CMF is pleased to welcome Walter Graham to our staff to head up our new choral division. Participating choirs will receive a beautiful wall plaque and rating trophy, recorded comments and a full singing clinic from one of our nationally acclaimed adjudicators and clinicians.
Dr. Jerron Jorgensen possesses a resume of diverse musical experiences with professional work as a conductor, soloist, chorister, teacher, and arranger. At present, Dr. Jorgensen serves as Director of Choral Activities at Coker University, where he leads The Coker Singers, Coker Cantilena, and Coker Civic Chorale. He also serves as Music Director at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Hartsville, South Carolina.
Under his direction, The Coker Singers received their first invitation to perform at the South Carolina ACDA conference; recently completed a professional recording project; and were named national semi-finalists in The American Prize in the collegiate choruses division. In May of 2022, Dr. Jorgensen will conduct an ensemble of singers amassed from across the country at Carnegie Hall as a guest conductor with MidAmerica Productions. This concert will feature Adolphus Hailstork's Shout for Joy, Edward Elgar's Give Unto the Lord, and the world premiere of Evan Mack's The Cure at Troy with musicians of the New England Symphonic Ensemble.
On the podium, Dr. Jorgensen specializes in 20th and 21st century works and is active in both choir and opera. He recently conducted the world premiere of Half the World (Dale Trumbore), the SATB premiere of Seven Last Words of the Unarmed (Joel Thompson), and Lucinda y las Flores de la Nochebuena (Evan Mack & Joshua McGuire). Other contemporary highlights include Amahl and the Night Visitors (Menotti) at The Hartt School; and the premieres of Verlorene Heimat (Dawn Sonntag) and The Stranger the Better (Liam Wade) with Hartford Opera Theater.
Dr. Jorgensen has worked as a performer with opera companies, orchestras, and choruses in both the United States and abroad. As a chorister, he has performed with numerous professional choirs, including the GRAMMY®-nominated ensembles True Concord Voices & Orchestra in Tuscon, AZ and the Taylor Festival Choir in Charleston, SC. Professional work as a soloist include performances with Hartford Opera Theater, Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra, Con Brio Choral Society, Torrington Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Civic Chorale & Orchestra, Soli Deo Gloria Orchestra, New Haven Oratorio Choir, Hartt Wind Ensemble, New Haven Chorale, and Madison Lyric Stage, MusicaNova, Scottsdale Musical Arts, Heartland Opera, and Brookings Chamber Music Society.
As an academic, Dr. Jorgensen regularly visits high schools to provide in-class clinics, serves as guest conductor for regional honors festivals, and frequently presents on developing and implementing educational scaffolding techniques in music programs at professional conferences for organizations such as ACDA, NCCO, MTNA, and NOA.
Dr. Jorgensen holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice Performance from The Hartt School, University of Hartford; a Master of Music in Voice Performance from Arizona State University; and a Bachelor of Arts in Voice from South Dakota State University.
Jeffery Redding, the 2019 GRAMMY Music Educator Award Recipient, is the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Central Florida (UCF). Dr. Redding has led his choirs in performances at national, regional, and state conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). His choirs have earned first place awards at Heritage Festivals of Gold in California, Chicago, New York and at the Festival of Spirituals in Washington D.C. While participating in the International Music Festival in Verona, Italy, his chorus from West Orange High School received the Gold Award for best choir, with Dr. Redding honored as top director.
Nationally, Dr. Redding is in demand as a guest conductor and clinician. He has conducted the ACDA National High School Honor Choir, the Central Division ACDA Honor Choir, and the North Central Division ACDA Honor Choir, the Eastern Division ACDA Honor Choir and All-State and Honor choirs in approximately forty states. In 2014, Dr. Redding was the only American adjudicator at the International Choral Festival, Verona, Italy. Additionally, he conducted at the TAISM Festival of Choirs in Muscat, Oman. He was the Artistic Director for Limerick Sings International Choral Festival in Limerick, Ireland in 2018. In 2019, he conducted the Alaska All-State Treble Choir, the NAfME Central Regional Elementary Honor Choir, the Morehead State University Honor Choir, and the Honors Young Adults Choir, at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia.
Previously Director of Choral Activities at West Orange High School in Winter Garden, Florida and West Virginia University (WVU), Dr. Redding has been featured as guest conductor at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Kennedy Center, and Orchestra Hall on numerous occasions. He was also honored to give the prestigious TEDx Talk. He is also one of the conductors for Walt Disney World's Candlelight Processional at Epcot.
Recognized for his achievements and service in the profession, Dr. Redding was awarded the R. Wayne Hugoboom Distinguished Service Award for dedicated service, leadership, and excellence by the Florida Chapter of ACDA.
