Park Slope Singers

About PSS

Photo: Cassandra Buisson

The Park Slope Singers is a congenial group of about 50 people who like to sing and who get together weekly to make music. We rehearse regularly on Monday evenings at Park Slope United Methodist Church on 6th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. We perform in concert twice a year, usually in January and June.

Our Directors

Elena Williamson, Music Director

Soprano Elena Williamson comes to us by way of Greenwich, CT. She played cello in every orchestra and enrolled in every available music class offered throughout her early educational years. A graduate of Westminster Choir College, she excelled as a vocalist in church music while applying her skills as a cellist to collaborative continuo and chamber groups.

Elena had just begun her Master’s degree in Irvine, CA when she was approached to audition for the conducting department. Much to her surprise, she found it as enjoyable as it was challenging to apply her natural talents in this new musical arena. Soon thereafter, she lead a Renaissance dinner and also took her first directing job at a church in Orange County. She conducted the elite choirs there and got some podium time in front of the orchestra - this was fun!

Upon her return to the East coast, Elena continued to sing professionally and began to direct children’s choirs in Connecticut and New York. She has prepared choirs for the New York Philharmonic and the LA Philharmonic, working closely with Esa-Pekka Salonen. She was also an off-stage conductor for Grendel at the NY State Theatre, for Lorin Mazel’s presentation of Elektra, and for an onstage performance with The Rolling Stones. She now sings all over the world with The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Musica Sacra, Tenet, Ghostlight, and Beth Morrison Projects among many others, but conducting choirs will always be an important part of her musical life.

Bálint Varga, Assistant Music Director & Accompanist

Bálint Varga is an award-winning theatre composer, conductor and arranger originally from Budapest, Hungary. Writing credits: The Brothers Houdini, White Witch of Rosehall, Why Don’t I Have a Girlfriend?, Gailley and the Tale of the Fate Keeper, Dangersparkle and the Lion, Darlings of Broadway, and Hooligans.

Music direction credits: Broadway Dreams Foundation; 50th Anniversary of Hair at LaMama, BDF Moscow, and US tour; Jesus Christ Superstar; The Wiz; Aida; I Love You, You’re Perfect...! (China Tour); A Little Princess; West Side Story; Oliver!; Assassins. International credits: Oliver! (France); Jekyll and Hyde (Austria); Fiddler on the Roof (Hungary); Chess (Hungary); Jesus Christ Superstar (Hungary); They’re Playing Our Song (Hungary); Roman Polanski’s Dance of the Vampires (Hungary/Belgium/Russia).

He has given concerts at Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, 54 Below, and LaMama. A graduate of Berklee College of Music where he studied composition and conducting, he’s a proud member of BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. He is the rehearsal pianist for the Park Slope Singers.