Sue Coffee

Sue Coffee is the founding Artistic Director of Resonance, the 100-voice Women's Chorus of Boulder, which made its debut in 2003, and Sound Circle, a women's a cappella ensemble, currently celebrating its 10th Anniversary season. She directed the Denver Gay Men's Chorus from 1999 to 2005. Sue received a Legacy Award from the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses at the 2004 GALA Festival in Montreal, in recognition of her contributions to the gay and lesbian choral movement. She has served GALA Choruses on the Board of Directors and numerous advisory committees and has presented workshops at GALA Choruses events on topics including long-range artistic planning, mission and relevance, and musical excellence. She directed the women's chorus at the first Singers' Weekend in Toronto in 1997 and co-organized the Voices of Women concert at the 2004 Montreal Festival.

Joel Cohen

Joel Cohen, (born 1942) was the Music Director of the Boston Camerata from 1968 to 2008. He remains connected to the Boston Camerata as Music Director Emeritus. Cohen founded the Camerata Mediterranea in 1990 and incorporated it as a nonprofit research institute in France in 2007. He has collaborated very frequently with French soprano Anne Azema. His professional honors include the Signet Society Medal (Harvard University), the Howard Mayer Brown Award, the Erwin Bodky Award, and the Georges Longy Award. He was a government-appointed artist-in-residence in the Netherlands during the year 2000, and is an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic. Cohen studied composition at Harvard University. He was awarded a Danforth Fellowship and spent two years in Paris as a student of Nadia Boulanger. In the 1970s he spent two seasons as a producer of musical radio programs for the French National Radio (France Musique), where he originated the concept of an all-day musical celebration on the days of the solstice. This annual event is currently known as the "Fete de la Musique" also known as "World Music Day".

Joan Conlon

Joan Catoni Conlon recenty retired as the Director of Graduate Choral Research for the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she conducts the University Singers. She received her BA, MA and DMA degrees from the University of Washington where she was Professor of Choral Music and Conducting. She was the conductor of the Northwest Chamber Chorus in Seattle, Washington, and was the chair of the Research and Publications Committee of the American Choral Directors Association. Her scholarship specializes in the choral music of Georg Philipp Telemann and Claudio Monteverdi. She published Performing Monteverdi: A Conductor's Guide (ISBN 0-937276-27-8). She has also studied the Hindustani classical vocal music of India.

Pamela Cook

Pamela Cook is regarded as a leading authority on vocal and choral techniques, and is much in demand for solo and choral workshops at home and abroad. These have included working with choirs in Israel, Finland, Belgium and Canada and in the USA, where 400 ladies from the Ivy League Colleges of Radcliffe, Harvard, Smith, Mount Holyoak and Amherst were involved. She is also an external examiner for University and Conservatoire final degrees.

Many students from around the world have visited Mansfield to observe the methods used in training Cantamus, the girls choir with which she has gained 22 first and 4 second prizes in 24 international choral competitions. Among these are a double first (jury and audience) in Montreux (1978), the City of Vienna trophy for best choir in Vienna (1982), BBC/Sainsbury's Choir of the Year (Adults) 1986 and the same in the Youth Section in 1994, the Grand Prix in Riva del Garda 1996, Choir of the World (Llangollen Eisteddfod) 1997, as well as championships and two gold medals in the World Choral Olympics in Bremen, 2004, repeated in China in 2006.

Andrew Crane

Andrew Crane joined the BYU faculty in 2015, where his main duties include conducting the Brigham Young University Singers and teaching courses in the graduate conducting curriculum. Previous to this appointment, he served for four years as Director of Choral Activities at East Carolina University, and six years in the same position at California State University, San Bernardino.

Choirs under his direction have appeared by invitation at multiple state, regional, and national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association, National Association for Music Education, and National Collegiate Choral Organization. Recent examples include the 2019 ACDA national conference in Kansas City, the 2020 Utah Music Educators Association conference in St. George, and the 2020 Western Division ACDA conference in Salt Lake City.

Marcus Creed

The English conductor, Marcus Creed, began his studies at King's College in Cambridge, where he had the opportunity to sing in the famed King's College Choir. Further studies took him to Christ Church in Oxford and the Guildhall School in London.

Marcus Creed began living in Berlin in 1976 (or 1977). Stations along his way have been the Deutsche Oper Berlin (where he worked as opera coach and choir director), Hochschule der Kunste (lecturer on song), as well as the Gruppe Neue Musik and the Scharoun Ensemble (pianist and conductor). In 1987 he was appointed artistic director of the RIAS-Kammerchor, which won numerous international awards under his direction (including the Edison Award, the Diapason D'Or and the Cannes Classical Award). His work together with the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, the Freiburger Barockorchester and the Concerto Koln formed an important part of his concert activities.

Joseph Crnko

Joseph Crnko joined Seattle Symphony as the Associate Conductor for Choral Activities in September 2007. He is in his 25th year as Music Director of the Northwest Choirs, the Northwest's premier youth choral organization, which includes both the Northwest Boychoir and Vocalpoint! Seattle. In addition to his work with the Northwest Choirs, Crnko regularly conducts professional orchestral and choral recording sessions for movie and video game soundtracks, including those for the films Millions, O, Boondock Saints and The Celestine Prophecy, and video games Halo, Medal of Honor and The Age of Mythology. Crnko served as Music Director for Civic Light Opera in Seattle and for productions with Alaska Light Opera Theatre, Evergreen Theatre Conservatory, Seattle Children's Theatre and the Professional Actors Training Program at the University of Washington.

