James A. Carpenter joined the Monteverdi Master Chorale as Artistic Director in January 2002.  A native of Burlington, Vermont, he received his undergraduate education at Ithaca College, in Ithaca, New York, majoring in choral music education and voice.  He went on to study with the late Robert Fountain at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he received the Master of Music degree in choral conducting.

Mr. Carpenter began his career as an educator in the public schools of Wisconsin and Florida, teaching choral and general music in grades K-12.  In 1988 he joined the faculty of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where he conducted choirs and taught classes in musicianship and conducting.  Mount Holyoke choirs under his direction performed annually in New York City and toured throughout the eastern United States.  He also conducted yearly performances of major choral-orchestral works on the Mount Holyoke campus.

Mr. Carpenter has extensive experience with church and community choirs.  He has served Methodist, Lutheran, and United Church of Christ congregations in Wisconsin, Florida, and Massachusetts, in addition to conducting Catholic and Protestant chapel choirs at Mount Holyoke College.  He was Assistant Conductor of the Winter Park Bach Festival Chorus in Winter Park, Florida and Conductor of the Springfield Symphony Chorus in Springfield, Massachusetts.

In addition to his position as Artistic Director of the Monteverdi Master Chorale, he is currently Director of Music at First United Methodist Church of Appleton, where he conducts the adult choir and supervises an extensive music program. He is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, the International Federation for Choral Music, and the College Music Society, and is Treasurer of the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association.