Cantigas Women's Choir - Our Directors

Our Directors

Artistic Director: Hannah Carr

Originally from Ireland, Hannah Carr is Director of Choral Activities at William Paterson University, NJ, following five years on the faculty at Kutztown University, PA. Hannah holds a BA in Composition from Trinity College Dublin, an Adv. Dip in Music Education from the Kodály Institute in Hungary, an MM in Conducting from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music and a DMA in Conducting from Rutgers University. Hannah is director of Cantigas, a Hoboken-based treble choir dedicated to internationally performing diverse music from around the world.

This season Hannah has led William Paterson choirs to two of the field’s most competitive stages: Carnegie Hall in March 2026 and the ACDA Eastern Region Conference in Providence, RI, where the WP Advanced Treble Choir was selected as a performing choir. Abroad, Cantigas earned a Bronze Medal at the 43rd International Choral Festival & Competition of Preveza, Greece. Hannah has recently presented her research on expanding the choral canon at the International Cultural Diversity in Music Education conference, Ireland, 50th International Kodály Symposium in Kecskemét, Hungary and at the OAKE National Conference in Chicago, with articles published in The International Kodály Society bulletin and under review at The Choral Journal and the Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music.

Hannah has worked with professional choirs as director of the University Church at Yale, Stratford Street United Church in Boston and with C4 Ensemble in NYC. With C4, Hannah was a featured conductor on C4’s debut album launch: Uncaged, which received enthusiastic reviews in the American Record Guide and Fanfare Magazine, and was featured by WQXR as “Album of the Week.” Hannah has won various prizes, the Irene Alms Memorial Prize at Rutgers University, The Director’s Prize from Yale University, The Highest Bursary Award for Choral Conducting in 2009 & 2010 from the Irish Arts Council & The Gerard Victory Prize for Composition from Trinity College Dublin. In 2025 Hannah received William Paterson’s Outstanding Ally Award from the Center for Diversity and Inclusion. Hannah is an artist-in-residence of Ireland’s Tyrone Guthrie Center and an active clinician, festival conductor and adjudicator in Europe and the US.

Assistant Director: Erasmia Voukelatos

Erasmia Voukelatos, Assistant Director and Accompanist, is a Canadian pianist of Greek descent and has been active as a solo chamber musician, teacher, music director, and concert series presenter. Her coaches and mentors have included Seymour Bernstein, Rita Bouboulidi, and Robert McDonald. Concerto appearances have included the Mozart Concerto in A major (K. 488) and the Haydn Concerto in D major with the Canadian ensemble "Mercredi Musique", as well as the Bach Keyboard Concerto in d minor, which was released on the CD, The Best of Brooklyn. Ms. Voukelatos has achieved some noteworthy success as a piano teacher of almost 20 years -- a number of her students have gone on to pursue music professionally with careers in music education and as composers for the Hollywood film industry.

She currently teaches elementary music at the Far Brook School in Short Hills, New Jersey, and has previously taught at Stevens Cooperative and Mustard Seed School in New Jersey and the United Nations International School in New York. She enjoys collaborating with her husband, violinist Ashley Horne, and together they have founded My Music Garden, a music enrichment program serving schools in the Jersey City area. Ms. Voukelatos has been accompanying Cantigas since its formation.

Director Emeritus: Joan Isaacs Litman

Joan Isaacs Litman, founding Artistic Director of Cantigas Women's Choir, is a native of Los Angeles and has been a music educator and choral director in the New York metropolitan area for many years. With a longing to stimulate interest and appreciation of less understood cultures, she has particularly focused her research on traditional songs of the Middle East. Highlights of her world music exploration have included learning and teaching in Iran, Spain, Syria, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Qatar, and Poland. For many years, Joan served on the music faculty of the United Nations International School in Manhattan. At UNIS, she founded the UNIS Mothers' Choir.

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