Emily Crocker

Emily Holt Crocker, founder and artistic director of the Milwaukee Children's Choir is recognized nationally as a leading expert in children's choirs. The Milwaukee Children's Choir has received acclaim for performances with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, the American Choral Directors Association, the Chiba People's Festival in Japan and the Canterbury (England) International Children's Choir Festival.

As a composer, Ms. Crocker's works have been performed around the world and she has received ASCAP awards for concert music since 1986. She is well known for her work in developing choral instructional materials and is an author of Experiencing Choral Music, choral textbook series for grades 6-12, published by McGraw-Hill/Glencoe. As a guest conductor, she led the Midwinter Children's Choral Festival in Carnegie Hall in 1999 and 2001 and has conducted the Milwaukee Symphony Pops Orchestra and the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra in performances with the Milwaukee Children's Choir. In 2002 she was awarded the Excellence in Youth Music award from the Civic Music Association of Milwaukee.

Gabriel Crouch

Gabriel Crouch is Director of Choral Activities and Senior Lecturer in Music at Princeton University. He began his musical career as an eight-year-old in the choir of Westminster Abbey, where he performed a solo at the wedding of HRH Prince Andrew and Miss Sarah Ferguson. After completing a choral scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was offered a place in the renowned a cappella group The King's Singers in 1996.

In the next eight years he made a dozen recordings on the BMG label (including a Grammy nomination), and gave more than 900 performances in almost every major concert venue in the world. Special collaborative projects saw him working and performing with some of the world's most respected artists, including percussionist Evelyn Glennie, pianists Emanuel Ax and George Shearing, singer Barbara Hendricks and Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys.

Matthew Culloton

Matthew Culloton is the Founding Artistic Director and Conductor of The Singers - Minnesota Choral Artists. In August 2010, Matthew became Choirmaster at The House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul. He holds degrees from Concordia College, Moorhead (B.M. in Music Education) and the University of Minnesota (M.M. in Choral Conducting, D.M.A. in Conducting). Matthew has studied conducting with Rene Clausen, Kathy Romey, Craig Kirchhoff, Paul Nesheim, Matthew Mehaffey, Mark Russell Smith, and Bruce Houglum.

As a composer, Matthew has been commissioned by The Singers, the Dale Warland Singers, Choral Arts Ensemble of Rochester (MN), Ames Chamber Artists, Chanson, the Minnesota MMEA All-State Choir, and numerous high school, collegiate, and church choirs.

Carol Cymbala

Carol Cymbala was born in Chicago, IL. She is the wife of Pastor Jim Cymbala and serves as the director of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir and is also the daughter of the church founder, the late Rev. Clair Hutchins. She has three grown children, 2 girls and a boy.

Carol began the choir with a group of 9 people in the early 1980's. Since then, the choir has grown to 250 voices. When she had trouble finding enough appropriate songs, she began writing them. Although she cannot read or write music, the Lord has given her a special gift that helps her to play from her heart through the power of the Holy Spirit. Twenty years and many albums later, recordings and live performances continue to carry the choir's sound and the Gospel's message to people all over the world. Carol has written hundreds of songs, 51 of them recorded throughout her 23 album recording history. The choir is a mixture of ethnic and economic backgrounds; there are attorneys and former street people, nurses and ex-crack addicts.

Stephen Darlington

Stephen Darlington is one of England's leading choral conductors. His links with Christ Church began in the early 1970s, as Organ Scholar under Simon Preston. After four years as Assistant Organist at Canterbury Cathedral, he was appointed Master of the Music at St. Albans Abbey, and a year later, became Artistic Director of the world-famous International Organ Festival in succession to Peter Hurford. In 1985 he returned to Christ Church as Organist and Tutor in Music. Since then he has divided his time between establishing the college as an acknowledged centre of academic musical excellence, and maintaining the highest choral traditions of the Church of England in Christ Church Cathedral. His outstanding strength is in his performances of choral music of the 16th century, and of modern sacred music. An extensive discography comprising over 50 CD's, includes several award-winning recordings such as: Ralph Vaughan Williams's An Oxford Elegy (nominated for a Grammy Award), Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's Missa Dum Complerentur and William Walton's Choral Works. Recent releases, Haydn's Stabat Mater and De Monte's Masses and Motets have received Gramophone magazine recommendations.

Brazeal W. Dennard

Brazeal Dennard attended Detroit Public Schools as a youngster and began private music study with such notables as the late Johnnie Reid, Professor S. A. Ratliff, Dean Robert Nolan, Lloyd Murphy, and Virginia Persons. He completed his formal education at Wayne State University, earning a Masters Degree in Music Education. Throughout his career, Brazeal has served in many roles, such as guest conductor, clinician, lecturer, and church choirmaster.His numerous professional affiliations include National Endowment of the Arts, Department of Cultural Affairs for the city of Detroit, former trustee and member of the Advisory Committee of the Detroit Community Music School, former Chairman of the Music Advisory Committee for the Michigan Council for the Arts, and President of the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc.

