State Festival East Site

Derrick D.  Brookins

Derrick Brookins has served the students and parents in Texas Music Education for more than 28 years. Dr. Brookins’ teaching experience spans a vast range of elementary and secondary choral music, from kindergarten to collegiate. Dr. Brookins serves as Director of Choral Music for Braswell High School, Denton, TX. A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Mr. Brookins has completed an undergraduate degree in choral music education from the University of North Texas, a Master of Secondary Education/Administration from Concordia University, and a Doctorate of Education in Music at North Central University.

Dr. Brookins studied under and performed with world-renowned choral musician Moses Hogan for thirteen years. As a choral music performer, Mr. Brookins has performed on four continents for several European royal families and two US Presidents in venues such as the White House and the Sydney Opera House. He is a highly sought-after choral clinician and adjudicator throughout the United States. He has presented several educational workshops for the Texas Choral Directors Association, Texas Music Educators Association, Southwestern American Choral Directors Association,    and the National American Choral Directors Association.

Under Dr. Brookins’ direction, Choirs consistently receive Sweepstakes Awards at the UIL contest and are named “Best in Class” at several choral festivals throughout the United States. Dr. Brookins’ choirs have had the honor of being invited to perform and represent the State of Texas at the following conventions: the National MENC Convention in San Antonio (2005), the National American Choral Directors’ Association Convention in Miami, FL (2007), Dallas, TX (2013), and Minneapolis, MN (2017). Dr. Brookins’ choirs were invited twice to perform at the Texas Music Education Association Convention in San Antonio, TX, in 2009 and 2017.

Dr. Brookins has twice been recognized as Teacher of the Year at Williams High School (2000) and again for Plano Senior High School (2008). Mr. Brookins receives the Honorary Life Membership Award from the Texas Congress of Parents and Teachers.

Dr. Brookins has served and demonstrated his leadership ability as the Multicultural Choral Music Chair for the Southwestern American Choral Directors Association and for the Texas Music Educators Association as the Regional and Area Vocal Chairman position for more than fifteen years. Dr. Brookins has served the Texas Music Educators Association membership as the 2017-2019 Texas State Vocal Chairman. Dr. Brookins holds professional memberships with the Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Choral Directors Association, American Choral Directors Association, and the Texas Music Adjudicators Association. 

Duane Davis

Duane Davis, born in Pittsburgh, and raised in Cleveland, has taught 54 years, including The Grand Rapids Public Schools, Grand Rapids Community College, Western Michigan University and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Duane’s musical experiences range from jazz to opera.

Duane is a recent recipient of the Ellis Marsalis, Jr. national education award, presented by the Jazz Education Network. Other awards include “Giving Girls a Voice” award presented by Girls Choral Academy, Tri-C JazzFest Legend, Legacy Award presented by the Grand Rapids Symphony and the Maynard Klein Award for Choral Excellence presented by the American Choral Directors Association of Michigan. His ensembles have toured the U.S., Bahamas, Canada, Japan and Europe. Duane has conducted in Carnegie, Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls as well as the Kennedy Center. He has conducted All-State and District Choirs in 12 states and as well as festivals in 8 Canadian Provinces.

Duane’s compositions and arrangements has been performed and premiered by the Grand Rapids and Battle Creek Symphonies, Western Michigan University Gold Company and numerous high school and collegiate ensembles. He conducted Gold Company at the National Induction of Inventors in Washington D.C., the Polyfolia International Festival in Normandy, France and Choralies Festival in Vaison-la-Romaine, France and most recently conducted that ensemble in New Orleans at the Jazz Education Network national convention. He regularly conducts the Grand Rapids Symphony at the annual Symphony With Soul concert, and has prepared ensembles and shared the stage with such artists as Bobby McFerrin, Kurt Elling, Terrence Blanchard, Janis Siegel, Joe Williams, Dianne Reeves, Tony Bennett, Take 6, Lalah Hathaway, New York Voices, Marcus Roberts, Lizz Wright and others.

Duane served as director of The Disney-Grammy All-American College Singers, and conducted the opening ceremonies for the Walt Disney World Animal Kingdom. He has served as a guest artist/clinician at the Riga Jazz Festival in Riga, Latvia and was a guest presenter on jazz in Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan, for the 7th World Symposium on Choral Music as well as the DODDS choral festival conductor in London, England. Duane served as Chorus Master for Opera Grand Rapids for 31 seasons. He also served as Chorus Master for productions of Porgy and Bess and conducted the premiere of a chamber opera Afram ou la belle Swite, by Edmund Thornton Jenkins, at the Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston, South Carolina.

