Angela Broeker, Conductor, Grades 5-7 "Intermediate" Honor Choir

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angela Broeker is Director of Choral Activities at the University of St. Thomas where she conducts the Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, and Festival Choir and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in choral conducting, choral literature and choral pedagogy. 
 

Since arriving at the University of St. Thomas in 1999, Dr. Broeker’s choirs have performed at national, regional, and state conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and have toured extensively in Europe and South America.
 

In addition to her university responsibilities, Dr. Broeker presents for national, regional, and state conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association for Music Education, the Organization of American Kodály Educators, and the American Orff-Schulwerk Association. She serves as guest conductor for numerous honor choirs including the ACDA National Children’s Honor Choir in 2015, honor choirs at the Eastern, Southern, Southwest, North Central and Central Division ACDA regional conferences, National Honor Choirs at 
numerous OAKE conferences, and all-state choirs in more than 30 states. International conducting engagements include honor choirs in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, China and the United Arab Emirates.
 

Dr. Broeker received her D.M.A. degree from the University of Oklahoma and her M.M. and B.M.E. degrees from Indiana University. Her research interests include authentic, respectful performance of music from diverse cultures as well as the exploration of varied vocal colors that are possible with this repertoire. Recently, she presented keynote speeches around the themes of community and inclusion within the choral experience and is serving on the National ACDA Committee for Diversity Initiatives. She served as guest editor of the April 2006 Choral Journal and has written articles for the Choral Journal in 2017, 2011, 2008, and 2006. Other publications include the July 2000 Music Educators Journal, the NAfME Spotlight on Teaching Chorus, as well as many local and regional music publications. The book she coauthored with Mary Goetze and Ruth Boshkoff, Educating Young Singers, is published with GIA.

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Patrick Freer, Conductor, Grades 7-9 "Junior High" Honor Choir




 

 

 

 

Patrick K. Freer is Professor of Music at Georgia State University. His degrees are from Westminster Choir College and Teachers College-Columbia University. Dr. Freer has conducted or presented in 39 states and 23 countries, including conducting the 2018 NW Division ACDA Youth Honor Choir, the 2014 SW Division ACDA JHS Mixed Honor Choir, and as artist-in-residence for the 2017 choral conducting symposium of the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra (Colombia). His 2017-18 guest conducting and lecturing take him to Austria, Canada, Colombia, Estonia, Israel, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Spain, Tajikistan, and to the US states of Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Ohio, Oregon, and South Dakota. 

Dr. Freer is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Research in Choral Singing, past editor of Music Educators Journal and is an Editorial Committee member for Update: Applications of Research in Music Education. He is a member of the ACDA National Standing Committee for Research & Publications. He has authored three textbooks, a DVD series, sixteen book chapters/sections, and over 120 articles in most of the field's leading national and international journals. 

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Phillip A. Swan, Conductor, Grades 9-12 "Soprano Alto High School" Honor Choir

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Phillip A. Swan is Co-Director of Choral Studies and Musical Director for LU Musicals. Swan co-directs Cantala and Concert Choir, directs Hybrid Ensemble (jazz, early, contemporary and world music); teaches courses in conducting, musical theatre and music education; and coaches student organized a cappella groups.

 

He is active in the Appleton community, serving as artistic director and conductor for newVoices and is choir director at Appleton Alliance Church. Swan received his BA in music education from Concordia College, Moorhead, MN, MM in Choral Conducting from UT El Paso, and the DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Miami (Florida). His doctoral essay is entitled, "In His Own Words: The Choral Music of Eric Whitacre from 1991-2004."

Swan served as a church music and youth director, performed in El Paso Pro Musica and taught elementary general music in El Paso, Texas, before moving to Watertown, South Dakota in 1989, where he taught high school vocal music for ten years and was an active clinician and adjudicator. His duties at Watertown High School included: fine arts department chair, Bel Canto Singers (freshman chorus), Concert Choir (grade 10-12 chorus), Meistersingers (auditioned grade 11-12 chorus, who performed twice at the South Dakota Teacher Inservice), private voice lessons, two auditioned show choirs, and director for five spring musicals. Swan was also actively involved in the Watertown community as musical director for Kampeska Chorale and Town Players, and for nine years served as music director for Ninth Avenue United Methodist Church, directing both the sanctuary choir and praise team. 

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Swan was also very involved in South Dakota ACDA with involvements as the vocal jazz repertory and standards chair, SD-ACDA newsletter editor, co-chair for the 1999 SD Summer Conference, registration co-chair for the 1994 ACDA North Central Division Convention, tenor section leader for the 1993 and 1995 SD Honors Choir and interim senior high school repertory and standards chair. While pursuing his DMA in Choral Conducting at the University of Miami, Swan served as senior graduate teaching assistant for Jo-Michael Scheibe in the choral studies program, was director of the University Women’s Chorale, sang in numerous ensembles (including the prestigious University Chorale and Jazz Vocal 1) and served as assistant director of music ministries at Coral Gables Congregational Church.

Swan has conducted Cantala in performances at the 2006 NC-ACDA conference in Omaha, the 2011 National ACDA conference in Dallas, and Cantala and Concert Choir at the 2014 NC-ACDA conference in Des Moines. He was privileged to be included as a chapter author in the 2012 GIA book, “Conducting Women’s Choirs”. 

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Swan has been fortunate to work with international choirs; conducting the seventh annual Festival of Choirs in Muscat, Oman in 2010 and was selected for the International Conductor Exchange Program; giving two lectures and conducting in a Regional Concert for the China Choral Association (Guangdong Provence), and working with 15 choirs in Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Donguang, and Shenzhen, China in June 2014. 

