Eric J. Ermani, DMin.

Eric J. Bermani, DMin. a native of Swampscott, Massachusetts, was appointed music director for the Diocese of Manchester and Director of Music and Organist at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in September 2008. Dr. Bermani has studied organ with D. Michel Michaud, James David Christie, Rosalind Mohnsen and Jill Nennmann. He received his BM in organ performance from the Boston Conservatory of Music, the MA in Church Music and Liturgy at Saint Joseph College, Rensselaer, IN and began working towards a ThD in liturgical praxis and church music at BU School of Theology. As an organ recitalist he has played throughout the New England region in addition to Canada, Ireland and Scotland. He has accompanied various collegiate and church choirs on several tours throughout continental Europe and Ireland. Mr. Bermani is the principal organist for the Cathedral of Saint Joseph, oversees the Cathedral’s cantor ministry and is conductor of the Cathedral’s parish Choir, Schola, Chamber Singers and Diocesan Festival Chorus. In collaboration with the Cantors of the Cathedral of St. Joseph, he founded the professional choir Ensemble Ex-Cathedra. In addition to his duties at the Cathedral and Diocese, Mr. Bermani is on the organ faculty of the Portsmouth based Young Organist Collaborative and began a position as Adjunct Professor of Organ at Saint Anselm College, Manchester, in the fall of 2015.

Karol Carroll

Karol Carroll is an accomplished soprano/mezzo-soprano of great diversity. Her performances include works from Opera, Oratorio, Broadway and Recital. Ms. Carroll was a finalist in the 2013 American Prize Competition which recognizes and awards America’s finest performing artists and awarded Honorable Mention by the NH Council for the arts in 2013. Her recording credits include The Essence of Cabaret, Christmastime and Celestial Praise. She has performed for regional recitals and celebrations including an afternoon of American songs for the 250th anniversary of the town of Amherst, NH; a recital of American Negro Spirituals commemorating the renovation of a 100 year old Chickering Piano by the Chester Historical Society; and an evening of Mozart for the Mt. Washington Hotel. Ms. Carroll has been a featured performer in the Walker lecture series presentation of Cordially Cole & By George, and Opera Circle’s The Lyric Soprano. She has been a featured soloist for Bach’s Magnificat, Carter’s Cantata, Grinnel’s Christmas Cantata, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Vivaldi’s Gloria. Since 2009, Karol has been a cantor at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Manchester and, in addition to her responsibilities at the Cathedral, has most recently assumed cantor duties at St. Aloysius of Gonzaga parish in Nashua, NH.

Eileen Christiansen

With a voice described as “rich and resonant,” mezzo-soprano Eileen Christiansen is a rising singer of oratorio, opera and art song. Ms. Christiansen has performed throughout the New England area as a soloist with the Masterworks Chorale, the Falmouth Chorale and Orchestra, Wellesley Choral Society, Polymnia Choral Society, The Boston Cecilia and the Salisbury Singers. She cantors frequently at the Cathedral of St. Joseph (Manchester) and St. Thomas Aquinas Parish (Salem/Danvers, MA) in addition to several other parish communities and Blessed John XXIII Seminary, Weston, Massachusetts. Additionally, she is an active member of the Metro West Opera Outreach Quartet, a traveling ensemble whose mission is to introduce children to the beauty of opera through live performance. In recent years, she has performed the roles of Dido in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Jaffett in Benjamin Britten’s miracle play Noye’s Fludde and as the Mother in Gabriella Snyder’s one act opera The Rough-Faced Girl: An Algonquin Cindrella Story. Her notable concert solo performances include Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, M. Haydn’s Requiem, Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, Mozart’s Regina Coeli (K 276), Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Nöel, Haydn’s Paukenmesse, Schubert’s Ständchen (“Zögernd leise”) and Mozart’s Missa Brevis in F Major (K 192). Ms. Christiansen has an active voice studio in Melrose, MA and is looking forward to performing as a soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with Melrose’s Polymnia Chorale Society in the spring.

Marc DeMille

A member of the Cathedral music staff since 2009, baritone Marc DeMille is known to church audiences and congregations all over New England, having sung as soloist and chorister for thousands of services and performances at over 100 area churches during the last twenty-five years, including such prestigious locations as Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, St. Paul’s in Cambridge, Trinity Church in Copley Square and Church of the Advent in Beacon Hill. Marc currently serves as music director of St. John the Guardian of Our Lady Parish in Clinton, Massachusetts, where he oversees an active program of four choirs, and also as Associate Cantor/Organist at St. Patrick’s Church in Nashua, New Hampshire. In the concert and stage world, he is well sought-after for his warm, lyrical sound, having performed regularly with numerous professional ensembles, including Labyrinth Choir, Boston Secession, Philovox and Cut Circle. His performances have taken him to Symphony Hall, Tanglewood, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center; and he has recorded for the Sony, Arsis, Brave, Wandering and Albany labels. As an oratorio soloist, Mr. DeMille has appeared with numerous ensembles throughout New England, including Chorus Pro Musica, Paul Madore Chorale, Nashua Symphony Orchestra, Assabet Valley Master Singers, and Old North Marblehead Festival Chorus. Away from the choir loft, he keeps very busy as husband to Kelly and father of four.

Courtney Eschbach-Wells

Courtney Eschbach-Wells, soprano, has sung with church choirs all over the country, most recently at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Manchester, New Hampshire, but also at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame where, in addition to singing with the Women’s Liturgical Choir and Basilica Schola, she was a cantor and featured soloist and studied organ under Daniel Bayless.

Courtney’s sacred works credits include: Haydn’s The Creation, Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate, Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore, Fauré’s Requiem, Haydn’s Harmoniemesse, Handel’s Messiah, and Bach’s Actus Tragicus. 

When not singing at the Cathedral, Courtney is an attorney for the state of New Hampshire specializing in government affairs. She is married to the Rev. Jason Wells and has a daughter, Lydia Evangeline, and resides in Pembroke with a number of chickens, cats, and beehives. “Your statutes have been my songs in the place of my pilgrimage.” Psalm 119:54

Susan Navien

“Professionally ecumenical” is how Susan (Kattwinkel) Navien, soprano, describes her sacred singing career. Having recognized early that her voice is a God-given blessing, she sang her first solo at age eight in the Air Force chapel in Ankara, Turkey where her father was stationed. She now serves as soloist and chorister at the First Congregational Church in Winchester MA (since 1979), the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston (since 1996), and for the High Holy Days at Temple Israel in Boston and Temple Beth Shalom in Needham, MA (since 2011), as well as here at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Manchester (since 2015), and in many other churches of diverse faiths since then. Secular memberships currently include the Cantata Singers of Boston (since 1988) and Calliope (since 2019). Susan earned her degrees in Music Performance and Education from the University of Lowell (now UMass) and lives in Haverhill MA.