Dr. Cedric Dent

Cedric Carl Dent, a native of Detroit, Michigan, was a baritone vocalist, music arranger, and co-producer of the 10-time GRAMMY Award-winning vocal group, TAKE 6. After 25 years, Dent retired from full-time performing and has been an emeritus member of the group since 2011. Dent is also a 2-time Grammy-nominated music arranger and contributed several arrangements for the Grammy-award winning recording Handel's Messiah A Soulful Celebration (1992). In 2014, Dent rejoined TAKE 6 for their induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, TN.

David P. DeVenney

David P. DeVenney has established a wide reputation as a conductor and scholar. His choirs have toured throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, receiving acclaim for their carefully prepared and musically exciting performances from audiences and critics alike. The WCU Concert Choir has sung to sold-out audiences in venues like St. Severin in Paris, and was invited to close the prestigious Viareggio, Italy Choral Festival in 2004. His conducting repertory includes over one hundred major choral works with orchestra and two dozen operas and musicals, and he has commissioned and premiered new choral works by noteworthy composers such as David Conte, Robert Maggio, Jennifer Higdon, Emma Lou Diemer, Marvin Hamlisch, and Robert Page. His choirs appear commercially on the Albany label as well as on several private CDs with his university ensembles, and have appeared at state and regional conferences of the Ohio Choral Directors Association and the College Music Society.

David Dickau

David Dickau (b. 1953) is a choral conductor and composer residing in Mankato, Minnesota where he has been serving as Director of Choral Activities at Minnesota State University, Mankato since 1991. As a part of his duties, Dr. Dickau conducts the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers and teaches conducting and composition. He recently received the Distinguished Faculty Scholar award from his university.

Dr. Dickau holds advanced degrees in Choral Music from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA.) He has taught choral music on both the high school and college levels and has conducted community and church choirs. He also served for thirteen years as music director of Magnum Chorum, a Twin Cities-based chamber choir.

Peter Dijkstra

Peter Dijkstra is artistic director of the Choir of the Bavarian Radio in Munich and the Swedish Radio Choir. He co-operates with conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Riccardo Muti and Claudio Abbado but also conducts many Choir-Symphonic concerts next to his main series of a cappella concerts. In the Netherlands, Peter Dijkstra is the first guest conductor of the Nederlands Kamerkoor, artistic leader of vocal ensemble MUSA, a mixed choir based in Utrecht, and founder of vocal ensemble The Gents in Holland. With this all-male ensemble he won many prizes on international festivals and toured in Japan, Spain, Sweden and Great-Britain.

Currently, Dijkstra is regularly invited to conduct all major choirs such as the Netherlands Chamber Choir, BBC singers, RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin, Collegium Vocale Gent, Danish National Choir, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Radio Choir of Berlin and the Netherlands Radio Choir. With these fine ensembles he performs a broad repertoire, from early music to premiers of newly composed works. Alongside Choir conducting, Peter Dijkstra quickly became a well sought after guest conductor with orchestras such as the Munich Radio Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, DSO Berlin, Gavle Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the North Netherlands Philharmonic, The Residentie Orchestra of The Hague, The Bochum Symphonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, etc.

Noel Edison

Noel Edison is well established as one of the most versatile and charismatic conductors in the world today. As conductor and artistic director of two world-class Canadian ensembles, the large-scale Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (TMC) and the chamber-sized Elora Festival Singers, Mr. Edison is widely recognized and appreciated for his skillful interpretive blending of rigorous musical purity together with warm emotional content. In addition to full seasons with the TMC and the Elora Festival Singers, he is in demand for guest engagements with such orchestras as the Winnipeg Symphony, Toronto Symphony and Symphony Nova Scotia. His recording on the Naxos label, featuring the choral music of Eric Whitacre, has just been nominated for a Grammy.

Morna Edmundson

Morna Edmundson is one of Canada's best-known choral conductors, with special interests in the areas of tone colour, language, and interpretation. As a conductor, singer, and administrator, her professional music career spans over twenty-five years, including eight years as a professional singer in the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Ms. Edmundson is best known for her 22 years of accomplishment as Co-Founder and Co-Conductor of Elektra's Women's Choir, with which she has received numerous honours and awards. At the end of the 2008/2009 season, Morna was appointed Artistic Director of Elektra at the same time as her long-time colleague Diane Loomer, C.M. stepped into the Conductor Emeritus role.

Rodney Eichenberger

Rodney Eichenberger, Florida State University Professor Emeritus, continues to maintain a busy professional schedule elsewhere. He has conducted 80 US All State Choirs and guest conducted or lectured at more than 85 US, Australian and New Zealand Universities. International appearances include guest conducting the Korean National Chorus in Seoul, the Pusan, Korea City Choir, International High School Honor Choirs in Tokyo and Berlin and leading conducting workshops in Argentina, Brazil, France, Norway, Sweden, Scotland, Austria, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. His instructional videos on Choral Conducting," What They See Is What You Get," published by Hinshaw Music and "Enhancing Musicality Through Movement," Santa Barbara Press, are widely used in collegiate conducting classes. A graduate of St. Olaf College with advanced study at the Universities of Denver, Washington and Iowa, he taught at the University of Washington and the University of Southern California prior to his appointment at Florida State University.

