I attended Wingate University in WIngate, North Carolina, just outside of Charlotte.  Kenney Potter, the Director of Choral Activities there, is a big proponent of modern repertoire balanced against works of other periods.  It's a small, private university with a great choral program and LOTS of scholarship money available.  www.wingate.edu

Hi, Kaija!  The answer to your question is going to depend entirely on the specific choral conductor(s) at specific schools.  As a broad generalization, older conductors will tend to program more traditional music, while younger conductors (who are recently out of grad school and up to date on contemporary composers) will be more eclectic in their programming.  But even young conductors may feel that you NEED to be thoroughly grounded in traditional literature, at least at the Freshman level.

 

At a school with a large choral program, you're likely to find that some conductors do a lot more contemporary music than others.  That was certainly the case at Indiana in the '70s, where there was an entire Choral Department with half a dozen faculty, that assigned some 800 singers (including keyboardists who had an ensemble requirement) every semester to a wide variety of choirs.  Medium sized departments may have one conductor with a few different ensembles, and a very small department may have a single choral ensemble.  I'm not saying any of these situations are better or worse, just that they are different.

 

But it still comes down to the taste of individual conductors, so that's what you need to research.

 

All the best,

 

John

 

 

Hi, Kaija.  In my opinion, the university you choose to attend should depend largely on who you'd like to study under.  Have you met the professors for your area fo study at the universities you are considering?  That said, all good university ensembles (non-specialized) should expose you to a variety of literature from all periods and a variety of prominent composers.  I program quite a variety of pieces for performance here at Georgia State University and I would welcome you to take a closer look.  I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.  Best wishes on your search.

 

Dr. Jeff Wall

Director of Choral Activities

Georgia State University

musjbw(a)langate.gsu.edu

www.music.gsu.edu

For imaginative programming it would be hard to beat Guy Webb at Missouri State in Springfield, MO.  It would be great to work with Philip Copeland at University of Alabama at Birmington as well.