Will Kesling

Music Director and Conductor of the Master Chorale

Dr. Will Kesling has conducted hundreds of choral ensembles and some forty professional symphony orchestras throughout the world. His talents for weaving together text and music, chorus and orchestra have garnered him international respect. A Washington Post concert review sums his abilities in two words, "clear professionalism." A New York Daily News reviewer calls "Will Kesling's conducting truly inspired and impeccably paced." Dr. Kesling has conducted a number of engagements in Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as in major concert halls internationally. He served as the Associate Conductor of the Manhattan Philharmonic Orchestra, New York City, as the Principal Guest Conductor of the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, Russia, and was the Music Director and Conductor of the Mountain West Symphony Orchestra, Utah for 18 years.

Since his debut in 1991, Dr. Kesling has become one of the Soviet Union's (now Russia) most popular American guest conductors. He has returned to conduct nine of the country's top orchestras: Moscow State Academic Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Moscow State Chamber Orchestra, St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Petersburg Radio & Television, St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra Classika, St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra Congress, and St. Petersburg Mozarteum Chamber Orchestra. One of the highlights of his career came in 1992 when he conducted the Moscow State Chamber Orchestra and Bolshoi Opera Chorus in the first professionally produced performance of Handel's Messiah since the institution of Communism.

Dr. Kesling has also conducted professional concerts in Brazil (Orquesta Sinfonica Brasiliera), Canada (Vancouver and Victoria Symphonies), the Czech Republic (Czech National Orchestra, National Theater Orchestra of Prague, Brno Philharmonic, Bohuslav Martinu Symphony Orchestra, Czech Virtuosi), Hungary (Budapest Chamber Orchestra), Keyna (Nairobi Symphony Orchestra), Korea (Chanwon Philharmonic), Mexico (Orquestra Sinfonica Naçional), Uruguay (Orquestra Sinfonica del SODRE), Poland, and several sold out performances at the Festival Internaçional de Música in Cambrils, Spain

Professor Kesling is featured annually as conductor for the Mezinárodní Hudební Musica Ecumenica in Prague, Czech Republic. In June 2002 Maestro Kesling opened this international festival with a performance of the Verdi's Requiem and closed the festival with the Dvo?ák's Te Deum and Orff's Carmina Burana, both concerts in Smetana Hall with the National Theater Orchestra of Prague and Czech Philharmonic Chorus. On this same series in 2003 he conducted the Verdi Hymn of Nations and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Czech National Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic Chorus. During the summer of 2004 Kesling celebrated the centennial of Dvo?ák's death leading a rare performance of the composer's Requiem in Prague.

Maestro Kesling is making his mark in Canada as well. He made his debut with the Victoria Symphony in April 2005 and has eight appearances with the Vancouver Symphony.

Domestic orchestras conducted are the Honolulu and San Diego Symphonies, the Louisiana Philharmonic in New Orleans and the Connecticut and National Chamber Orchestras, to name a few. He has also guest-conducted the world famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir on a national CBS broadcast. He has several commercial recordings available on both the Integra Classics and Shadow Mountain labels, and conducted the feature film scores, The Silence of Speed and The Two Sisters.

Dr. Kesling is the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Florida. Before this current position, he served eighteen-years as Director of Choral and Orchestral Studies at Utah State University. There his choirs received international attention and made multiple appearances at both national and divisional conventions for the American Choral Directors Association. In March 2002, his Chamber Choir appeared before the combined Western and Northwestern Division Convention of the College Band Directors Association. That same month, the Utah State University Combined Choirs were featured in the Opening Ceremonies of the Paralympics on NBC.

In fours years at the University of Florida, his choirs have appeared with the Kronos String Quartet, the Three Italian Tenors, and the Posaune Voce Trio of Birmingham, England and made a first ever American Choral Directors Association convention appearance.

On September 11, 2004 Maestro Kesling made his debut with the National Philharmonic in Constitution Hall, Washington, DC premiering the new Revolutionary War oratorio, A Prelude to Glory. In June 2005 in Prague Dr. Kesling conducted the Czech National Orchestra Choir Respighi's Pines of Rome and Carmina Burana, joined by the Prague Chamber Choir.

In recognition of these achievements Dr. Kesling was awarded The Congressional Order of Merit by the Congress of the United States of America in September 2003 and the Ronald Regan Gold Medal in November 2004. In March 2006, Professor Kesling was awarded the Congressional Medal of Distinction for his contributions to the cultural life of the citizenry.

Phillip J. Klepacki

Associate Conductor

Phillip 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.