Randi Von Ellefson

Randi Von Ellefson has been director of choral activities and professor of music at Oklahoma City University and the artistic director of Canterbury Choral Society in Oklahoma City since the autumn of 2004. He holds a BA in music education and church music from Texas Lutheran University, an MFA in conducting from the University of Minnesota, and a DMA in choral music from Arizona State University.

He has taught choral music in various colleges and universities since 1977 including Bethany Lutheran College (MN), Whitworth College (WA) and the University of Chicago (IL). Ellefson also was artistic director of the Elgin Choral Union (IL), the Spokane Symphony Chorale (WA) and was a founding member of Spokane Opera Company and served that organization as resident conductor from 1989 until 1996. He also served St. Mark's Lutheran Church as director of music and is currently choir director at Chapel Hill United Methodist Church.

Bradley Ellingboe

Bradley Ellingboe has been on the faculty of the University of New Mexico since 1985, where he is Professor of Music and Regents Lecturer. He has served as Chairman of the Department of Music. In the fall of 2005 Ellingboe stepped down from his post as Head of the Voice Area and assumed the title of Director of Choral Activities. He is a graduate of Saint Olaf College and the Eastman School of Music and has done further study at the Aspen Music Festival, the Bach Aria Festival, the University of Oslo and the Vatican.

Ellingboe is well known as a composer of choral music, with over 110 pieces in print. His choral music is widely sung and is published by Oxford, Augsburg, Walton, Hal Leonard, Mark Foster, Choristers Guild, Concordia, and particularly the Kjos Music Company, for whom he edits two series of choral octavos. His largest work, the Requiem for choir and orchestra, was premiered in 2002. Since its premiere it has been performed over 200 times across the United States, including its Carnegie Hall debut, with Ellingboe conducting a festival choir of nearly 300 singers from across the U.S., in June of 2010.

Emily Ellsworth

Ms. Ellsworth has been Artistic Director of Anima since 1996. She has prepared the Chorus for performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of Mahler's symphonies No. 8 and No. 3 with Christoph Eschenbach, Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms with Sir Georg Solti, and Mahler's Symphony No. 3 with Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic. She has conducted the young singers in performances with Julia Roberts, Garth Brooks, Dennis DeYoung, Chicago area orchestras, featured broadcasts on WFMT, five CD recordings, and appearances at national conventions for Chorus America (2004 & 2005) and the American Choral Director's Association (1999 & 2003) as well as concert tours of Italy, Australia/New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, mainland China and South Africa.

Ms. Ellsworth has served on the Music Panel for the National Endowment for the Arts, received the YWCA's Outstanding Leader for Arts and Culture Award for DuPage County (1999), and is in demand both nationally and internationally as a guest clinician.. She is also the editor of the Opera Workshop series for Boosey and Hawkes Publishing.

Karle Erickson

Dr. Karle Erickson, Artistic Director and Conductor of World Voices, the Twin Cities based choral ensemble that specializes in performing exclusively global music , is internationally known for his excellence as a choral conductor, clinician and educator. He has conducted over 475 choral festivals and clinics, all-state and honors choirs and church music festivals across the United States and internationally.

He has been one of two American conductors for the Prague International Choral Festival and Competition in the Czech Republic, and is the Choir Director at St. Andrew Lutheran Church, Eden Prairie, Minnesota. When asked what continues to provide the excitement in working with World Voices , Dr. Erickson responded: "It is the professional energy and artistic stimulation that comes from working with singers, collaborators and instrumentalists representing the different cultures and countries. Each concert presents new artistic and educational opportunities as well as unique challenges."

Eric Ericson

The distinguished Swedish choral conductor and pedagogue, Eric Ericson, acquired his widespread musical education in the Stockholm Musikhogskolan (1941-1943), Schola Cantorum of Basel in Switzerland (1943-1949), Germany, England and the USA. After finishing his studies he was appointed in 1949 as Cantor of Jakobskirch in Stockholm, and professor in the conservatory of the city in 1953.

Eric Ericson was the conductor of three excellent chamber choirs. He formed the Stockholm Chamber Choir in 1945 (renamed in 1988 to be called the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir). This group has remained his main instrument for developing the art of a capella singing ever since. In 1951 the Swedish Radio Choir was formed on his initiative, and the post as its principal conductor and artistic leader was held by him until 1982. During the years 1951-1991 he was also principal conductor and artistic leader of the noted male choir Orphei Drangar, based in Uppsala Sweden.

Oscar Escalada

Oscar Escalada selects the pieces for the series of Latin American Choral Music, and often contributes to it as composer or arranger. He is Professor of Conducting and Composition at the Conservatory of La Plata, and a researcher at the University of La Plata (Argentina). He is the founder and conductor of Coral del Nuevo Mundo (New World's Chorale), a group that was invited to perform at the 1998 ACDA Central Division Convention in Detroit, and to sing Misa Criolla by Ariel Ramirez at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in the Jubilee of 2000. He also founded the Children's Choir of Teatro Argentino of La Plata in 1988.

Professor Escalada has been invited to give lectures and workshops, and to adjudicate all over Argentina, the United States, Venezuela, Cuba, Spain, England, Greece, and Germany. He is Vice President of the Argentine Association for Choral Music, a member of the Musical Committee of the America Cantat Festivals, and the Choral Festival of Munich, Germany. In recognition of his choral achievements, he received one of three hundred medals coined for the Tercentennial Anniversary of the foundation of Yale University.

