Noel Sell was the choral director at Franklin Middle School in Somerset, New Jersey, a position that he held for the past 33 years until his retirement in July 2011. Mr. Sell is a cum laude graduate of Westminster Choir College of Rider University where he performed under the baton of great conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Robert Shaw, Seji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Antol Dorati, William Steinberg, and Joseph Flummerfelt. He studied organ under the tutelage of Robert Carwithen and Eugene Roan, and voice with Suzanne Pratt and Frauke Haasemann. Additionally, Mr. Sell has appeared as a bass-baritone soloist with the Westminster Choir at the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in Charleston, South Carolina and Spoleto, Italy.
Mr. Sell served as director of two choral groups at Franklin Middle School: The Gifted and Talented Choir, a 50-voice mixed ensemble chosen by audition and the Franklin Middle School Chorus, an 85-voice mixed ensemble open to the general population of the school. The Gifted and Talented Choir, which he established, has continually received superior ratings at the New Jersey Music Educator’s Association’s Junior High/ Middle School Choral Festival, and the New Jersey Teen Arts Festival both at the County and State levels. Touted as one of the finest middle school choirs in the Eastern United States, the group has also appeared in concert at the New Jersey School Board Association Convention and Pluckemin Presbyterian Church. In addition to the choral groups offered at Franklin Middle School, Mr. Sell developed a keyboard lab giving instruction on piano technique, repertoire, and music theory.
Presently, Mr. Sell serves as Director of Music at Pluckemin Presbyterian Church, Pluckemin, New Jersey where he serves as organist, Sanctuary Choir director, and administrator to three handbell choirs and one children’s choir. Recently, his biography has been published in the 2005 Marquis Who’s Who in America.