Duane and his wife Kaye (also a musician) have three children, Xavier and Quincy are jazz educators at Michigan State University and University of North Texas respectfully and a daughter, a principal in New York City.

Brad Holmes

Dr. Brad Holmes (DMA – Arizona State University) joins the Hillsdale College music faculty this year as Visiting Professor of Choral Music. Previous      appointments include terms at Baylor University and Luther College, but his position as Director of Choir Programs at Millikin University led to a

thirty-one-year tenure that saw the development of a multi-tiered program of six choirs involving 325 singers. Under his leadership, the program’s flagship ensemble gained national recognition, due in part to seven invitations to perform at national and regional conferences of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).

A Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University, Dr. Holmes has traveled to the UK for multiple guest-conducting engagements, choral workshops and tours. Other international conducting invitations have taken him to Continental Europe, China, Korea and Japan. Domestically, he has led more than three-hundred choir festivals and choral clinics including thirty All-State choirs and five Carnegie Hall appearances. Choirs under his direction have sung in thirty-seven countries and every state but Alaska.

Kelly A. Miller

Kelly A. Miller is an Associate Professor of Music and Coordinator of Music Education at the University of Central Florida where she conducts the SoAl (Soprano/Alto) Chorus, SoAl Ensemble, TeBa (Tenor/Bass) Chorus, and the UCF Community Choir. While at UCF, she has taught introduction to music education, secondary choral methods I and II, music learning theory and assessment, beginning conducting, choral conducting, music and students with exceptionalities, and graduate classes in music education, while coordinating and supervising student teachers through their junior and senior clinical internships. Prior to her appointment at UCF, Miller taught at Western Illinois University as Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education, where she conducted the Concert Choir and Vocal Jazz Ensemble. She conducted the Women’s Glee Club at Michigan State University for three years and taught choral music at the high school level for thirteen years in Michigan, Florida, and Nebraska. While in Orlando, Dr. Miller founded the choral/vocal program at Timber Creek High School, served as District 8 Chair for the Florida Vocal Association, and received her National Board Certification in secondary choral music. Before directing choirs, Miller was a concert band director for grades five through twelve, instructing marching and jazz bands, music theory, and elementary general music in Nebraska.

In addition to her choral directing and teaching, she has maintained a private voice studio and is in demand to lead choral workshops on the choral/instrumental director as voice teacher, assessment, choosing choral repertoire and running effective rehearsals, leadership, creating artistry, student and teacher resiliency, student ownership, communication, and team building. Dr. Miller frequently serves as a clinician and festival adjudicator. She has been invited to conduct regional and state honor choirs and present conference sessions in Portugal, Ireland, North Carolina, Hawaii, Virginia, West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New York, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Florida, and Michigan. Dr. Miller has performed at state, divisional, and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and at the Nebraska Music Educators Association Convention. The Florida American Choral Director Association awarded her the Wayne Hugoboom Distinguished Service Award for Dedicated Service, Leadership, and Consistent Examples of Excellence in Choral Music in Florida, the highest award given to a choral director in the state of Florida, and the Florida Music Educator Association named her the 2022 Collegiate Music Educator of the Year. She is a Past-President of the Florida American Choral Directors Association, and she is a currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Florida Music Director and a member of the professional women’s ensemble, mirabai.

Miller holds the D.M.A. degree in choral conducting from Michigan State University, the M.M. degree in music education from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and the B.A. degree in music education from the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Pam Pierson

Pamela Pierson has been teaching and working with singers for 48 years, at Coloma Community Schools, West Ottawa High School in Holland and is currently teaching at Hope College in Holland, Michigan as director of SPERA. She conducts Las Almas, an adult ensemble of West Ottawa Alumnae.      She has been involved in every aspect and level of high school performance; her students participating in Choral Festivals, High School Musical Theater, the multi-generational West Ottawa All-Male Choir. An active adjudicator and clinician, she has conducted the High School SSAA State Honors Choir in 2012, was the MSVMA Teacher of the Year 2015. Her choirs have sung in the Michigan Youth Arts Festival, the Michigan Music Conference and the Michigan and Midwest American Choral Directors Association Conferences. In the summer of 2019, she was the director of the 80 voice Michigan Ambassadors of Music Choir on their trip to Europe and is doing the same in 2024 as director of the Michigan Musicians Abroad Choir.

