Choral Conducting
The University of North Texas has a distinguished seventy-year history of preparing choral conductors for the challenges of the professional conductor/teacher. Our alumni hold prestigious singing or conducting positions with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Houston Grand Opera, numerous regional opera companies, professional choirs (including Conspirare, the Singing Sergeants, the President’s Own Marine Band, the Navy Sea Chanters, the U S Army Chorus, professional chamber choirs from Dallas to Boston), and university faculties across the nation.
Members of the UNT Choral Studies Program and Voice Studies Program regularly perform with the choruses of the Dallas Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Denton Bach Society, and Paradigm. A significant number of our singers hold positions with professional choirs in the metroplex, including the Dallas Bach Society, the Helios Chamber Choir, the Orchestra of New Spain, Orpheus Chamber Singers, Texas Camerata, and the Texas Choral Artists.
Many of our students have gone on to teach in prestigious university choral programs (including those at Austin Peay University, Abilene Christian University, the Crane School of Music, East Texas Baptist University, the Hartt School of Music, Kansas State University, Louisiana State University, San Jose State University, the University of Kansas, the University of Mississippi, the University of South Carolina), a number of very successful professional and community based choirs (including the Chicago Symphony Chorus and the Turtle Creek Chorale) and perhaps most importantly, outstanding public school programs across Texas and the nation.
Performance Literature
The UNT Opera and Choral programs afford our singers opportunities to study and learn not only the major vocal works in music history but also to participate in performances of music on the cutting edge of twenty-first century music. Where else can you go and one evening sing (or hear) major works of early music --performed by the UNT Collegium Singers and Baroque Orchestra (an orchestra comprised of replica period instruments), and the next night sing (or hear) music of the worlds foremost contemporary composers sung by the A Cappella Choir?
Guest Clinicians and Lecturers
Our students are annually exposed to some of the most important conductors and pedagogues in the choral arts of America and the world. In the past five years our students have had the opportunity to learn from Ann Howard Jones, Anton Armstrong, Bruce Browne, Craig Hella Johnson, James Jordan, Simon Carrington, Rodney Eichenberger, Patrick Gardner, Maria Guinand, Graeme Jenkins, Jaako Mäntyjärvi, and Robert Sund.
National Recording Projects
Since 2001, under the banner of the North Texas Chamber Choir, members of the A Cappella Choir recorded two companion discs for GIA’s Teaching Music Through Performance in Choir. A third recording in the series is scheduled for summer 2008. In December 2007, GIA will release a new compact disc titled Musicks Empire, featuring performances by the UNT A Cappella Choir and the North Texas Chamber Choir. In 2003, the UNT Grand Chorus and Wind Symphony were featured on a new DVD recording of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. The disc, released by Klavier Records, was placed on the 2004 Grammy Nominations Ballot.
Come Audition for a place in one of America’s most renowned schools of music.
For more information, please contact Dr. Jerry McCoy, Director of Choral Studies.
Faculty
- Henry Gibbons-Caniticum novum
- Alan McClung-Concert Choir
- Jerry McCoy-A Capella Choir, Grand Chorus
Area Website
Contact Information
Dr. Jerry McCoy, Director of Choral Studies
