Choral Teachers Workshop: Faculty

Key Personnel

Sharon J. Paul (workshop leader) is professor of music, chair of vocal and choral studies, and director of choral activities at the University of Oregon. She earned her DMA in choral conducting from Stanford University.

Dr. Paul served as artistic director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) and conductor of Chorissima and Virtuose, the organization’s acclaimed performance ensembles, from 1992 to 2000. Under her leadership, the chorus released four compact discs, premiered major works by American composers, and represented the United States at the World Conference of the International Society for Music Education, the Spoleto Festival in Italy, and the Taipei-San Francisco Sister City Celebration in Taiwan.

Dr. Paul has presented interest sessions at regional, state, division, and national music conferences, most recently in Vancouver, BC, Oregon, Washington, California, Iowa, and New York. She appears frequently as adjudicator, clinician, and honor choir director throughout the country, with past engagements in New York, Nevada, California, Oregon, Arizona, Idaho, and Hawaii, and upcoming appearances in Florida, Georgia, and as the ACDA Eastern Division High School Women’s Honor Choir conductor in Philadelphia in 2010. University of Oregon choirs under her direction have performed at MENC state and divisional conferences, and at ACDA Northwestern Division conferences.

Anton Armstrong has been the conductor of the Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy since its founding in 1998. He is Professor of Music at St. Olaf College and conductor of the St. Olaf Choir, a position he assumed in 1990. Dr. Armstrong is widely recognized for his work in the area of youth and children’s choral music. He served for more than twenty years on the summer faculty of the American Boychoir School, Princeton New Jersey. In 2006 he was honored with Baylor University’s Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching.

Helmuth Rilling is the Oregon Bach Festival’s founding artistic director and conductor. In 1981 he founded the International Bachakademie Stuttgart, an institution that further inspired similar Bach academies in Buenos Aires, Prague, Moscow, Taipei, and Tokyo. He has been a guest conductor with most of the world’s major orchestras, including those of Israel, Chicago, Minneapolis, Vienna, Madrid, Caracas, and Berlin. The latest example of his widespread impact on Bach education can be found in the videos of the Digital Bach project.

Therees Tkach Hibbard is a specialist in the approach called “BodySinging,” enhancing choral performance through movement training, which she teaches at the SFYCA. She is a longtime member of the OBF Chorus and is assistant professor of choral music, conducting, and choral literature at the University of Nebraska. Previously she worked for twelve years as a choral conductor, singing tutor, and senior lecturer at several UK colleges and universities in the London area.