Choir Track

Faculty | Guest Faculty | Schedule

Daily Festival Activities Include:

  • Festival Choir Rehearsal
  • Breakout Vocal Ensembles and Solo Coaching
  • All-Festival Choir
  • Evening Activities – Performances and Entertainment


Faculty

David GardnerDavid B. Gardner (DMA, The University of Arizona) is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choirs at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas.  Dr. Gardner conducts the A Cappella Choir and the Southwestern College Singers, as well as teaching Conducting, Vocal Diction, and Private Voice.  He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2005 Southwestern College Fassnacht Outstanding Faculty Award, and a second-place finish in the 2001 American Choral Directors Association National Student Conducting Awards Competition.  He is active both regionally and nationally as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator.

Dr. Gardner’s Carnegie Hall conducting debut was in March of 2005, and he appeared there again on March 19, 2010, conducting Mozart’s Solemn Vespers.  He has performed as a vocal soloist, conductor, and chorus member with Wichita Grand Opera, and has prepared choruses for the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, Wichita Grand Opera, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and the University of Arizona Symphony.  In March of 2008 he led the Southwestern College choirs in a series of well-received concerts across Italy.  The tour culminated in a performance during Easter Sunday Mass at the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice.

Other past projects include performing in concert and recording with Linda Ronstadt (A Merry Little Christmas, Elektra Records), conducting the world premier performance of “Send Down the Rain” by New York composer Andrew Teirstein, and organizing and conducting 350 singers and instrumentalists in a memorial performance of the Mozart Requiem on September 11, 2002. 

David Gardner’s principal conducting mentors have been Maurice Skones and Bruce Chamberlain.  In 2002, he was selected as one of 14 international conductors to lead the Grammy Award winning Oregon Bach Festival Choir and Orchestra under the tutelage of Maestro Helmuth Rilling in the Oregon Bach Festival Masterclass in Conducting.  In addition to his academic work, Dr. Gardner has spent more than two decades in music ministry, serving churches of various denominations.

Dr. Gardner is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, and is the current President for the Kansas Choral Directors Association.  He is also a member of the Music Educators National Conference and a charter member of the National Collegiate Choral Organization.  He lives in Winfield with his wife and four daughters.


2013 Guest Faculty

Mary BanderMary Bander, Young Artist-in-Residence, is currently a B.A. Music major at Oklahoma City University, where she studies voice under Dr. Catherine McDaniel. Mary has performed in several OCU opera productions including Les Contes D’Hoffmann, Il Pagliacci, Dido & Aeneas, L’elisir D’amor, Gallantry, Riders to the Sea, and Die Fledermaus. She has also successfully competed in N.A.T.S. and Classical Singer competitions across the U.S. She is working towards her goal of becoming a professional opera singer. When Mary is not singing, she rides and trains horses on her family’s farm in Rockwall, Texas.  Her residency is sponsored by George and Linda Cole.


Stephen ButlerStephen Butler, Festival Accompanist.  Butler is a music pastor at First Baptist Church in Arkansas City, Kansas.  He also writes and arranges music, and performs concerts throughout the Midwest.


Piano Track Schedule 2013

Monday, June 3, 2013 Schedule

11:00 am – 2:00 pm Festival Move-in
Lunch – On Your Own
2:15 pm – 3:00 pm Counselors, SC Ambassadors, CIT’s and Participants – Intro to Festival
3:15 pm – 6:00 pm First Choir Track Rehearsal – Darbeth Rehearsal Hall
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm Dinner – Welcome Center
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Choir Track Rehearsal – Darbeth Rehearsal Hall
8:15 pm – 9:30 pm Jazz Faculty and the Student Loans Concert – Richardson PAC
9:30 pm – 10:00 pm Festival Meeting and Ice Breakers for resident participants

Tuesday, June 4 - Friday, June 7

7:30 am – 8:30 am Practice Time/Free Time
8:30 am – 9:00 am Breakfast – Dining Hall
9:00 am – 11:00 am Choir Track Rehearsal – Darbeth Rehearsal Hall
11:00 am – 11:50 am Breakout Vocal Ensemble Rehearsals
12:15 pm – 12:55 pm Lunch
1:00 pm – 2:10 pm All-Festival Choir Rehearsals/Practice
2:15 pm – 3:00 pm Elective classes and chamber ensembles
3:05 pm – 4:05 pm Festival Choir Rehearsal – Rehearsal Hall
4:10 pm – 4:25 pm Break and Snacks – Java Jinx
4:30 pm – 5:40 pm All-Festival Orchestra Rehearsal
5:45 pm – 6:30 pm Dinner
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm Various All-Festival Events:
  • Tuesday – City Band Rehearsal/Movie Night
  • Wednesday – Faculty Showcase Concert
  • Thursday – Island Park Supper and Swim
  • Friday – City Band Concert and Talent Show

Saturday, June 8

8:30 am – 9:00 am Breakfast
9:00 am – 11:00 am Final Rehearsals
11:00 am Family Day Begins
Detailed schedule coming soon!