Dr. Zack Durlam serves as Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, artistic director of the Master Singers of Milwaukee, and choir director at Grace Lutheran Church in Grafton, Wisconsin. At UWM, Durlam leads multiple choirs and teaches graduate and undergraduate conducting and choral literature. He previously taught at Fresno Pacific University where his Concert Choir performed at the California Music Educators Association Conference and he was awarded the university’s Faculty Distinguished Service Award.  Prior to that, Durlam taught high school vocal music for twelve years – including nine at Iowa City West where his Chamber Choir was chosen to perform at the North Central American Choral Directors Association (NCACDA) conference and the music department was one of seven programs in the nation named a Gold Signature School by the Grammy Foundation. Durlam was awarded 3^rd place in the college/university division of the 2019 American Prize for Choral Conducting, and the UWM Concert Chorale and UWM combined choirs and orchestra were named national finalists in the same competition. The UWM Concert Chorale under his direction has been featured at the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association (WCDA) and Wisconsin Music Educators Association state conferences and the 2020 ten-state Midwestern ACDA conference. In fall of 2021 they performed with Andrea Bocelli during the Milwaukee stop of his “Believe” tour, and in 2015 they performed with the Rolling Stones at Milwaukee’s Summerfest. Durlam has presented at state and regional conferences of ACDA and the National Association for Music Educators, and he frequently works as a guest conductor, clinician, and presenter. Durlam currently serves as past president of WCDA and president-elect of MWACDA.

Dr. Derrick Fox is the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Creative Endeavors and a Professor of Choral Conducting at Michigan State University. Prior to MSU, he was the Director of Choral Activities and Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Assistant Professor of Choral Music at Ithaca College.  Dr. Fox has taught at the middle school, high school and collegiate levels. His conducting experiences have included singers from upper elementary choirs through collegiate and community choirs. He was awarded the 2021 Bryan R. Johnson Service Award by the Nebraska Music Educators Association and the 2022 University of Nebraska Omaha Award for Distinguished Research/Creative Activity.

Dr. Fox has conducted all state and regional choirs across the United States, led international, national and regional choral concerts/residencies and presented professional development workshops across the United States and internationally. His professional workshops focus on assessment in the choral classroom, building classroom community, rehearsal strategies, choral conducting techniques and shape note singing in the African American community. Dr. Fox conducted the 2019 National ACDA Middle School/Junior High Mixed Honor Choir and traveled to South Africa as a 2019 ACDA International Conductor Exchange Fellow where he led choral workshops and rehearsals in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Potchefstroom.

As a baritone soloist, Dr. Fox has collaborated with various organizations; among them are the Arkansas Symphony, Lansing Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Columbia Chorale, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha Symphonic Chorus, University of Missouri, Michigan State University, Webster University and the Espaço Cultural (Brasilia, Brazil). He can be heard singing selections from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess on the compact disc In This Hid Clearing, available on the Naxos Classical Music label. He most recently the baritone soloist in Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony with the Michigan State University Symphonic Orchestra and Choral Union.

As an author, Dr. Fox has written articles for many organizations and his compositions and arrangements are published by Hal Leonard, Music Spoke and Brilee Music. His book, Yes You Can: A Band Director’s Guide to Teaching Choirs is published by Carl Fischer. He launched The Derrick Fox Choral Series with Music Spoke to publish works by and about marginalized and minoritized people. He has cultivated educational partnerships many musical organizations, among them Hal Leonard, Sounding Spirit and the Country Music Association Foundation. He is the writer and host of the radio show Reflections of Us, a show focused on amplifying diverse voice in the classical music. Dr. Fox currently serves as President of the Midwestern Region of the American Choral Directors Association. https://www.drderrickfox.com/

 

David Puderbaugh is Assistant Director of Choral Activities at the University of Iowa, where he conducts University Choir, teaches graduate choral literature and undergraduate choral conducting, and advises D.M.A. theses. He is also Associate Director of the School of Music, overseeing the graduate program.  A native Iowan, Dr. Puderbaugh holds a music education degree from Drake University and graduate degrees in choral conducting from the University of Missouri and the University of Iowa. His teachers include Timothy Stalter, David Rayl, and Aimee Beckmann-Collier. Dr. Puderbaugh also is Music Director of Chamber Singers of Iowa City, an ensemble that focuses on major choral works such as Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s The Seasons, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil, as well as a Carnegie Hall performance of Haydn’s Missa Cellensis.

Beyond the university, Dr. Puderbaugh’s research interest centers on Estonian choral music, which began with a Fulbright Fellowship to study that country’s national song festivals during the Soviet occupation. He conducted the Estonian chamber choir Voces Musicales (now Voces Tallinn) in the album A Black Birch in Winter: American and Estonian Choral Music (MSR Classics, 2019), awarded 2019 Recording of the Year by the Estonian Choral Association. In July 2023, he and Voces Tallinn will be headline performers at the College Music Society’s international conference in the Baltics. Dr. Puderbaugh is president of Midwestern ACDA, and has served on the editorial board of ACDA’s Choral Journal.  He is an active tenor soloist; recent credits include Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s The Creation, Mozart’s C-Minor Mass, and the Evangelist role in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Schütz’s St. John Passion.