Mary Wannamaker Huff

Artistic Director

Mary Wannamaker Huff, Artistic Director, has extensive experience working with children's choirs, beginning in 1999. She has prepared children's choirs for performances of Vaughan Williams' Hodie, Britten's Saint Nicolas, Handel's Jephtha, Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Mendelssohn's Paulus, Faure’s Requiem, Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Mahler's Third Symphony. Her choirs have appeared on major television networks including appearances on Saturday Night Live, Good Morning America, TODAY, NBC Sports, CBS Sunday Morning, FOX, and MSG. Recently, the NYCCC made its Carnegie Hall debut premiering Carol Barnett’s Mortals and Angels with bluegrass superstars, Dailey and Vincent, their Broadway debut in The Man Who Came to Dinner with Nathan Lane at Roundabout Theater, their Radio City Music Hall debut in “A Tribute to David Bowie.” The NYCCC opened the Tribeca Film Festival at Radio City Music Hall in 2017 appearing with Carly Simon. International tours have taken the NYCCC to Canada, Germany, Austria, and Spain. 

Among Ms. Huff’s favorite past press reviews was New York Magazine's listing of one of her chorister's performances of Bernstein's Chichester Psalms as one of the year's "Top Ten Classical Events in NYC" (Dec. 7, 2008) and a review in Fanfare Magazine (March/April, 2016): “the musicianship and technical ability of these young singers is impressive…but to be clear, the achievement is even more importantly, artistic.” Her recordings, Simple Gifts, a collection of American and British Arts Songs, and ANGEL, sacred anthems for treble voices, are available on MSR Classics, iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify. Simple Gifts appeared on the 2016 Grammy Ballot in the categories of Best Choral Performance and Best Engineered Classical Recording. Ms. Huff’s recent guest conducting performances and teaching workshops have taken her to New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Texas. 

In addition to her work with the New York City Children's Chorus, she is also the Associate Director of Music at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. She is involved in all aspects of the music program including conducting the liturgical children’s choirs, playing the organ for liturgies, accompanying and conducting the semi-professional Church Choir, Saint Andrew Chorale, and Saint Andrew Orchestra, as well as managing the concert series, Music on Madison!

Ms. Huff graduated cum laude from Furman University in 1999, and continued her musical studies on a full scholarship at Yale University where she earned a Master of Music degree in 2001. She continued further post-graduate studies in music education at Westminster Choir College specializing in the training of children’s choirs. She has taught music to children of all grade levels (K4-12) in Independent, Catholic, and inner-city schools. She was Director of Children's Choirs at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City from 2004 to 2012 where she developed one of the finest Catholic, graded children's choir programs in the country. She has served on the Executive Board of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians and Secretary of the American Guild of Organists (New York City Chapter). Ms. Huff is married to Canadian organist and conductor, Andrew Henderson, and they have two energetic, musical boys.