About Our Conductors
Will Kesling
Music Director and Conductor of the Master ChoraleThe Gainesville Civic Chorus is enjoying the 2005-2006 Season under the baton of Dr. Will Kesling. Dr. Kesling came to the University of Florida after nineteen-years at Utah State University and is in his fifth year as Director of Choral Activities at UF. Dr. Kesling has conducted hundreds of choral ensembles and over 50 professional symphony orchestras throughout the world. His talent for weaving together words and music, chorus and orchestra have garnered him international respect. Dr. Kesling has conducted a number of engagements in Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as well as major concert halls in more than twenty countries. In March 2002, Dr. Kesling's Utah State University Combined Choirs were featured in the Opening Ceremonies of the Paralympics on NBC. His choirs have received national and international attention and frequent invitations to perform for the American Choral Directors Association at national conventions. For the past four years, he has been a featured conductor for the Mezinárodní Hudební Musica Ecumenica in Prague, Czech Republic. In September 2003, Dr. Kesling was awarded The Congressional Order of Merit by the Congress of the United States of America. Dr. Kesling guest conducted the GCC's fall concert in November 2003 and was guest conductor for the Willis Bodine Chorale during the 2003-2004 Season. With the experience Dr. Kesling brings to the Civic Chorus, we can expect some great music in the coming seasons. Phillip J. KlepackiAssociate ConductorPhillip J. Klepacki, a native of McHenry, Illinois, is associate conductor of the Gainesville Civic Chorus and director of the Choristers, the GCC's chamber choir. A graduate student at the University of Florida, he is pursuing a Ph.D. in Historical Musciology under the supervision of Dr. David Z. Kushner, and was honored with the prestigious University of Florida Alumni Fellowship. Mr. Klepacki recently earned the Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Florida, and continues his study of conducting with Dr. Will Kesling. He also holds the Bachelor of Arts in Music with an emphasis in Choral Music Education from the Florida State University. While there, he studied voice with Barbara Ford and David Wingate, conducting with Dr. André Thomas and Dr. Judy Bowers, and was consistently active in both choral and instrumental ensembles. Before coming to the University of Florida, Mr. Klepacki worked as Music/Vocal Director and principal pianist on a number of musical theatre productions with the Gainesville Community Playhouse and Stagedoor Theater Arts Resource (STAR) Center. In 2001, he received the Gainesville Community Playhouse "Golden Apple" award for Outstanding Musical Direction for Once on This Island. In addition to his graduate studies, Mr. Klepacki is the interim choral director at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church of Gainesville. He is an alumni member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and Tau Beta Sigma, and a member of the Conductors Guild, the American Choral Directors Association, and the American Musicological Society. |
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