Jamie Spillane

Jamie Spillane is the Director of Choral Studies at UConn where he oversees an active program that includes eight diverse choirs and he teaches conducting and choral literature classes from undergraduate through doctoral degrees. UConn Choirs have lately twice toured Europe with performances throughout Ireland, Germany, Austria, Italy, and France including such venues as the Salzburg Dom, St. Mark’s in Venice, and the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. An active festival conductor, Dr. Spillane has directed over fifty all-state and honor choirs throughout the United States and has presented interest sessions and conducted performances at state and division conventions of American Choral Directors Association and National Association for Music Education. Dr. Spillane is equally at home conducting large choral orchestral works, vocal jazz ensembles, and a cappella choral music. Recently he directed the National Concerts Honor Choir in Carnegie Hall, the Connecticut All-state Mixed Chorus, as well as the Indiana All-State Vocal Jazz Choir.

For fourteen years, Dr. Spillane was chair of the Ledyard High School Music Department in Ledyard, CT, where he directed a choral program that grew to over 400 singers in ten choirs. Previously, Dr. Spillane has taught at the University of Arizona, where he was director of the Symphonic Choir, the premier undergraduate choir, and served as Director of Choral Activities at Roberts Wesleyan College and Iowa Wesleyan College where he was named Chadwick Teacher of the Year. Dr. Spillane has earned degrees from Ithaca College, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Arizona and has been named the Connecticut ACDA Choral Director of the Year. Active in many leadership positions of the American Choral Directors Assoc., he was recently elected President-Elect of the ACDA Eastern Region.

State Festival South Site

Chris Albanese

Chris Albanese is Pam and Jack Burks Associate Professor of Choral Conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he conducts the Grammy-nominated Singing Hoosiers and teaches courses in choral conducting. Under Dr. Albanese’s direction, the Singing Hoosiers were invited to perform at the 2021 National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). He has led and prepared the ensemble for collaborations with notable guests, including Sylvia McNair and Sandi Patty.

Before Indiana, Mr. Albanese was a member of the Grammy-award winning ensemble Chanticleer. With Chanticleer, he performed across the United States and abroad, including at Los Angeles’ Disney Concert Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, Prague’s Rudolfinum, Paris’ Oratorie du Louvre, and St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater. His performances were broadcast by public radio affiliates in Minneapolis, New York, Seattle, Denver, and Cincinnati, and he appeared with Chanticleer as a featured guest on The Hallmark Network’s Home and Family.

Dr. Albanese concurrently serves as Music Director of the Akron Symphony Chorus. With the Akron Symphony, he has prepared the chorus to critical acclaim for collaborations with the Akron Symphony, most recently for performance of Haydn’s The Creation, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and the world premiere of Julia Perry’s Frammenti dale lettere di Santa Caterina.

An active performer, Dr. Albanese’s solo credits include performances with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Akron Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, Dayton Opera, Cincinnati Bach Festival, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Bloomington Early Music Festival, Ars Musica Chicago, and the Castleton Festival under the baton of Maestro Lorin Maazel.

He is in demand as a clinician and guest conductor, having presented workshops and master classes across the United States and abroad, including at a national ACDA conference. He is frequently engaged to speak on the topic of vocal production and resonance building in the choral setting. In recognition of his excellence in teaching, he was awarded Indiana University’s Trustees Teaching Award during the 2021-2022 academic year.

Dr. Albanese received his BM in Music Education and Vocal Performance from the University of Dayton, an MM in Vocal Performance from Northwestern University, and DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His doctoral research centered on the double choir masses of Ibero-American composer, Juan Gutierrez de Padilla.

Ryan Brown

Dr. Ryan R. Brown has been praised for his evocative conducting, flexible vocalism, and charismatic leadership. Committed to broadening the choral audience through captivating programming and innovative performance practices, Brown cultivates passionate and expressive vocal artistry which empowers performers to connect with their own humanity and inspires audiences.

Brown is a Lecturer of Music at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He also serves as the Artistic Director of the Laguna Beach Chamber Singers. In previous roles, Brown served as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Lone Star College - University Park, Choral Director at California School of The Arts - San Gabriel Valley, Artistic Director of the Arroyo Singers, Associate Conductor for the National Children’s Chorus, Artistic Director for Diamonds From the Dust, and Choral Director at Wachusett Regional High School.

In addition to his career as a conductor and educator, Brown enjoys a career as a lyric baritone and has performed as a soloist with several major orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. As an ensemble artist, he regularly engages with professional choral ensembles across the country including Los Angeles Master Chorale, Houston Chamber Choir, Red Shift, and Concora. As a passionate advocate and scholar of 21st-century oratorio and cantata, Brown recently performed in several newly written works including Daniel Knagg’s Two Streams, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass For The Endangered, and the Grammy Award-winning recording of Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua.

