Our Director of Music Ministries here at First Church is Mr. Eric Trudel. A native of Quebec, Canada, Eric graduated with top honors from the Quebec Conservatory of Music. He won the prestigious Prix d’Europe competition, which enabled him to study privately with pianists Garrick Ohlsson, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Marc Durand and Louis Lortie. He has taught and performed extensively throughout Canada, Italy, Germany, Austria, Japan, Korea, Spain, and the United States. His New York City credits include recitals at Weil Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall and the 92nd Street Y.

Mr. Trudel has performed in association with many organizations, including the Metropolitan Opera, Yale Institute for Musical Theater, Yale School of Drama, Montreal International Piano Festival, the Banff Center Festival for the Arts, L’Opéra de Montréal, Connecticut Grand Opera, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Oklahoma Mozart Festival, Pro Arte Singers, and Concora. Equally at ease in experimental projects, he has been involved in the creation of the hit musical Nelligan in Montreal, Christopher Cerrone’s opera Invisible Cities for Yale Institute of Music Theater, and the new Adam Bock/Todd Almond musical We Have Always Lived in a Castle for Yale Rep. In June 2018, he was appointed music director of the Stamford Chorale.

His faculty appointments include the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts, the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec in Trois-Rivières, Montréal Opera’s Atelier Lyrique, the Université du Québec à Montréal and more recently Yale University’s School of Music and Western Connecticut State University. He currently is on faculty at University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music and Southern Connecticut State University.

In 2008, the national publication Classical Singer Magazine chose Eric Trudel to be “Vocal Coach of the Year”, a crowning acknowledgment of his many years of collaborative work with opera singers. He has also been the principal pianist for the Classical Singer Convention Competition since 2006.