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Awards include the 2016 Morris D. Hayes Award (established in 1985 by the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association, it is reserved for those of outstanding merit who have shown a commitment to choral music, served the art and have made outstanding contributions to choral music in Wisconsin), the 2011 Lawrence Award for Excellence in Creative Activity, the 2008 Mrs. H. K. Babcock Award (given to an individual from the Lawrence community, who through involvement and interaction with students has made a positive impact on the campus community), South Dakota ACDA Encore Award, Outstanding Young Men of America, Who’s Who Among American Teachers, 1997 Northwestern University Summer Fellow, 2001 National ACDA graduate conducting competition finalist – San Antonio, Alpha Epsilon Lambda (graduate honor society) and Pi Kappa Lambda (collegiate national music honor society). 

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Swan is an active member of the American Choral Directors Association, serving as the North Central ACDA Women’s Choir R&S Chair, the serving the state organization as Women’s Choir R & S Chair, was program chair for the 2013 state conference, a member of the state by-laws revision committee, a member of the summer Refresh! planning committee, and serving on the teaching staff for the WCDA 2014 Next Direction. Swan is also a member of the College Music Society and Chorus America.

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Dr. Andrea Ramsey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Ramsey enjoys a national presence as a composer, conductor, scholar, and music educator. Her teaching experiences range from work with adolescent and children’s voices to high school and collegiate voices. 
She enjoys regular opportunities to conduct all-state and divisional level honor choirs, festival events at Carnegie Hall, and serves as a principal conductor for the Pacific International Young Women’s Choral Festival in Eugene, Oregon. 

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Before leaping into full time composing and guest conducting, Andrea held positions in choral music education and conducting at The Ohio State University, and the University of Colorado Boulder, respectively. An ASCAPlus award-winning composer, Andrea has approximately 90 choral works in publication and believes strongly in supporting living artists through the creation of new works. Her compositions have led to residency collaborations with the Allegro Choirs of Kansas City, Ithaca College, and the Crescent City Choral Festival in New Orleans. 

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As a scholar, she has presented for state, divisional, and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the 6th Annual International Symposium on Sociology in Music Education, and at the Phenomenon of Singing Symposium in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. 

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She has authored and co-authored articles published in the Choral Journal, as well as the Journal of Research in Music Education. A native of Arkansas, she has experienced in her own life the power of music to provide a sense of community, better understanding of our humanity, and rich opportunities for self-discovery.

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Kerry Marsh, Conductor, Grades 9-12 "Jazz" Honor Choir

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kerry Marsh is an arranger and publisher specializing in music for vocal jazz ensembles. Terry Teachout, arts critic and contributing reviewer to the Wall Street Journal, said that “Kerry’s gorgeous charts, with their wide-spaced harmonies and tingling dissonances, are as good as postmodern vocal group writing gets.” In high demand as a commissioned arranger for many of the nation's top educational vocal and instrumental jazz ensembles, Marsh has a large and varied catalog of music performed regularly around the world. Kerry publishes over 180 compositions and arrangements at KerryMarsh.com, and also has published arrangements through UNC Jazz Press and Sound Music Publications. 

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Kerry is a proud member of the jazz studies faculty at The University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, where he directs two advanced vocal jazz ensembles and teaches applied jazz voice. In its first four years under Kerry’s direction, the UNCs Vocal Lab and Northern Colorado Voices have earned four Down Beat Magazine Student Music Awards in the Large Graduate Level Vocal Jazz Ensemble Category. In 2016, Vocal Lab performed at the annual Jazz Education Network convention in Louisville, KY. Previously, Kerry served for ten years as the director of vocal jazz ensembles at Sacramento State. In that time, his ensembles and individual students earned thirteen Down Beat Awards, distinguishing Sac State as one of the premier vocal jazz programs in the country. Marsh's vocal jazz ensembles were invited twice to perform at conferences of the International Association for Jazz Education, and, in 2009, they were one of fourteen winners of a national search to have a song appear on the Epic Records release: "Ben Folds - College A Cappella". Marsh has since worked with Folds as a vocal arranger and background singers director in numerous performances with major symphony orchestras, including the Boston Pops, The Washington National Symphony and The LA Philharmonic in performances at The Hollywood Bowl. 

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Along with his wife and musical collaborator Julia Dollison, Kerry released his highly ambitious debut album, Vertical Voices: The Music of Maria Schneider, in March 2010 through ArtistShare. Endorsed by the Grammy-winning composer herself and funded largely through fan contributions, the album features Schneider's music as written for her jazz orchestra, but with the horn parts entirely sung, and the rhythm section consisting of Frank Kimbrough, Ben Monder, Jay Anderson and Clarence Penn (of The Maria Schneider Orchestra). Vertical Voices was met with great critical praise, earning a four-star review in Down Beat Magazine. Since 2010, Dollison and Marsh have performed regularly with the vocal quartet called Vertical Voices, also featuring Greg Jasperse and Jennifer Barnes. The quartet performs the music of Schneider as well as Pat Metheny, Nando Lauria and more, including original compositions by the group.

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Marsh is busy year-round as an adjudicator and clinician for jazz festivals and workshops. Kerry has directed all-state jazz choirs in California, Colorado, Missouri, New Jersey, Arizona, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, Illinois, New York, Maine, Iowa, New Hampshire All State Jazz Choirs as well as the Nassau County (NY) Honor Jazz Choir. 

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Kerry graduated in 2000 from the University of Kansas with a B.M.E. in Music Education and in 2003 with a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of North Texas.