Brown holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Westminster Choir College, and two graduate degrees in Choral Conducting (Master of Music & Doctor of Musical Arts) from UCLA. Brown resides in Long Beach, CA with his two dogs Rocko and Treble.​ ​

Matheus Cruz

Matheus Cruz is the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, where he conducts the UWSP Concert Choir and Choral Union and teaches academic courses in music education such as Choral Methods, Advanced Choral Conducting, and Orchestration, as well as Conducting, Choral Methods, and Choral Literature classes on the master’s in music education (MME).

Dr. Cruz is also the Artistic Director of the Monteverdi Chorale at Stevens Point. Born in Brazil, Cruz received his Bachelor of Music Education from the State University of Maringá and a master’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Before moving to the United States, Matheus worked as a K12 public school teacher and directed community choruses and church choirs in the state of Paraná. He also received his DMA from the Conservatory at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Mariana Farah

Mariana Farah is the Director of Choral Activities at UW-Madison where she conducts the Concert Choir, teaches courses in graduate choral conducting, and oversees all aspects of a comprehensive choral program. Prior to her appointment at UW-Madison, Dr. Farah served as the

Associate Director of Choral Activities at the University of Kansas. Choirs under her leadership have successfully performed at the Missouri, Kansas, and Wisconsin Music Educators Association conventions and at the 2008 and 2018 Southwestern ACDA conferences.

Her research focuses on Brazilian choral music, particularly the choral works of Ernani Aguiar. In addition to her work at UW-Madison, Dr. Farah maintains an active schedule as a clinician for festivals in Brazil and in the U.S., where she is often sought out for her expertise in Brazilian choral music. She has presented papers at several NAfME and ACDA conventions and has served as the president elect for SWACDA.

Jabarie Glass

Jabarie Glass is the Associate Director of Choral Studies at the University of South Carolina, where he conducts University Chorus and Gamecock Chorale and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in conducting and choral pedagogy. Glass's varied conducting experiences have included working with university, secondary, community youth, festival, and church ensembles. Choral organizations under his leadership have been selected

to perform at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Southern Region Conference, the Mississippi-ACDA Conference, and the South Carolina Music Educators Association Conference.

Glass's scholarship focuses on conducting pedagogy, choral pedagogy, culturally responsive pedagogy, and music literacy. He has given guest lectures and presentations on these topics with university choral programs, at professional development workshops, and at national, regional, and state conferences of the American Choral Directors Association. His article on the intersection of literature selection and choral pedagogy was published in the February 2021 issue of The Choral Journal.

Glass previously served as Director of Choirs at Southaven High School and Middle School, conductor of the Michigan Youth Chamber Singers, as well as the founding conductor of CoroFuente, the tenor-bass chorus of CoroRio, a youth and adult community choral organization for which he currently serves on the board of directors. As a dedicated advocate for student access to quality music education, Glass is passionate about sharing the knowledge gained from his experience working with young musicians with current and future choral practitioners. Furthermore, he continues to invest in the musical growth of young choral artists through clinics with secondary choral programs and conducting honor choruses.

A native Mississippian, Glass earned dual bachelor's degrees in business management and music education from the University of Mississippi, where he was inducted into the University's Student Hall of Fame, a university-wide honor bestowed upon only ten seniors annually based on leadership, scholarship, and service. Glass went on to earn a master's degree in music education from the Florida State University College of Music. He earned a doctoral degree in conducting from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. He pursued additional conducting studies as a conducting fellow with the Chorus America Conducting Academy and the Yale-Norfolk Chamber Music Festival Choral Conducting Workshop.

Mark Munson

Mark Munson is Director of Choral Activities at Bowling Green State University where he conducts choirs and teaches choral-related courses. In addition to his 34 years on the university faculty, he taught eight years of junior and senior high school choral music. During the 2005-06 academic year he taught choral music and conducting choirs in Sweden as part of a faculty exchange.

He is the past president of the Central Region of the American Choral Directors Association and of the Ohio Choral Directors Association.

State Festival West Site

Karen Bruno

Karen L. Bruno is the artistic director of Northwest Girlchoir in Seattle, WA, and spent 25 years as the artistic director of the Lawrence Community Girl Choir Program in Appleton, Wisconsin. While at Lawrence University, she served as the director of the Community Music School and taught in the Conservatory’s music education department. A long-time public school music educator, Ms. Bruno began her career teaching choral and general music at an international school in Dakar, Senegal.

Ms. Bruno is currently a member of Wisconsin’s Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) committee and sits on the board of Washington’s American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) chapter. A frequent guest clinician, Ms. Bruno has worked with youth and treble honor choirs throughout the Midwest, including the South Dakota All-State Children's Choir, the AWAKE Choral Festival for Kodaly educators, and the Beyond the Notes Festival created to serve public school ensembles. Previous ACDA leadership roles include several terms as the Children’s and Community Youth Choir Repertoire and Standards Chair for the North Central region, being elected president of Wisconsin’s ACDA chapter, and serving as a founding member of ACDA’s national standing committee for Advocacy and Collaboration. Ms. Bruno holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and Economics from Smith College and a Master of Music degree in Music Education from Boston University.

