PODIUM COACHES
 Marguerite L. Brooks, Yale University
Marguerite L. Brooks holds degrees from Mount Holyoke College and Temple University. She has served on the faculties of Smith and Amherst Colleges, and was also director of choral music at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Ms. Brooks joined the Yale faculty in 1985 as chair of the choral conducting program and conducts the Yale Camerata, a vocal ensemble sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. The Camerata performs a widely varied spectrum of choral literature, with a specific commitment to music of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Robert Sund, Orphei Drängar
Robert Sund sings, plays, arranges, composes and conducts. He was for many years artistic director and conductor of the mixed choir Allmänna Sången and the male choir Orphei Drängar (OD) and he founded and was the leader of both the women`s choir La Cappella and the youth choir Uppsala Musikskolas Kammarkör.
For 17 years he has been teaching conducting and ensemble leadership at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. He is in great demand to lead courses for both choral singes and conductors in Scandinavia, Europe, the USA, South America, Africa and Asia. He has been guest conductor all over the world, from the Radio Choirs in Vienna and Stockholm to the Coro Nacional in Cuba and he has also conducted the WYC 1994 and 1997. In 2003 Robert Sund was awarded an honorary stipend from the Municipality of Uppsala and also the Peter Cornelius Plaque in Mainz. In 2004 he received the Kings Medal of the 8th Magnitude with a bright blue ribbon for valuable service as director of the male choir Orphei Drängar. In 2008 he was awarded the Gustaf Adolf Medal in gold from Uppsala University for his important achievements as a choir leader, music creator and developer of choir traditions by the University of Uppsala. In 1993, Robert Sund was named Conductor of the Year by the Föreningen Sveriges Körledare (Association of Swedish Choir masters).
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SPECIAL GUEST
Hans Graf, Houston Symphony
Known for his intensely musical interpretations of a wide ranging repertoire and creative programming, Hans Graf is the 15th music director of the Houston Symphony, a post he assumed on Opening Night of the 2001-2002 season. Recently, Graf completed tenures as music director of the Calgary Philharmonic and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine. In 2002, he was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government for championing French music around the world.
Believing “there is something to learn from musicians and orchestras every day,” Graf is a much sought-after guest conductor in the United States and has led the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, as well as the orchestras of Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, St. Louis, Baltimore and Washington, DC, among many others.
Internationally, Graf conducts in the major concert halls of Scandinavia, France, Italy, Japan and Australia. An opera proponent for “its wonderful musical power and sense of human expression,” Graf first conducted the Vienna State Opera in 1981 and has since led productions in the opera houses of Berlin, Munich, Paris and Rome. In additiona, Graf has recorded for the EMI, Orfeo, Erato, Capriccio and JVC labels.
More to be announced!
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PRIVATE COACHES
David Hayes, The Philadelphia Singers, Mannes School of Music
David Hayes serves on the conducting staff of The Philadelphia Orchestra, is the director of orchestral and conducting studies for the Mannes College of Music in New York City and staff conductor of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. In addition to these duties, he served as artistic advisor for The Washington Chorus for the 2007-2008 season. At the request of Wolfgang Sawallisch, Hayes made his Philadelphia Orchestra conducting debut in 2003 and has since conducted The Philadelphia Orchestra on several occasions, including the 2007 and 2008 Academy of Music Anniversary concerts. This season, in addition to performances with The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Mannes Orchestra and The Philadelphia Singers, he will lead a new production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia for the Opera Company of Philadelphia and lead workshop rehearsals with Hillary Hahn and the Curtis Orchestra of Jennifer Higdon’s new Violin Concerto. A native of the Boston area, he studied conducting with Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School and with Otto-Werner Mueller at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music. Hayes is a member of the Chorus America board and is chair of both its Conducting Programs Task Force and Professional Chorus Conductors Forum.
Allen Hightower, Sam Houston State University
Dr. Allen Hightower is a Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Sam Houston State University, Dr. Hightower leads one of Texas’ finest collegiate choral programs. Choirs from Sam Houston frequently perform at state, regional, and national choral conventions, and collaborate with groups such as the Houston Masterworks Chorus and Houston Ballet.
Dr. Hightower is Artistic Director of the Houston Masterworks Chorus, Houston’s premiere community choir. A life-long church musician, Allen currently serves as the interim Minister of Music at Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston.
Allen won first prize in the 1997 ACDA Graduate Conducting Competition held in San Diego. From 1997-2000, he worked closely with Paul Salamunovich as conducting intern with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. He is a graduate of Sam Houston State University, the Eastman School of Music, and UCLA. Dr. Hightower has studied choral conducting with Bev Henson, Donald Neuen, and Joseph Flummerfelt. Charles Hausmann, University of Houston
Dr. Charles Hausmann is Director of Graduate Choral Studies for the Moores School of Music, University of Houston and Director of the Houston Symphony Chorus, the official chorus of the Houston Symphony. Dr. Hausmann has also been active as a church musician for most of his career and is currently serving as Director of Choral Music at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston. In addition, Dr. Hausmann often serves as a guest conductor, clinician, and teacher.
Dr. Hausmann’s special interests have been in the areas of conducting pedagogy, and choral/orchestral performance. His integrated curriculum for teaching conducting at the undergraduate and graduate levels includes a six level competency based course of study.
Having prepared the Houston Symphony Chorus for over 500 performances which have featured most of the major works in the choral/orchestral repertoire, and for more than 40 internationally acclaimed conductors, Dr. Hausmann’s ability to bring amateur singers to the level of a professional orchestra has been highly acclaimed.
As a church musician Dr. Hausmann is interested in how traditional worship can be enhanced through a dynamic choral presence and in the conductor-teacher relationship with choir and congregation.
Jing Ling-Tam, University of Texas Arlington
Coming soon!
Robert Simpson, Houston Chamber Choir
Robert Simpson is Artistic Director of the Houston Chamber Choir, a professional ensemble he founded in 1995. He also serves as Organist-Choirmaster at Houston’s historic Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal) and Lecturer of Church Music at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University. Following his graduation with honors from Brown University and The School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Mr. Simpson studied for two years at the Hochschule für Musik, Cologne, Germany. His teachers have included organists Barclay Wood, Robert Baker and Michael Schneider and conductors Abraham Kaplan, Peter Neumann, Gustaf Sjökvist and Eric Ericson. Prior to coming to Houston Mr. Simpson was Organist-Choirmaster at Episcopal cathedrals in Orlando and Atlanta. His wife, Marianna Parnas-Simpson, is a noted children’s choir conductor.
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