Dr. Gerald Eskelin

The musical career of Gerald Eskelin is multi-faceted, spanning five decades of conducting, singing, composing, writing, and teaching. He has received two Grammy nominations for recordings by the L.A. Jazz Choir, which he founded in 1980. The group has performed and/or recorded with such notables as Rosemary Clooney, Steve Allen, and Al Jarreau.

The Gerald Eskelin Singers have been featured in a number of German television programs, performing there with many well-known artists such as Glen Campbell, Frank Sinatra Jr., Herb Jefferies, and Tex Beneke. They have performed on various recording projects, most recently Amazonia, a work by Bebu Silvetti, dedicated to the preservation of the Rainforest. Additionally, the singers have recorded choral demos for a number of music publishers.

Antonio Espinal

Pianist, orchestral and choral conductor, Mr. Espinal has been recognized as one of the most talented young conductors, pianists and musicians in his native country of Mexico . Mr. Espinal moved to Los Angeles invited to work with Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen as his Apprentice in 2000. He is also a regular guest conductor for orchestras in Mexico.

Mr. Espinal was granted Permanent Resident Visa as an "artist of extraordinary abilities" in year 2007 for his contribution to the development of the arts and his work with the youth in his now home, Los Angeles . This contribution was more than evident with his extraordinary achievements reached in a few years with his own organization: HARMONIES GIRLS CHOIR.

Los Angeles has become the place to expand his musical activities since then, becoming an indispensable "cultural ambassador" in this City. Not only his personals achievements has been widely recognized, but his talents as an educator and "discoverer" of new talents in the Angeleno Youth has been internationally admired, since he has toured internationally eight times to Mexico and Europe with Harmonies Girls choir.

Harold Farberman

Harold Farberman has conducted many of the world's leading orchestras, including the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Stockholm Philharmonic, Danish Radio Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Hessischer Rundfunk, BRT Orchestra (Brussels), Orchestre National de Lille, RAI in Rome, Mozarteum Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, KBS (Korea), Sydney and Melbourne Symphonies (Australia), and the Puerto Rico Symphony.

Farberman is also a tireless advocate on behalf of conductors. In the 1970s, while serving as a member of the American Symphony Orchestra League, he established countrywide workshops for young conductors. At the 1975 American Symphony Orchestra League Conference, he proposed the creation of an association of conductors; the following year the Conductors Guild became a reality, and Farberman served two terms as its first president. He is the founder and director of the acclaimed Conductors Institute, a summer conducting program at Bard College, where he is also a co-director of the Graduate Conducting Program of the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Larry L. Fleming

Dr. Larry L. Fleming, founder and long-time music director of the National Lutheran Choir, was a noted conductor and composer of both choral and instrumental music.

Fleming, Founder A native of Cut Bank, Montana, Fleming attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota on a $50 music scholarship. After his graduation in 1960 he became the first full-time director of music at University Lutheran Church of Hope in Minneapolis, where he conducted a 65-voice choir for six years. During the same period, he taught music and liturgy at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, and served as an editorial consultant and clinician for Augsburg Publishing House.

In 1966, Fleming accepted the position of Director of Choral Activities and Director of Chapel Music at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana, where he taught until 1974. He left there to study in Europe and pursue a number of composition commissions and appointments as guest conductor. In 1976, he returned to teaching, at Concordia College for three years, and then in 1979 at Augsburg College in Minneapolis.

Joseph Flummerfelt

Musical America's 2004 Conductor of the Year, Joseph Flummerfelt's musical artistry has been acclaimed in many of the world's concert halls for nearly 40 years. He is founder and musical director of the New York Choral Artists, is an artistic director of Spoleto Festival USA, and for 33 years was conductor of the world-renown Westminster Choir.

A gifted orchestral conductor, Maestro Flummerfelt has conducted over 50 performances with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Italy and in the U.S. He has also appeared as guest conductor with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, and the San Antonio and Phoenix Symphonies. In 1988 he made his New York Philharmonic debut with a performance of Haydn's Creation, and in 2001 he conducted the world premiere of Stephen Paulus' Voices of Light with the Philharmonic and the Westminster Choir.

Dr. Guy Forbes

Guy Forbes is recognized across the country as a gifted composer and conductor. Dr. Forbes joined the Millikin University School of Music faculty in 1995 as the Associate Conductor of Choirs where he conducts the Millikin Chamber Chorale, one of the top two auditioned university choirs. Created for the study and performance of standards from the choral cannon, the group has been widely acclaimed for its musicianship and musical sensitivity. As the founding director of the Chamber Chorale, Dr. Forbes has conducted nine performance tours across the Midwest, as well as choir tours in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and Ontario Canada. The Chamber Chorale cut its first CD in 2006 - From the Heart - available through First Step Records.

In addition to his work with the Chamber Chorale, he also directs the Millikin Madrigal Singers and serves as one of the conductors of the Millikin Vespers program - a 50 year choral/orchestral event with an annual attendance of over 6000.

Dr. Patrick Freer

Patrick Freer is associate professor of choral music education at Georgia State University in Atlanta. He holds degrees from Westminster Choir College and Teachers College, Columbia University. Freer is a frequent guest conductor for all-state choruses and has made over 100 presentations at regional, national and international conferences. He has guest conducted or presented in 35 states, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, England, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, and Spain.