Duane Davis

Duane Davis, born in Pittsburgh, and raised in Cleveland, has taught 54 years, including The Grand Rapids Public Schools, Grand Rapids Community College, Western Michigan University and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Duane’s musical experiences range from jazz to opera.

Duane is a recent recipient of the Ellis Marsalis, Jr. national education award, presented by the Jazz Education Network. Other awards include “Giving Girls a Voice” award presented by Girls Choral Academy, Tri-C JazzFest Legend, Legacy Award presented by the Grand Rapids Symphony and the Maynard Klein Award for Choral Excellence presented by the American Choral Directors Association of Michigan. His ensembles have toured the U. S., Bahamas, Canada, Japan and Europe. Duane has conducted in Carnegie, Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls as well as the Kennedy Center. He has conducted All-State and District Choirs in 12 states and as well as festivals in 8 Canadian Provinces.

Duane’s compositions and arrangements has been performed and premiered by the Grand Rapids and Battle Creek Symphonies, Western Michigan University Gold Company and numerous high school and collegiate ensembles. He conducted Gold Company at the National Induction of Inventors in Washington D.C., the Polyfolia International Festival in Normandy, France and Choralies Festival in Vaison-la-Romaine, France and most recently conducted that ensemble in New Orleans at the Jazz Education Network national convention. He regularly conducts the Grand Rapids Symphony at the annual Symphony With Soul concert, and has prepared ensembles and shared the stage with such artists as Bobby McFerrin, Kurt Elling, Terrence Blanchard, Janis Siegel, Joe Williams, Dianne Reeves, Tony Bennett, Take 6, Lalah Hathaway, New York Voices, Marcus Roberts, Lizz Wright and others.

Duane served as director of The Disney-Grammy All-American College Singers, and conducted the opening ceremonies for the Walt Disney World Animal Kingdom. He has served as a guest artist/clinician at the Riga Jazz Festival in Riga, Latvia and was a guest presenter on jazz in Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan, for the 7th World Symposium on Choral Music as well as the DODDS choral festival conductor in London, England. Duane served as Chorus Master for Opera Grand Rapids for 31 seasons. He also served as Chorus Master for productions of Porgy and Bess and conducted the premiere of a chamber opera Afram ou la belle Swite, by Edmund Thornton Jenkins, at the Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston, South Carolina.

Duane and his wife Kaye (also a musician) have three children, Xavier and Quincy are jazz educators at Michigan State University and University of North Texas respectfully and a daughter, a principal in New York City.

Peter Kadeli

Peter Kadeli is a dynamic conductor and composer passionate about impacting communities through engaging musical and educational

programming. He brings equal creativity and skill to leading vocal and instrumental ensembles as well as bringing new works to life.

Kadeli serves as the Visiting Director of Choral Activities at Hope College. He leads the Chapel and College choirs in a diverse program of collaborative concerts including Hope College’s annual Christmas Vespers, recorded and broadcasted by WGVU Public Media. This past November he guest conducted the premiere of Timothy Duesenbury’s A Requiem for a Warrior at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall in Northern Virginia. He is researching and writing on Paul Paray’s Mass for the 500th Anniversary of the Death of Joan of Arc.

Kadeli recently served in a variety of roles at Indiana University. He assisted in preparing the opera chorus for productions of Puccini's La bohème,    La rondine, and Chabrier’s L'étoile. He led    the Indiana University Chorale and Conductors Orchestra in a performance of Mozart's Mass in C Major “Coronation”, Church Sonata K. 317, and Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs.    Kadeli conducted Indiana University’s contemporary vocal ensemble, NOTUS, in a performance of Reena Esmail’s Tuttarana at the 2022 American Choral Directors Association Midwestern Conference.

He helped prepare the Oratorio Chorus for performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Poulenc’s Gloria. While at Indiana University Kadeli was sought after as an  interpreter of new works. Premieres include Kian Ravaei’s Feeling New Strength for orchestra, and Daniel Nieberg’s Sinfonietta, Poems.

Kadeli’s varied interests as a conductor resonate with his work as a composer. In 2015 he was a featured composer for the “Well that’s a First” Composers Consortium contributing three art songs for soprano voice, trumpet, and piano. That same year his Veni Sancte Spiritus received multiple performances in Europe and Maryland, including a version for choir and chamber orchestra performed by the National Philharmonic Singers and Takoma Ensemble. In 2014 he was the featured American composer for an art song recital given in Tel Aviv, Israel. His choral work, “Beyond the Starlit Skies”, is published by Kandinsky Music and was featured on Pittsburgh's WQED-FM promotional CD in 2023.

