A native of Mandan, North Dakota, Tom Porter is a Professor of Music at the University of Mary in Bismarck. In addition, he directs the Bismarck-Mandan Civic Chorus, the Dakota Chamber Chorale, and the Cathedral Children’s Choir. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (2000), and holds degrees from the University of Mary (79), DePaul University, Chicago (MM 80) and the University of Notre Dame, South Bend MA Theology, 86).
An avid composer, Porter has published liturgical works with GIA Publications, Chicago and Concordia Publishing House, Saint Louis, and choral works with Heritage Music Press, Laurel Press, and Roger Dean Publications, divisions of the Lorenz Corporation, and Alliance Music Publications. His has written commissioned works for the San Francisco Girl’s Chorus (“Ten Thousand Miles” and “Cripple Creek”), National Association of Pastoral Musicians, Central Dakota Children’s Choir (“What Color Is the Music” and “Lewis and Clark Suite”), the Bismarck-Mandan Civic Chorus (“Songs of the Prairies”), the North Dakota Music Teachers’ Association (“Prairie Sketches”), Jamestown High School, the Missouri Valley Chamber Orchestra (“Northern Lights”), and the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra. His compositions have been performed on “A Prairie Home Companion” and at Carnegie Hall and concert stages around the world.
In addition to choral music, Porter has been active for many years in musical theater, including productions of Oklahoma!, Fiddler on the Roof, Brigadoon, South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, Into the Woods, Urinetown, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Man of LaMancha, Little Shop of Horrors, and Damn Yankees. He also directed the 2006 Bismarck-Mandan Symphony production of Mozart’s Magic Flute.
Porter is an executive board member of the North Dakota Council on the Arts. He has chaired committees for the National Symphony Orchestra North Dakota Residency and the National Endowment for the Arts “American Masterpieces” project. In 2003 he was recognized as the Outstanding Choral Conductor by North Dakota ACDA. In 2002 Porter was awarded the Crystal Apple Award for excellence in teaching by the Bismarck-Mandan Chamber of Commerce. In 2001 he was selected as a Larry Remele Fellow by the North Dakota Humanities Council, and presented a series of lectures on the adaptation of folk songs to choral music. He has also been recognized with the Faculty Achievement Award from Bismarck State College in 1997 and the Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of Mary in 1989.
Tom and Jenifer (Frank) Porter have five children.
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