Dr. Redding is founder and Artistic Director of the Garden Community Choir and Voci del Cuore (Voices of the Heart) in Winter Garden, Florida. Dr. Redding is also the Executive & Artistic Director of the Orlando Choral Society, founded in 2019. He also serves as the Director of Worship Arts for Tuskawilla United Methodist Church. Formerly with the Moses Hogan Singers, he remains active as a singer in the professional male singing group, "Brethren." The Jeffery Redding Passion and Purpose Choral Series is a compilation of new choral music by various composers, published by Colla Voce Music, Inc. Dr. Redding also have a Choral Series with Walton Music.
Dr. Redding holds a Ph.D. in Choral Conducting/Music Education and a Master of Music Education, both from the Florida State University, and a B.S. in Music Education from Florida A&M University. He is a member of ACDA, NAfME, FVA, NATS, and Chorus America. He has served his profession in numerous capacities, as District 8 Chair for the Florida Vocal Association (FVA), as State R&R Chair for Ethnic Music/Multicultural Affairs, R&R Chair for Youth/Student Activities, and High School Mixed Honor Choir co-chair for Florida ACDA, and as R&R Chair for Community Choirs for Southern Division ACDA. Currently, he is R&R Lifelong Coordinator (Community, Music and Worship) for Florida ACDA.
Dr. Shannon Jeffreys is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia. Her focus is the Southern Chorale, teaching in the undergraduate and graduate conducting and music education curriculums, along with directing Southern Gentlemen. Dr. Jeffreys has led these choirs in five international choral competitions and two national competitions where the choirs won significant awards. In 2019, she received the Conductor's Award from the Ave Verum International Choral Competition in Baden, Austria. Choirs under her direction have also been featured at multiple state and national conferences, most recently performing at the National Collegiate Choral Organization's National Conference.
Dr. Jeffreys maintains an active schedule as a presenter, adjudicator, lecturer and guest conductor from secondary to collegiate institutions throughout the United States and serves as an international choral adjudicator with Meeting Music. She serves on the Artistic Committee for Music for All National Choral Festival and recently published in ACDA's ChorTeach. In 2015, she launched the first Southern Invitational High School Choral Competition that is now the first regional choral festival affiliate for Music for All National Choir Festival presented by Yamaha.
Before coming to Georgia Southern, Jeffreys served as Director of Vocal Studies at Erskine College and Theological Seminary. She holds degrees in music performance and conducting from Birmingham Southern College, the University of Mississippi, and the University of South Carolina.
Jabarie Glass is an assistant professor and the associate director of choral studies in the School of Music at the University of South Carolina. At UofSC, he conducts two choral ensembles, University Chorus and Women's Chorus, and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in conducting and music education. His varied conducting experiences have included working with university, secondary, community youth, festival, and church ensembles.
Recent engagements include a collaboration with African American song literature scholar Louise Toppin, in which he conducted the 2019 University of Michigan premiere of William Grant Still's opera, Highway 1, USA. Most recently, Glass conducted Jeffrey Scott's A Pioneer's Opus, a chamber work commissioned by the UofSC woodwind faculty to commemorate Richard T. Greener's legacy as the University's first Black professor and the first Black graduate of Harvard College.
Glass's scholarship focuses on conducting pedagogy, choral pedagogy, and music literacy. He has given guest lectures and presentations on these topics with university choral programs, at professional development workshops, and at conferences of the American Choral Directors Association. His article on the intersection of literature selection and choral pedagogy was recently published in the February 2021 issue of the Choral Journal.
For nine years, Glass was the director of choirs at Southaven High School and Southaven Middle School. During his tenure, the Southaven High School Chamber Singers received numerous awards and honors, most notably giving invitational performances at the American Choral Directors Association Southern Division Conference and the Mississippi-ACDA State Conference. He was also the founding conductor of CoroFuente, the tenor-bass chorus of CoroRio, a community youth and adult choral organization for which he currently serves on the board of directors. As a proponent for access to quality musical education, Glass is passionate about sharing the knowledge gained from these experiences with current and future choral practitioners. Furthermore, he continues to invest in the musical growth of young choral musicians through clinics with secondary choral programs and conducting honor choruses.
A native Mississippian, Glass earned a bachelor's degree in music education from the University of Mississippi. There he was named the Department of Music's Undergraduate Choral Music Education Student of the Year. In the same year, he was inducted into the University's Student Hall of Fame, a university-wide honor bestowed upon only ten seniors annually based on leadership, scholarship, service, and potential for success after graduation. Glass went on to earn a master's degree in music education from the Florida State University College of Music. He earned a doctoral degree in conducting from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Glass pursued additional conducting studies as a conducting fellow with the Chorus America Conducting Academy and the Yale-Norfolk Chamber Music Festival Choral Conducting Workshop.