A firm believer in the positive impact music has on individuals and communities, Kadeli created the Vivaldi Gloria Project in 2022, gathering musicians from the Indianapolis area for a benefit concert supporting community members in need. He was the co-founder and host of the Bishop O’Connell Youth Music Festival (2015 - 2018) and the Arlington Diocese Honors Music Festival (2016 - 2017).

Kadeli has pursued a breadth and depth of musical training supporting his artistic endeavors. He has studied with conductors such as Kenneth Kiesler, Jerry Blackstone, Bruce Chamberlain, Simon Carrington, and Rodney Eichenberger. In 2013 Kadeli traveled to Germany to study conducting with Volker Hempfling, Sabine Horstmann, and Michael Reif as part of the Chorleitung   und Chorische Stimmbildung program. In 2019 he was accepted as a conducting scholar for the Chorus America Conducting Academy with John Alexander, Lucinda Carver, David Hayes,     and Duain Wolf. He is currently completing a doctorate of music in choral conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music with Dominick DiOrio, Walter Huff, and Betsy Burleigh.   He completed a master of music degree in choral conducting at the University of Michigan with Eugene Rogers. He holds a bachelor of music degrees in composition and choral education    from George Mason University.

Bradley Naylor

Dr. Bradley Naylor enjoys a varied career as a conductor, singer, and educator. He is Assistant Professor of Conducting and Director of Choral Activities at the Ohio University School of Music, where he conducts the University Singers and Bella Voce and teaches courses in conducting and choral music.

Naylor’s performance career as a solo and ensemble singer has taken him throughout North America and to Costa Rica, Scotland, England, Wales, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, Korea, and China. He performs with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and appeared on the ensemble's 2017 album, "The Road Home". Regionally, he sings with LancasterChorale in central Ohio and the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati. He has sung with the Schola Cantorum of Boston, the King’s Chapel Choir, the Yale Schola Cantorum, and the Christ Church Parish Choir in New Haven, Connecticut. Dr. Naylor has appeared as tenor soloist with the Choral Society of Durham, the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Durham, the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra, the Evansville Bach Singers, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and for the 2015 Kentucky Gubernatorial Inauguration.

A native of Houston, Texas, Dr. Naylor received a bachelor of arts in music magna cum laude from Brown University, a master of music degree in choral conducting from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and master of musical arts and doctor of musical arts degrees, both in choral conducting, from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Marguerite Brooks and Simon Carrington. Prior to his appointment at Ohio University, Dr. Naylor taught at Kentucky Wesleyan College as Director of Choral Music and in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia as Visiting Assistant Professor and director of the Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs.

Sandra Shafer

Sandra Shafer is the Director of Choirs at her alma mater Apopka High School and has twice been named “Teacher of the Year” at Liberty Middle School (2014) and Apopka High School (2022). Student choirs under her direction have consistently received Superior Ratings at District Music Performance Assessment as well as toured throughout the United States. Most recently, Apopka High Schools Treble Choir “Belles” was invited to perform at the 2024 Southern Region Conference of the American Choral Directors Association and the 2021 Florida ACDA Conference.

As a performer, Mrs. Shafer serves as section leader and soloist at Winter Park Presbyterian Church and sings with the Orlando Sings Solaria Singers and conducts their SSAA ensemble, Harmonia. She is an active conductor, clinician and adjudicator throughout Florida, and has presented sessions at conferences of the Florida Music Educators Association and the Florida Vocal Association. Mrs. Shafer serves as the social media chair for FL ACDA and is an active member of ACDA, FMEA and FVA. Mrs. Shafer holds a bachelor’s degree in Vocal Music Education from Stetson University in DeLand, FL.

Christopher Short

Christopher Short, bass-baritone, is a vocalist, teaching artist, and arts administrator from Raleigh, North Carolina. He hopes to use music as a bridge to connect people with their surrounding community through artful storytelling in performance, localized philanthropic efforts, arts administration, and educational outreach work.

Christopher graduated from the East Carolina University School of Music with a double major in Vocal Performance and Music Theory/Composition. He has performed and recorded internationally as a choral musician and soloist and is an award-winning composer. Notable recent engagements include performances with Three Notch’d Road, GRAMMY-nominated True Concord Voices & Orchestra, Servire, the world premiere of Christopher Tin’s The Lost Birds with VOCES8, the Handel and Haydn Society alongside the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, the VOCES8 Foundation Choir on the LIVE From London series, and as a soloist with the North Carolina Master Chorale and Duke Bach Cantata Series. Christopher also serves as a teaching artist and workshop coordinator with the US VOCES8 Foundation, traveling the country leading vocal music education workshops.

