Profiles

Douglas Starr, D.M.A., is Organist and Choirmaster at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania (a suburb of Pittsburgh), and Lecturer in World Music and Jazz at Penn State University, New Kensington. Most recently, he has been Professor of Theory and Composition at Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, and Assistant Dean at La Roche College, Pittsburgh. A graduate of the Ohio State University with degrees in vocal performance and theory-composition, Dr. Starr has taught at Kenyon College and Central Michigan University, and for eleven years was director of choral activities at Bellarmine College in Louisville, Kentucky. He was a University Fellow while at Ohio State, a Mellon Fellow at Vanderbilt University in 1983, and, in 1988, an American Council on Education Fellow. As organist and choirmaster at St. Paul’s, Dr. Starr conducts the Chancel Choir, Youth Choir, Children’s Choir and Handbell Choir, as well as instrumentalists. Dr. Starr teaches voice lessons and is an active composer of sacred and secular choral music, published with Beckenhorst, Lawson-Gould, and G.I.A.

Annette Tierney, J.D., is a Hearing Officer in the Family Division of the Court of Common Pleas, Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Annette received her B.A. in Economics from the University of Pittsburgh and her Juris Doctor from the University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, and she has taught Business Law at La Roche College, Pittsburgh. A lyric soprano soloist and guitarist/composer, Annette is a member of St. Paul’s Chancel Choir and also assists her husband, Doug Starr, with the Children’s Choir, Youth Choir, and Handbell Choir. She also directs the Liturgical Dancers, an ensemble of high school dancers. Annette is the mother of a seven-year-old son, Tommy. In 2001, Doug and Annette adopted daughter Lydia, from Ukraine. Currently, Annette studies voice with Janet Kane, a minister in the Presbyterian Church and collegiate vocal instructor.