Clinicians
Gerrit Scheepers: 7th–12th Grade Men’s Honor Choir
Gerrit
Scheepers is
the newly appointed interim director of Choral Studies at Indiana University of
Pennsylvania where he conducts the University Chorale. He also teaches
undergraduate and graduate conducting. Scheepers is in the final stages of his
doctoral studies at the University of Washington in choral conducting under Geoffrey Boers and Giselle Wyers, where he served as assistant conductor of
the University of Washington Chamber Singers. He holds a bachelor of music degree from
the University of Pretoria in choral conducting and music history, where he
studied with Christo Burger, and he earned a master of music degree from Missouri
State University, where he studied choral conducting with Cameron LaBarr.
Scheepers
founded the Armonia Chambers singers in 2012, which he conducted until the end
of 2014 when he relocated to the United States. The choir has been renamed the
Pretoria Symphony Chorus in 2018. He is also the founding artistic director and
current conductor of the Brooklyn Choral Artists, a professional chamber
ensemble operating in Pretoria, South Africa.
Gerrit
has presented internationally as clinician and conductor. He has presented at summer
conferences, regional conferences and led numerous reading sessions hosted by
the American Choral Director’s Association, the National Association for music
Education, and the National Collegiate Choir Organization. He was also selected
to present a poster session at the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and
Humanities (2018). Gerrit has worked as guest conductor and clinician for
various high schools and festivals across the United States, Europe, and South
Africa.
Gerrit
was awarded a conducting fellowship at the Sarteano (Italy) Chamber Choir
Workshop in the summer of 2012 where he worked with world-renowned conductor
and singer Simon Carrington. He was also selected as one of six fellows to
attend the Melodious Accord Melody Studies program with world-renowned
composer Alice Parker at her home in Hawley, Massachusetts in summer 2015. In fall 2018 he was guest conductor with the reknowned Ave Chamber
Choir in Slovenia. Engagements for the 2018–19 academic year included a visiting
faculty exchange with the University of Ljubljana, where he taught undergraduate
and graduate choral conducting.
Recent
major choral-orchestral works conducted by Scheepers include Bach Cantata BWV 184 – Erwünschtes Freudenlicht (2014),
Schubert’s Mass in G major (2014),
Vivaldi’s Gloria (2014), and Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli (2013).
Deanna Joseph: 7th–12th Grade Women’s Honor Choir
Deanna Joseph is associate professor of Music and director of Choral Activities at the Georgia State University School of Music, where she conducts the University Singers and leads the master’s program in choral conducting. In 2015, she was the recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Outstanding Teacher Award at Georgia State, where she was selected out of a pool of over 800 faculty. A recent review of her work states, “[t]he choir sings with great musicality, excellent intonation, clear diction, and a healthy and beautiful pallet of tone colors…” (The Choral Scholar).
In May 2017, the University Singers under Joseph’s leadership won first place in the renowned Marktoberdorf International Chamber Choir Competition while on a concert tour of Austria and Bavaria. In May 2013, the University Singers competed in La Florilège Vocal de Tours, where the choir placed second overall in the mixed choir category and Joseph was honored with the Prix du chef de choer (conducting prize).
The Georgia State University Singers have been invited to perform at two Southern Division conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and at two conventions of the Georgia Music Educator’s Association during Joseph’s tenure at GSU, and the Georgia State University Choirs have been hired to sing two productions of David Bintley’s Carmina Burana with the Atlanta Ballet: in 2013 (North American premiere performances) and 2017. The choir’s professional recording, Evening Hymn (Gothic Records), is distributed internationally by Naxos and is available for purchase or streaming on all the major music distribution outlets, including Amazon, Spotify, iTunes, etc. The American Record Guide review states, “There are no runts in the repertory litter…[and] [t]he Georgia State choir of 40 is very good at all of it: radiant as dusk approaches, but hushed and sensitive to the coming darkness as shadows deepen and fall.” The disk has been featured several times on National Public Radio’s program With Heart and Voice.
Joseph is an active guest conductor and headline clinician and has conducted all-state and honor choirs in more than 12 states. She is a frequent conductor of choral-orchestral repertoire and has led performances of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Beethoven Mass in C, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Creation and Lord Nelson Mass, Schubert’s Mass in A-flat and Bruckner’s Mass in D Minor. She has prepared choirs to sing with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Opera, and Andrea Bocelli. One of her small ensembles was featured on a 2016 episode of The Walking Dead.
Joseph’s research in the area of 19th-century choral-orchestral performance-practice has led to invited presentations on the topic at several division conferences of the American Choral Director’s Association and at the national convention for the National Collegiate Choral Organization. In October 2012, she was selected as one of 25 presenters from 10 countries to speak at the Lund Choral Festival in Sweden.
Prior to her appointment at Georgia State University, Joseph served on the faculties at Smith College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
Joseph holds conducting degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where she was awarded the Walter Hagen Conducting Prize. She is the founder and artistic director of the Atlanta Summer Conducting Institute, a week-long summer conducting master class that draws conductors from across the country.