In addition to performing, Christopher is an active arts administrator, serving as the Executive Director for the Raleigh Youth Choir and as the co-founder and Executive Director of the professional vocal ensemble Servire and its overarching nonprofit, Chamber Voices for Change.

The Raleigh Youth Choir, founded in 1968 as the Raleigh Boychoir, educates youth in the art and joy of singing through quality instruction and performance and serves as one of the largest youth choir organizations across the Carolinas. With six different ensembles and singers spanning the ages of 6-18, the Raleigh Youth Choir has appeared with the North Carolina Symphony, regularly tours nationally and internationally, and has performed for the Pope and several U.S. Presidents.

Chamber Voices for Change is a performing arts organization with a service-based mission of fostering lasting connections within communities throughout the Southeastern United States through music education outreach, hands-on service, benefit concerts, and other means. These “Sing and Serve” residencies, carried out by Servire, have contributed to significant fundraising and volunteer efforts for local nonprofits across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, raising tens of thousands of dollars and attributing to several hundred hours of volunteer work.

In his free time, Christopher has a passion for cooking extravagant meals, traveling, spending time with his wife and dog, and watching his favorite sports teams.

State Festival Central Site

Meredith Bowen

Dr. Meredith Bowen is the Director of Choral Studies and Associate Professor of Choral Music Education at Radford University, where she teaches choral music education classes and conducts three ensembles. Her current scholarship interests include restoring, publishing, and performing music written by 17th-century women and the impact of socially conscious programming. She enjoys an active guest conducting schedule, is an inaugural singer of and Artistic Administrator for mirabai, a professional women’s ensemble, serves as President for the Virginia chapter of the American Choral Directors Association, and is on faculty for the Virginia Governor’s School for the Visual and Performing Arts and Humanities. Boosey & Hawkes, Morningstar, and MusicSpoke publish her historical music editions.

Previous to her appointment at Radford, Bowen taught K-12 general music, choir, and band in Lansing, Michigan and was the Artistic Director of multiple ensembles in Michigan, including Sistrum - Lansing Women’s Chorus, Holland Chorale, and the Battle Creek Girls Chorus. Bowen holds a B.S. in Music Education from West Chester University, an M.M., and a D.M.A. in Choral Conducting from Michigan State University.

Ryan Brown

Dr. Ryan R. Brown has been praised for his evocative conducting, flexible vocalism, and charismatic leadership. Committed to broadening the choral audience through captivating programming and innovative performance practices, Brown cultivates passionate and expressive vocal artistry which empowers performers to connect with their own humanity and inspires audiences.

Brown is a Lecturer of Music at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He also serves as the Artistic Director of the Laguna Beach Chamber Singers. In previous roles, Brown served as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Lone Star College - University Park, Choral Director at California School of The Arts - San Gabriel Valley, Artistic Director of the Arroyo Singers, Associate Conductor for the National Children’s Chorus, Artistic Director for Diamonds From the Dust, and Choral Director at Wachusett Regional High School.

In addition to his career as a conductor and educator, Brown enjoys a career as a lyric baritone and has performed as a soloist with several major orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. As an ensemble artist, he regularly engages with professional choral ensembles across the country including Los Angeles Master Chorale, Houston Chamber Choir, Red Shift, and Concora. As a passionate advocate and scholar of 21st-century oratorio and cantata, Brown recently performed in several newly written works including Daniel Knagg’s Two Streams, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass For The Endangered, and the Grammy Award-winning recording of Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua.

Brown holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Westminster Choir College, and two graduate degrees in Choral Conducting (Master of Music & Doctor of Musical Arts) from UCLA. Brown resides in Long Beach, CA with his two dogs Rocko and Treble.​ ​

Erin Colwitz

Dr. Erin Colwitz has been Director of Choral Activities at Northern Michigan University since August 2015, where she conducts the Arts Chorale and the University Choir. Under her leadership, NMU choirs have toured Finland, Austria, and Poland, as well as various venues in the United States. She is also Music Director of the Marquette Choral Society.

Dr. Colwitz is a frequent guest conductor, lecturer, contest adjudicator and choral clinician throughout the United States. As a clinician and lecturer, Dr. Colwitz presents at conferences at the state, regional, national, and international levels, including at the Athens Institute of Research. In 2014, Dr. Colwitz served as guest conductor and clinician at a collegiate choral festival in Bangkok and Chiangmai, Thailand, with conductor William Dehning under the auspices of the US Embassy.

