Masterwork Series

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.

Dr. Lee Nelson holds the Patricia R. Zahn Chair in choral conducting and serves as the director of choral activities at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. Nelson conducts the Wartburg Choir and Ritterchor (tenor/bass choir) and teaches choral literature, beginning conducting and advanced conducting courses at Wartburg College. He also serves as the artistic director of Christmas with Wartburg. Wartburg College recognized Nelson’s work as an educator by awarding him the John O. Chellevold Award for Excellence in Teaching and Service.

Under Dr. Nelson’s direction, the Wartburg Choir has performed at multiple ACDA conventions, including the 2017 National Convention, and at both the White House and the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The Wartburg Choir was honored as the national winner of The American Prize, College/University Choir Division in 2017. Nelson has tours with the Wartburg Choir throughout the United States every year, and they have sung in 12 different countries over the last 12 years. On the most recent international tour, a television production of “The Wartburg Choir in Germany: Celebrating 500 years of Reformation” was taped and shown worldwide. Internationally renowned composer Morten Lauridsen praised Nelson and the Wartburg Choir’s performance of his “O Magnum Mysterium” stating: “It was in the top echelon of any performance of that piece by any choir that I have ever heard.”

A highly sought-after conductor, clinician and adjudicator, Nelson has directed all state and honor choirs throughout the United States and internationally. He has been invited to conduct at Carnegie Hall on multiple occasions. Earlier in his career, Nelson won the National ACDA Graduate Conducting Competition in Los Angeles, and he received the Outstanding Young Choral Conductor of the Year, awarded by ACDA of Minnesota.

A champion of contemporary music, Nelson regularly commissions and performs new works of choral literature. ECS Publishing distributes the Lee Nelson Choral Series both nationally and internationally.

Russian-American conductor Elena Sharkova was born and raised in St. Petersburg and received her training at the famed Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire, alma mater to Tchaikovski, Prokofiev, Schostakovich, and Balanchin, and holds a graduate degree in conducting. In 1993 Ms. Sharkova moved to the United States where she continues her varied career as a conductor, music educator, lecturer, workshop leader, and editor.

Most recent engagements have been with Britain’s foremost professional choir the BBC Singers, Grammy-winning male ensemble Chanticleer, Miami-based Grammy-nominated Seraphic Fire, and Houston Chamber Choir.

A frequent guest conductor, Elena Sharkova has had the privilege of inspiring youth and adult singers in eighteen countries across three continents. She has conducted honor choirs and festivals in NYC’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall and the Grace Cathedral.

Elena Sharkova has been Artistic Director of the award-winning Cantabile Youth Singers of Silicon Valley since 2004. Today the organization serves over 300 youth ages 4-18 and provides a unique and comprehensive choral music education curriculum that fosters deep mind-body-heart engagement, independent thinking, and community.

Ms. Sharkova is in her nineteenth year as the chorus master for Symphony Silicon Valley (previously San Jose Symphony) and has prepared the singers for performances of over fifty major works for distinguished conductors such as George Cleve, Carlos View, Jane Glover, John Nelson and many others. Each season she leads the orchestra and chorus in a concert of choral masterpieces as well as in the annual Christmas celebration.

She has served as editor of “Elena Sharkova Choral Series” for Carl Fischer Publishing since 2011. Her series with National Music Publishing promotes music for treble voices.

Dr. Yoojin Muhn is the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), where she leads a dynamic choral program, conducts the UTSA Chamber Singers, and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in choral conducting. She also serves as the Music Director of the San Antonio Mastersingers, a premier 120-voice volunteer chorus representing the greater San Antonio area.

Dr. Muhn is widely recognized for her artistry as a clinician, guest conductor, and adjudicator. She has led numerous honor choirs across Texas and beyond, including serving as a guest conductor for the Louisiana Music Educators Association (LMEA) All-State Choir. She has appeared on major stages such as Carnegie Hall, where she conducted Mozart’s Requiem with the New York City Chamber Orchestra as part of the Manhattan Concert Productions’ Masterwork Series. Under her direction, the UTSA Chamber Singers have earned invitations to perform at prestigious national and state conferences, including the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Conference and the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) Conference.

Dr. Muhn earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Music with honors from the University of Southern California, a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music in Sacred Music (with distinction) from Westminster Choir College, and a Bachelor of Arts in Composition from SookMyung Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea.

