Fred Drifmeyer
Director of Music

Fred Drifmeyer became Pilgrim Church's music director in June 2007. He has an extensive musical background and career.

Fred graduated with a Bachelor of Music Education Degree from Boston University and received a Master of Music Education Degree from Hartt College of Music at the University of Hartford, Connecticut. He is proficient in piano, organ and singing.

Fred retired in 1999 from 37 years in public school music instruction. His last position was 25 years of choral and instrumental directing in the Wareham School System. He retired in 2001 from the directorship of the Cape Cod Community College Chorus and Chamber Choir and was formerly on the music faculty of the Cape Cod Conservatory. He is a current member of the American Guild of Organists and has participated in the music programs of Cape Cod churches for the past 35 years.

Fred continues to be an accompanist for vocal and instrumental soloists and performs as a baritone soloist. He is director of his own choral group, the MasterSingers of Cape Cod, a vocal ensemble of 10 female voices. The chorus performs all styles of music from the past five centuries, including sacred, spiritual and madrigals along with traditional and popular tunes.

Fred and his wife Alice live in Centerville and Alice sings with the Pilgrim Church Chancel Choir. Fred and Alice have 4 children and 5 grandchildren.

Thom Dutton
Handbell Choir Director

Thom Dutton, an accomplished vocalist, harp player, therapeutic music practitioner, handbell ringer and choir director, studied both the art and history of English handbell ringing while completing his music degree from the Houghton School of Music in New York. His introduction as a bell choir director began in 1988 at Eastham United Methodist Church, where he remained for four years.

Thom began ringing in the Pilgrim bell choir in the mid-'90s. Since taking the reigns of the bell choir in 1999, Thom has developed a core group of a dozen dedicated ringers who come from as far away as Barnstable and Eastham to ring at Pilgrim. The choir rehearses for two hours a week to prepare for its monthly contributions to the Sunday worship service. The repertoire of the bell choir is an eclectic mix that runs the gamut from traditional medieval cathedral change ringing to classical, folk and contemporary sacred compositions representing a wide variety of cultures.

Pilgrim Church owns a four octave set of Schulmerich handbells in addition to a two octave set of handchimes. As part of its music ministry, the bell choir has traveled to other churches to enhance their worship experience, and has further expanded its outreach by playing at local nursing homes in Harwich and Brewster.

Thom may be best known as Cape Cod's award-winning Troubadour Harper. Since discovering the Celtic harp in 1987, he has performed throughout the Northeast, as well as in four international tours of the United Kingdom. He has been honored with numerous awards, including the prestigious Judges Overall Performance Award for Outstanding Musicianship at the New England Regional Folk Harp Competition.

In 1998, Thom was named an Outstanding Young Man in America for his continued contributions to the cultural enrichment of his community and his outstanding professional achievements. Following the ancient medieval practice of using harp for healing, Thom recently became certified as a Music Practitioner and, in October 2005, began playing therapeutic music at the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape & Islands. Thom has released four critically acclaimed recordings and has published more than a dozen books of harp music.

Thom's degree is actually in voice. He has been a featured soloist at the Bournemouth International Music Makers Festival in Bournemouth, England and has soloed at both Salisbury Cathedral in England and Chartres Cathedral in France. Today, Thom sings with many local choral and church groups and is a frequent soloist with the Cape Cod Chorale and the Midcape Madrigal Singers. His voice may be heard in the Wellfleet Congregational Church Choir as soloist/section leader. His harp is featured during Pilgrim Church worship services several times each year, as well as in the annual Christmas concert and during special concerts. Even his skills as an actor have been displayed in plays produced at Pilgrim!