She is currently President-Elect of the Michigan state chapter of the American Choral Directors Association, and she has served ACDA as the AL-ACDA Repertoire & Standards Chair for Community Choirs and Youth and Student Activities. Dr. Colwitz is also a member of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO), the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM), the College Music Society (CMS), Delta Kappa Gamma and the Pi Kappa Lambda Honor Society.

Before coming to Michigan, Dr. Colwitz served as Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. While there, her choirs toured domestically and twice internationally and were selected to sing at the Alabama state music education conference. She received numerous grants to fund research in choral music, including from the UAH Humanities Center to fund British composer Tarik O'Regan’s residency. As a result, Dr. Colwitz’s choirs performed the U.S. premiere of O’Regan’s Martyr and the world premiere of his new arrangement of Triptych. Another grant brought Dr. Colwitz to South Africa for research on the African church music tradition in rural areas.

Dr. Colwitz earned her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Southern California in choral music, studying conducting with William Dehning, David Wilson, Magen Solomon, and Claire McCoy. At USC, she was awarded a full teaching assistantship as conductor of the Thornton Oriana Choir, the University’s only women’s chorus, a post she held for three years. She also sang with the award-winning Thornton Chamber Choir, including tours in France, Belgium, and East Asia.

Dr. Colwitz’s doctoral treatise was a critical analysis of Dominick Argento’s A Toccata of Galuppi’s. This twelve-tone work was part of the 2003 Grammy-nominated recording of Argento’s music, Walden Pond, by the Dale Warland Singers, for which Dr. Colwitz herself sang as a member. While with that ensemble, she performed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of Robert Shaw, Edo de Waart, and Hugh Wolff.

Dr. Colwitz served as a member of the choral music faculty at California State University, Fullerton, where she conducted the women’s choir and taught music education courses. She was also Director of Music at St. Victor Catholic Church in West Hollywood; sang regularly with John Alexander and the Pacific Chorale in Santa Ana; and sang with the Pacific Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the batons of Carl St. Clair, Giancarlo Guerrero, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Gustavo Dudamel.

Andrew Crow

Dr. Andrew Crow has served on the faculty at Ball State University since 2009. As Director of Choral Activities, he currently leads the Ball State Chamber Choir and the tenor/bass Cardinal Chorus. In 2020, the Chamber Choir performed at the combined regional conference for the Central and North Central Regions of the American Choral Directors Association. Crow also teaches conducting and choral literature and supervises the choral conducting program for students pursuing graduate degrees. Under his leadership, the Ball State choirs have a strong record of collaboration with other choirs and professional orchestras, and they have twice performed at national conferences.

Dr. Crow received the 2017 Mayor’s Arts Award for Arts Leadership in the Muncie community. In addition to teaching at the university, he is also Director of Music Ministries for High Street    United Methodist Church and has served as a church musician for more than 20 years. Opportunities as guest conductor include the Muncie Symphony Orchestra, and performances in North Carolina, California, Ohio, and South Dakota. He has been active with professional organizations in choral music, serving on state and national boards. He is currently an associate editor for The Choral Scholar.

At the University of Minnesota, Crow earned the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting following degrees from Temple University and The Ohio State University. Each summer from 2011 to 2015 he led an intergenerational choir for a project called Musica in Situ, which toured to perform choral music in historic and interesting architectural spaces. He consistently contributes scholarship on topics such as intonation, score study, and rehearsal technique for professional organizations in the choral domain. Crow is also an experienced singer, orchestral conductor, and piano technician.

David Edmonds

David Edmonds, D.M.A, has served as Director of Choral Studies at the University of New Mexico since 2018 where he directs the UNM Concert Choir and University Chorus and teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting and choral repertoire. In addition to his role at UNM, Dr. Edmonds serves as Artistic Director and Conductor of Dolce Canto, a community-based choral ensemble in Missoula, Montana, presenting two regular-season performances in Missoula and the surrounding areas. Dr. Edmonds is also serving as the Interim Artistic Director of the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus, guiding the ensemble in their preparations for four choral/orchestral masterworks performances for the 2023-2024 season.

An advocate for students and pre-service teachers, Edmonds completed a six-year appointment in 2022 as ACDA National Repertoire & Resources Chair for Student Activities, working on the R&R team to create programming and initiatives supporting the ACDA national student membership.

Dr. Edmonds obtained advanced degrees in conducting from the University of North Texas (D.M.A., ’12) and Westminster Choir College (M.M., ’10) after teaching high school choral music for six years in Iowa and Texas. His original compositions and arrangements are published by Alliance, Colla Voce, and MorningStar Music Publishers.

He lives in New Mexico with his incredible wife and their two (often) well-behaved daughters.