About 

Julie Panke, Music Director

Julie Panke has been the Artistic Director of the Festival Celebration Choir since 2017. Ms. Panke holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, where she trained at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music, and a Master of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She served as Director of Music at the First Reformed Church of Schenectady for seventeen years and previously served churches in Albany, Burnt Hills, and Glenville.  Ms. Panke also directs the Thursday Musical Club, a women’s chorus based in Schenectady, and Capital Community Voices, a 50-voice mixed chorus based in East Greenbush. She is a member of the American Choral Directors Association and American Guild of Organists. She was a founding officer an former Executive Director of the Electronic Music Foundation.  In 2015 she was named a Woman of Achievement by the

YWCA of Northeastern New York. 

Daniel White, Accompanist

Daniel White has been with FCC since the Fall of 2019. He has taught in many districts in the Capital Region and currently teaches General Music and Chorus in the Greenville Central School District. He serves as the Artistic Director of Albany Gay Men’s Chorus, sings at Saint John’s Lutheran Church in Colonie, works with the Cornerstone Campus Ministry at the University at Albany, directs summer musicals at the Cue Theater in Albany, and does freelance accompaniment when he can fit it in his schedule! Daniel holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from the College of Saint Rose and a Master of Music Degree from the Longy School of Music at Bard College.