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Jason Max Ferdinand, Professor – Conductor – Composer – Speaker, is an inspirational musician, leader and teaching mentor whose gifts are sought after by choirs and orchestras in the USA and internationally. Since 2022 he has served as the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Maryland, College Park, having spent the preceding 14 years as professor at Oakwood University, where he conducted the renowned Aeolians of Oakwood University.

Susan Conant, specializes in playing chamber music on recorders, flutes and whistles. Her musical journey spans across ages and cultures as evidenced by her three current Charleston, SC based ensembles; Spartina Consort (Early Music), Porto Seguro, (Brazilian music) and Zephyr (Celtic). She has shared her chamber music in a variety of venues and concert series including Piccolo Spoleto, the Charleston Library Society, Forte Jazz Lounge, North Charleston Arts Festival, Brazil Fest at I’on, Fripp Island Friends of Music, Northern Illinois University, Morton Arboretum, the College of Charleston, McClellanville Arts Council, and UUC Santa Fe. Conant has played with the Charleston Symphony for Harry Potter Live #3, The Christmas Revels, Charleston Pro Musica and the Taylor Festival’s Celtic Christmas. Also a composer, arranger and conductor, Conant is a former Music Director for the Unitarian Church in Charleston and for the UU Society of Geneva, IL. She has published two discs of her own chamber compositions – Lowcountry Sojourn (2013) and A New Leaf (2006). She is also recorded on the Taylor Festival Choir’s, “Sing We Now of Christmas” (2010, MSR Classics) for which she arranged the title cut. Conant’s compositions dig into her roots including English and American folk music from summers growing up at Pinewoods Camp, Early Music studies under Susan Zimmerman and classical flute at the New England Conservatory with Claude Monteaux.