Dr. Deborah Simpkin King has been employed as a musician within the church throughout her professional life. As a parish Director of Music, she is known for building choirs recognized for their stylistic flexibility and passion in support of worship. Her own personal mission, which infuses her work both within and outside of the church, is that of deepening and enlivening the human spirit through involvement with music.

Dr. King is an independent conductor and singer, a choral clinician, a private voice teacher, and a professor. In 1995, Dr. King founded, and continues to serve as Artistic Director of the favorably-reviewed Schola Cantorum on Hudson, a non-profit performance and educational organization (http://www.scholaonhudson.org).

She also teaches voice privately both in Manhattan and in her home studio in East Orange, NJ (http://www.DSKsing.com), and is the alto voice in the professional vocal quartet, Chantez! (http://www.chantezsingers.com). She has served as Coordinator of the annual High School Choral Festival for the New Jersey Chapter of the American Choral Directors’ Association (www.njacda.com) for thirteen years.

Upon her arrival at First Presbyterian Church of Ramsey, Dr. King (who is happy to be called “Deborah”) commented that she is “very excited about the opportunity to build on the quality that is already an established priority at First Presbyterian.”

Deborah has two sons: Patrick, Associate Segment Producer for Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show; and Michael, an emerging tenor in the field of opera, and a senior voice major at Westminster Choir College.