Guest Conductor

Jerry McCoy Conductor for the 2009 Festival

Jerry McCoy is Director of Choral Studies and Professor of Music at the University of North Texas, where he conducts the A Cappella Choir, North Texas Chamber Choir, and Grand Chorus and teaches graduate choral conducting and advanced choral techniques. He is also the founding Artistic Director/Conductor of Texas Choral Artists, President-Elect and National Convention Chair for the American Choral Directors Association, and a member of the editorial board of the "Choral Scholar," the online publication of the National Collegiate Choral Organization.

He has served as guest conductor and clinician in thirty-six states across the nation, as well as for established choral organizations in Sweden, Great Britain, and Venezuela. Guest engagements for 2008-09 include appearances in Austria, China, Denmark, Alabama, California, Colorado, Kansas, Georgia, Michigan, Tennessee, and Texas. He has served as Artist-in-Residence for Portland State University, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the University of Delaware, Western Washington University, Southern Utah University, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Dr. McCoy's choirs have performed for the national conventions of the National Collegiate Choral Organization, the American Choral Directors Association, the Association of British Choral Directors, and the Music Educators National Conference. His choirs have toured Europe three times, and are heard on commercial recordings released by Klavier Records and GIA Music Publications including two companion recordings for "Teaching Music Through Performance in Choir."

He has guest conducted the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the New England Symphonic Ensemble for Mid-America Productions, the Texas Camerata, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, the Daegu City Choir of Korea, the Wichita (Kansas) Chamber Chorale, and the Wichita Falls (Texas) Symphony Orchestra. He sang and recorded with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers in New York City and throughout southern France, and with the Banff (Canada) Festival Chamber Choir led by Swedish conductor Eric Ericson.

A choral music education graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington, he holds advanced degrees in choral conducting from The University of Texas at Austin. He has completed further study through conductor exchange programs in Venezuela, Germany, and Sweden including master classes with Eric Ericson. Dr. McCoy is past national chairman of the College and University Repertoire and Standards Committee for the ACDA.

It is our pleasure to welcome Dr. Jerry McCoy as guest conductor of the 71st annual Southwestern Michigan Vocal Festival to be held on March 12, 2008.