The fifth annual Fredonia Intercollegiate Choral Festival in February will feature a master class conducted by William Weinert, director of Choral Studies at Eastman School of Music, and a concert featuring the Fredonia Women’s Choir, Fredonia College Choir and Fredonia Chamber Choir, and the Eastman Chorale.
Dr. Weinert will offer the master class, with the Fredonia Chamber Choir as the clinic choir and top Fredonia students as the conductors, on Friday, Feb. 20, at noon in Rosch Recital Hall.
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| Dr. William Weinert |
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| Dr. Gerald Gray |
The festival concert with the Eastman Chorale, which has a strong tradition of performing standard and innovative music, will be held on Saturday, Feb. 21, at 4 p.m. in Rosch Recital Hall. The Fredonia Chamber Choir and Fredonia College Choir are under the direction of Gerald Gray, director of Choral Activities. Vernon Huff, assistant professor of Choral Music Education, directs the Fredonia Women’s Choir. The two-hour event will also include multi-media audience participation moderated by Nicole Peets, ’14, during intermission and at the end of the concert.
Since 1994, Weinert has served as professor of Conducting and director of Choral Activities at Eastman, where he conducts the Eastman Chorale and the Eastman-Rochester Chorus and supervises the masters and doctoral programs in choral conducting. He has conducted throughout Europe, the United States and the Far East, and has served throughout the country as a clinician and an adjudicator, and has given conducting master classes in North America, Europe and Asia.
Ensembles under Weinert's direction have performed at conferences of the American Choral Directors' Association, National Collegiate Choral Organization and Music Educators' National Conference. He has also conducted master classes and honor choruses at these conferences.
Weinert has an A. B. in history and B.Mus. in music education from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music; an M.M. in conducting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and both an M.M. in music history and D.M.A. in conducting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied with Robert Fountain. He has also studied with Daniel Moe, Geoffrey Simon, Karlos Moser, and Robert Porter. His vocal training has included study with Yolanda Marculescu, Dale Moore and Ilona Kombrink. Weinert was the founder and director of the Schütz Ensemble of Madison (1984-90), and musical director of the Madison Savoyards (1983 and 1987).
Weinert previously taught at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Southern Mississippi, and served three summers as guest professor at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany.
General admission to the Saturday concert is $10, and free to Fredonia students with ID. Tickets are available at the Fredonia Ticket Office in the Williams Center, at www.fredonia.edu/tickets or by calling 716-673-3501.