Freer has conducted several concerts in Carnegie Hall and made his Lincoln Center debut in June, 2012 with a concert in Avery Fisher Hall. He currently conducts the Georgia State University Men's Chorus and Choral Union. The Men's Chorus performed for the 2012 national meeting of Intercollegiate Men's Choruses, Inc., and was a national semi-finalist for the 2012 American Prize in Choral Performance. Patrick Freer is Academic Editor and Chair of the Editorial Board for Music Educators Journal. He has published several books and nearly 100 articles, with his most recent contributions appearing in the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Choral Journal, Arts Education Policy Review, Music Education Research, Revista Internacional de Educacion Musical, and Visions of Research in Music Education.

Paul French

p>Dr. Paul French received the Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of California at Berkeley and Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Music from the University of Southern California. After teaching and singing in the Los Angeles area for twelve years, French joined the music faculty at Southern Oregon University in 1990, where he is currently Director of Choral/Vocal Studies and Artistic Director/Conductor for Southern Oregon Repertory Singers.

French has extensive experience as singer, conductor and teacher. Ensembles under his direction have performed to acclaim at prestigious six-state conventions such as the American Choral Directors Association Northwest Convention (1994, 2002), the American Guild of Organists Northwest Convention (1997) and the Oregon Music Educators National Conference (2002). In 2003, French made his National Public Radio debut with the Southern Oregon Repertory Singers performing on "West Coast Live" for an estimated one million households nationally and Internationally. In 2006, French conducted the west coast premiere of the Robert Levin completion of Mozart's great "Mass in c minor" and toured Mexico with the SOU Chamber Choir.

Dr. Paul French

Dr. Paul French received the Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of California at Berkeley and Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Music from the University of Southern California. After teaching and singing in the Los Angeles area for twelve years, French joined the music faculty at Southern Oregon University in 1990, where he is currently Director of Choral/Vocal Studies and Artistic Director/Conductor for Southern Oregon Repertory Singers.

French has extensive experience as singer, conductor and teacher. Ensembles under his direction have performed to acclaim at prestigious six-state conventions such as the American Choral Directors Association Northwest Convention (1994, 2002), the American Guild of Organists Northwest Convention (1997) and the Oregon Music Educators National Conference (2002). In 2003, French made his National Public Radio debut with the Southern Oregon Repertory Singers performing on "West Coast Live" for an estimated one million households nationally and Internationally. In 2006, French conducted the west coast premiere of the Robert Levin completion of Mozart's great "Mass in c minor" and toured Mexico with the SOU Chamber Choir.

Doug Fullington

Doug Fullington received his Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Music (concurrent degree in Music History), Masters Degree (Music History) and Juris Doctor from the University of Washington Seattle, where he has since served as guest faculty teaching undergraduate and graduate music history and performance courses. Mr. Fullington is an inactive member of the Washington State Bar.

As a dance historian, Mr. Fullington is an fluent reader of Stepanov notation, a classical ballet notation system developed in Russia and used in the Imperial Theatres, St. Petersburg, between about 1895 and 1915. The Stepanov notations are now housed at the Harvard Theatre Collection as part of the Sergeev Collection. Mr. Fullington, with his colleague Manard Stewart, has reconstructed dances from Petipa's The Daughter of Pharaoh (1862/c.1905) for the Bolshoi Ballet's revival, restaged by Pierre Lacotte (2000). He has also worked with Donald Byrd/The Group to restage dances from Petipa's Sleeping Beauty and La Bayadere and has worked privately with dancers to restage excerpts from ballets choreographed by Marius Petipa from Stepanov notation.

Janet Galvan

Dr. Janet Galvan, Director of Choral Activities at Ithaca College, conducts the Ithaca College Choir and Women's Chorale. Her New York colleagues recognized Dr. Galvan's contribution to choral music in 1995 when she received the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) New York Outstanding Choral Director Award. Dr. Galvan was awarded the Ithaca College Faculty Excellence Award for teaching, scholarship, and service in the spring of 2018.

Galvan has been recognized as one of the country's leading conducting teachers, and her students have received first place awards and have been finalists in both the graduate and undergraduate divisions of the American Choral Directors biennial National Choral Conducting Competition. Her students can be found conducting professional ensembles, teaching at the university level, teaching in public schools, conducting children's choruses, and conducting on Broadway. In addition, she has been an artist in residence at many universities, leading master classes, working with the university choirs, and presenting sessions.

Robert Geary

Robert Geary, founder of Volti and the internationally acclaimed Piedmont East Bay Children's Choirs, also holds directorial positions with the San Francisco Choral Society and the Golden Gate International Children's Choral Festival. For fourteen years, Geary was the director of the Baroque Choral Guild, and served for thirteen years as the Music Director of the First Unitarian Universalist Church in San Francisco.

A champion of contemporary music, Geary and his choirs have won numerous international and national awards. Among Volti's honors are ASCAP's award for "Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music" in 2009, 2007, 2005, 2002, 1998 and 1995. The Piedmont East Bay Children's Choirs won three gold prizes and a coveted first prize for Contemporary Music at the Choral Olympics in Linz, Austria (July, 2000), the grand prize at the Miedzyzdroje Choral Festival in Poland (July, 1998), gold medal at the Giessen (Germany) International Children's and Youth Choir Festival (1997, and where Geary received a special award for "Outstanding Conductorial Achievement"), two gold medals a silver medal and the "Best of the Choirs" award at the Des Moines International Children's Choral Festival (1997), and first prize for Contemporary Music at the Kathaumixw Festival in British Columbia in 1996 and 1992.

