens municipality symphony orchestra in July 2014.
His debut with the National Symphony orchestra of the Greek radio (E.R.T) came in autumn 2015, in a concert celebrating 70 years since the liberation of Athens. Among his most recent successes was the 2016 new year's concert with the prominent lyric artists Vassiliki Karayianni, Tasos Apostolou and Athens youth symphony orchestra. Georgios Galanis has also cooperated with several orchestras abroad, including Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra in Germany, the Pardubice chamber Philharmonic in Czech Republic, the “Academic Chamber Soloists” in Prague and the "Prague Strings", which he founded in 2013 together with a number of advanced students of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
From 2015 – 2017 he was chief conductor at Patras Municipal and Regional theater in Patras, Greece. During his tenure there he prepared and conducted several operas such as Purcell’s “Dido & Aeneas”, Gluck’s “Orphee” and Verdi’s “La Traviata”.
Georgios Galanis was born in 1987 in Patras, Greece. He studied violin and music theory at several conservatories in Athens. He later studied Musicology at the University of Athens, where he was also an active violinist playing in various orchestras such as the Athens youth symphony orchestra, the University of Athens chamber orchestra and the Greek-Turkish youth orchestra. After graduating he participated in conducting seminars with Mo Fred Buttkewitz in Berlin and in 2011 he was accepted in Tomas Koutnik's conducting class at the academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where he also studied with professors Hynek Farkac and Leos Svarovsky. Last but not least Georgios Galanis is an active Musicologist and has written essays about music in several music magazines in Greece and abroad.
Currently, Georgios Galanis is an MA student of orchestral conducting at Lucerne music academy guided by Prof. Howard Arman.