Dr. Derrick Fox is the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Creative Endeavors and a Professor of Choral Conducting at Michigan State University. Prior to MSU, he was the Director of Choral Activities and Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Assistant Professor of Choral Music at Ithaca College. Dr. Fox has taught at the middle school, high school and collegiate levels. His conducting experiences have included singers from upper elementary choirs through collegiate and community choirs. He was awarded the 2021 Bryan R. Johnson Service Award by the Nebraska Music Educators Association and the 2022 University of Nebraska Omaha Award for Distinguished Research/Creative Activity.

Dr. Fox has conducted all state and regional choirs across the United States, led international, national and regional choral concerts/residencies and presented professional development workshops across the United States and internationally. His professional workshops focus on assessment in the choral classroom, building classroom community, rehearsal strategies, choral conducting techniques and shape note singing in the African American community. Dr. Fox has held teaching residencies at the Latvian Academy of Music and Syracuse University and led performance tours through Lithuania and Estonia. Dr. Fox conducted the 2019 National ACDA Middle School/Junior High Mixed Honor Choir and traveled to South Africa as a 2019 ACDA International Conductor Exchange Fellow where he led choral workshops and rehearsals in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Potchefstroom.

For the past nine years, Kenney Potter has served as Conductor and Artistic Director of the Charlotte Master Chorale. His choirs have received wide-spread acclaim including winning the Grand Prix for best choir in the Pärnu International Choral Festival in Pärnu, Estonia. As a performer, he has been a featured soloist in Carnegie Hall, and was choir soloist for the Grammy-winning Oregon Bach Festival choir as well as the International Bach Academy, conducted by Helmuth Rilling. Under his leadership, the Master Chorale has received critical acclaim for artistic excellence and creative programming. Committed to music education, he served as Professor of Music at Wingate University and is Vice President of Publications for ECS Publishing Group.

In addition to his work at with the Chorale, Dr. Potter serves as Choral Conductor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. In demand as a clinician, he has conducted state-wide festival choirs for NAfME and ACDA in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia as well as in Nairobi, Kenya and Johannesburg, South Africa. He holds degrees from Florida State University, Portland State University, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He resides in Charlotte with his wife, Heather, and their children, Syl and Calvin.

Dr. Deanna Joseph is 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, “the choir sings with great musicality, excellent intonation, clear diction, and a healthy and beautiful pallet of tone colors…” (The Choral Scholar).

Dr. 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 of 2012, she was selected as one of 25 presenters from ten countries to speak at the Lund Choral Festival in Sweden.

Prior to her appointment at Georgia State University, Dr. Joseph served on the faculties at Smith College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Deanna Joseph holds conducting degrees from the Eastman School of Music. She is the founder and co-artistic director of the Atlanta Summer Conducting Institute, a conducting master class that draws conductors from across the country.

Michael Hanawalt is the Director of Graduate Choral Studies at Florida State University, where he conducts the Chamber Choir, teaches graduate courses in conducting and choral literature, and serves as Artistic Director for the Tallahassee Community Chorus. Previous appointments include Director of Choral Activities at Wichita State University, Chorus Director at the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, and Visiting Instructor of Music at St. Olaf College.

Hanawalt is a founding member of the professional male vocal ensemble Cantus, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Throughout his eleven-year tenure with the organization, he recorded twelve CDs, participated in 200 educational outreach events, and performed in or oversaw the booking of over 500 concerts, including collaborations with the King’s Singers, the Boston Pops, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Minnesota Orchestra. He also served for six years as Cantus’ Executive Director, overseeing its growth through organizational management, fundraising, and board development.

Active as a conductor and tenor soloist, Hanawalt has conducted choirs and honor choirs in and from Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, as well as the Czech Republic, Portugal, and Puerto Rico. His choirs have appeared at conventions of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO) and the American Choral Directors Association’s (ACDA) Southern Region. Past solo engagements include the Evangelist in J. S. Bach’s Matthäus-Passion with the Bethany College Messiah Festival of the Arts, as well as tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and in Mozart’s Requiem with the Tarleton State University choirs and orchestra and at Westfield State University in Massachusetts.

Hanawalt’s choral arrangements are published by Boosey & Hawkes, Colla Voce, the Niel. A Kjos Music Company, and Alfred Music. His setting of “Amazing Grace” has been performed at two national conventions of the American Choral Director’s Association, and his arrangement of “Loch Lomond” is featured on the Cantus recording, Let Your Voice Be Heard.

Hanawalt holds the B.M. in Vocal Performance from St. Olaf College, the M.M. in Choral Conducting from Michigan State University, and the PhD in Choral Music Education from Florida State University. He is the recipient of a 2024 award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching from Florida State University and the 2016 Mickey and Pete Armstrong Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Wichita State University College of Fine Arts.