Rita Gershengorn

According to my parents, I started singing at nine months and could harmonize by age two. (Really?) Now whether or not that's accurate, I can't remember a time in my life when I was NOT singing. My mom, my dad (a real ham and perfect Jolson mimic) his three brothers, my sister and even my grandparents, all sang - at home, in the car, at every family get-together. The first of many songs I've written was composed when I was nine. Unlike many children, I begged my parents to let me take piano lessons. In sixth grade, I wrote and starred in an abbreviated version of "H.M.S Pinafore"; in my junior high school's production of "The Mikado", I was one of the "Three Little Maids"; during high school, I was in Girls' Chorus and in college, I was "Song Leader" of my sorority.

Grant Gershon

Conductor Grant Gershon, entering his 10th season as music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, is equally at home with symphonic and choral music, opera and musical theater. In 2001 he was appointed Music Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, which the Los Angeles Times has proclaimed "the most exciting chorus in the country under Gershon's leadership." Opera News calls him "a first-rate conductor." Composer John Adams declares, "Grant Gershon is one of those rarities we call 'the complete musician.' My respect for his musicality-for his conducting, his extraordinary musical intuition and his formidable ear-knows no bounds." In addition to his post with the Chorale, Mr. Gershon was named Associate Conductor/Chorus Master of the LA Opera beginning in the 2007|08 Season.

An ardent champion of new music, Mr. Gershon, who has led more than 75 performances with the Chorale at Disney Hall, has given numerous world premiere performances, including such major works as You Are (Variations) by Steve Reich; Requiem by Christopher Rouse.

Joan Gregoryk

Joan Gregoryk, the Founder and Artistic Director of the Children's Chorus of Washington, is internationally recognized as a leader in the field of children's vocal music. Ms. Gregoryk prepared the singers for their debut at the Kennedy Center in November 1996 with The Washington Chorus (formerly The Oratorio Society of Washington) in a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony. She was invited by Music Director Leonard Slatkin to prepare the Chorus for four performances of Gabriel Piers's The Children's Crusade with the National Symphony Orchestra and The Washington Chorus at the Kennedy Center and at Carnegie Hall in November of 1997.

Ms. Gregoryk has also prepared members of CCW for a performance of Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame directed by former NSO Music Director Mstislav Rostropovich, and performances with the National Symphony Orchestra of Mahler's Symphony No. 3 conducted by Music Director Leonard Slatkin.

Dr. Leslie Guelker-Cone

Leslie Guelker-Cone is director of Choral Activities and Coordinator of Vocal Studies at Western. In addition to conducting the Concert Choir and the Western Voices chamber ensemble, she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in choral conducting and choral music education. In June 2009, she conducted Western's Concert Choir on tour in Argentina and Uruguay; other tours have taken the choir to France, Germany, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Bulgaria. Under her direction, the choir has performed at national and divisional conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the Music Educators National Conference (MENC). Dr. Guelker-Cone received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder in choral conducting and literature. She has served as a Repertoire and Standards chair for the American Choral Directors Association at both the national and local levels and on the boards of both the California and Washington Music Educators Associations. She is a past president of Washington ACDA and is in frequent demand as a choral adjudicator, honor choir conductor, and guest clinician throughout the United States and Canada. Current research includes study of the incorporation of the movement theories of Dalcroze and Laban into the teaching of choral conducting as well as the use of collaborative teaching techniques in the choral rehearsal.

George Guest

George Guest is generally regarded among the finest British choral conductors of his time. Some musicologists have attributed the endurance, if not the very survival, of the English cathedral choir to him. He made more than 60 recordings with St. John's Choir (Cambridge), covering a broad range of repertory (Palestrina and Mozart to Tippett and Lennox Berkeley) and garnering consistent critical acclaim.

Guest was born in Bangor, Wales, on February 19, 1924. He attended the Friars school in his hometown and became a chorister by age 9 at the local cathedral. At 11 he sang in the choir at Chester Cathedral while taking private lessons to develop his keyboard skills. After serving four years in the Royal Air Force during World War II, he returned to Chester Cathedral as sub-organist in 1946. The following year he enrolled at St. John's under an organ scholarship, studying with Thurston Dart and Boris Ord. In 1951 the choir director, Robin Orr, resigned to focus on composition, leaving the post to Guest.

John Haberlen

John Black Haberlen is Professor of Music and served as Director of the School of Music from 1996 to 2007. Prior to his appointment as Director, Dr. Haberlen served as Associate Dean for the Fine Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences and as Director of Choral Activities for over 20 years. John Haberlen began his professional career at the age of 16 as a percussionist in the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra. Upon receiving his Bachelor of Science and Master of Music degrees from Pennsylvania State University, he performed as principal timpanist with the Florida Symphony Orchestra. He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral conducting with a minor in music literature from the University of Illinois. Dr. Haberlen studied choral music and opera in Ludwigsburg, Germany and completed a year of choral study in London with the London Bach Society. The Penn State Alumni Board of Directors chose Haberlen to receive the 1994 Alumni Achievement award.

