Susquehanna Chorale Director Linda Tedford Receives Elaine Brown Award for Outstanding Lifelong Work

New Announcement

Susquehanna Chorale Director Linda Tedford Receives Elaine Brown Award for Outstanding Lifelong Work

Date: September 12, 2011

by Stephen Schaeffer

Views: 4681

Choir type: Community Choirs

Voicing: Mixed

Nationally recognized choral conductor Linda L. Tedford was honored in August with the 2011 Elaine Brown Award, presented by the American Choral Directors Association of Pennsylvania at their summer conference in State College, Pa. Tedford is Founder, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Susquehanna Chorale, a chamber-ensemble based in Hershey, Pa., and Director of Choral Activities at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa.

First presented in 1998, the award is named for the late Elaine Brown, the Founder and Conductor of Singing City in Philadelphia, Pa., and is given each year to one individual for outstanding lifelong work and leadership in the choral art in Pennsylvania. Past recipients include two-time Grammy Award winner Robert Page, also a longtime mentor of Tedford’s, and the late TV and radio personality Fred Waring.

In 1981, when Tedford founded the Susquehanna Chorale, she quickly emerged as one of the nation’s outstanding professional choral conductors, heralded throughout the country by critics, audiences, collaborating artists and choral-art organizations for her musical

interpretations, varied repertoire selections, charisma and stage presence. In 1994, Tedford began her current role at Messiah College, where she conducts the Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, Men’s Ensemble and Choral Arts Society. And in 1988, Tedford originated the Susquehanna Chorale’s educational outreach initiative to pass to the next generation an appreciation and passion for the highest quality choral music and performance. The program includes youth, children’s, young women’s and preparatory choirs, which involve hundreds of student singers annually in central Pennsylvania. With her various choirs, Tedford has commissioned 16 new works, performed several East Coast premieres and produced over 14 CDs, including two new CDs to be released this fall.

Tedford’s choirs have performed throughout the United States and Europe, including at the Washington National Cathedral; The Leonard Stanley Music Festival in England; national, regional and state conventions of the American Choral Directors Association; for the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association and for Pennsylvania’s Governor and House of Representatives. In addition, her choirs perform regularly with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra.

In 1994, Tedford and the Susquehanna Chorale received Chorus America’s highest lifetime honor, the Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence. The Chorale was the first all-volunteer choir to receive this award, presented annually to an ensemble that demonstrates artistic excellence, a sound organizational structure and a commitment to outreach. Then, in 2009, the Chorale became the second ensemble-in-residence (after the Mendelssohn Trio) at Messiah College, where Tedford, as Artist-in-Residence and Director of Choral Activities, teaches graduate and undergraduate conducting courses and private lessons in conducting and voice. Tedford’s courses include opportunities for conducting students to complete internships with the Susquehanna Children’s and Youth Chorales.

As a member of the American Choral Directors Association and of Chorus America, Tedford often serves as a guest conductor and presents workshops on topics such as developing a choir from the beginning, vocal and choral techniques, gesture, and stage presence.

Tedford holds a master’s degree in music from Temple University, where she studied with renowned choral conductor and fellow Brown Award recipient Robert Page; she has also studied at Westminster Choir College and with prominent conductors such as the late, legendary Robert Shaw and celebrated choral-art musician Dale Warland.