Joshua Habermann

Joshua Habermann, appearing in TRANSCENDENCE with Sandra Lopez, is associate professor and program director of choral studies at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, where he conducts the Frost Chorale and other choral ensembles. He is music director of the Miami Master Chorale and the Desert Chorale (Santa Fe, NM). He is a graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Texas at Austin, where he completed doctoral studies in conducting with Craig Hella Johnson. He has also studied under Helmuth Rilling (conducting), Scott Fogelsong (piano) and David Jones (voice). He has appeared in conferences and festivals, including international engagements in Cuba, Germany, Czech Republic, China and France. As a singer (tenor) he performs with the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, where he can be heard on the Grammy-Award-winning recording of Krzystof Penderecki's Credo and others. Dr. Habermann also maintains an interest in the Hawaiian choral tradition, and sings periodically with Kawaiolaonapukanileo, an ensemble dedicated to performing and preserving this unique repertoire. Other research interests include Latin American and Nordic music. His dissertation on the a cappella works of Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara was a Julius Herford Prize finalist for music research in 1997.

Jester Hairston

Actor, Musician. An arranger, composer, traveling choir leader, actor and story teller, his career took him all over the world. Best remebered for his TV role as Rolly Forbes on the TV show "Amen." The grandson of slaves, he was born in 1901 in Belews Creek, North Carolina. A star athlete in high school and college, he graduated as a Cum Laude music major from Tufts University and then furthered his studies at Julliard School of Music in New York.

In 1936 he came to Hollywood with Hall Johnson to help with arranging the chorous music for "Green Pastures." In 1937 he became a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. In 1943 he formed his own choir and arranged the choral background music for many of Hollywood's outstanding films, among them "Carmen Jones." As an actor he played a number of character roles on television and motion pictures. He played on "Amos and Andy" for 15 years and also played 'Wildcat' on the 1970s TV show "That's My Mama." He died in Los Angeles one year before reaching his 100th birthday.

Rosalind Hall

Rosalind Hall is the current director of the BYU Men's Chorus and BYU Concert Choir.

Hall is a native of Wales. She was educated at the University of London, the University of Edinburgh and London's Royal Academy of Music. She received a bachelors of music degree from the Royal Academy in 1977.

Hall came to the US in 1989 to study at Brigham Young University (BYU). While she was a grad student she also directed the BYU Women's Chorus. Hall received her Masters of music degree in 1993 from BYU. From 1992-1999 she was chair of the music department at Waterford School. She has been the director of the BYU Men's Chorus and Concert Choir since Mack Wilberg became an assistant director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the fall of 1999. In addition to conducting these two choirs at BYU, Hall teaches undergraduate courses in choral conducting and graduate courses in choral literature at the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications.

Paul Halley

Paul Halley was born in Romford, England in 1952, received his early musical training in Ottawa, Canada, and at the age of sixteen was made an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto. Having been awarded the organ scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, Halley received his M.A., and was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists.

From 1977 to 1989, Paul Halley was Organist and Choirmaster at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City. He transformed the Cathedral's music programme into a rich combination of classical and contemporary music. He was also a principal member of the Paul Winter Consort, and earned three Grammy Awards for his contributions as a featured writer and performer on many Consort recordings. Halley's music has been performed and recorded by many notable artists and ensembles, including the New Jersey Symphony, and John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra.

Gerre Hancock

Gerre Hancock, one of America's most highly acclaimed concert organists and choral directors, has recently been appointed to the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin where he is developing a curriculum for the study of Sacred Music. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Hancock held the position of Organist and Master of Choristers at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City, where, for more than thirty years he set a new standard for church music in America. Previous to his time at Saint Thomas Church, he held positions as Organist and Choirmaster of Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati, where he also served on the Artist Faculty of the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, and as Assistant Organist at St. Bartholomew's Church, New York City.

Dr. Hancock received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Texas and his Master of Sacred Music degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York from which he received the Unitas Distinguished Alumnus Award. A recipient of a Rotary Foundation Fellowship, he also studied in Paris and during this time was a finalist at the Munich International Music Competitions.

Sharon A. Hansen

Sharon A. Hansen is the Founder and Music Director of the Milwaukee Choral Artists, one of only five professional women's vocal ensembles in the country. Founded in 1998, The Milwaukee Choral Artists has been named to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Top Ten Milwaukee Performances list in four consecutive years, most recently being named "Milwaukee's #1 Performing Arts Event for 2007." The ensemble has sung in more than 40 languages from some twenty-six world cultures, and is a champion of new music, regularly commissioning new works. MCA frequently collaborates with Present Music, Milwaukee's internationally acclaimed contemporary music ensemble. Equally well versed in early music, the Milwaukee Choral Artists has appeared twice with the Boston Camerata, and performed with KITKA professional women's ensemble in May 2009. In August 2009, at the invitation of the National Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, MCA performed for their biennial conference at the Milwaukee Art Museum. MCA has also performed for the National Convention of Catholic Cathedral Musicians; as part of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist's Fine Arts Series (Milwaukee); as part of the Cathedral of St. James Fine Arts Series (Chicago); at the French Mass at Milwaukee's Bastille Days; and in state and regional conventions of the American Choral Directors' Association.