Weston H. Noble Award

The Weston H. Noble Award for lifetime achievement in the choral art is presented every two years by the North Central region of the American Choral Directors Association to an outstanding choral conductor within North Central ACDA. The award is presented during each regional conference.

William A. Wyman retired in August 2019, after 44 years as Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Nebraska Wesleyan University.  While there, he conducted the Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir, Chamber Singers, Opera Theater productions and taught the choral conducting curriculum.  He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at Bethany College, West Virginia, and a Master of Music Education and Doctor of Musical Arts degree in voice at West Virginia University.  He also did post-doctoral study at the Ohio State University and Westminster Choir College.  Principal voice teachers include David Lloyd, Thomas Hayward and Jon Crain. His choral conducting mentors include Robert Shaw, Wilhelm Ehmann, Eric Ericson and Paul Salamunovich.  His first performance as a young child was with Benjamin Britten, an experience he credits with inspiring his later career choice. Dr. Wyman taught at Otterbein University Westerville, Ohio, West Virginia University, Bethany College, West Virginia, and North Hills High School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, all prior to coming to Nebraska Wesleyan. 

In 1983, he received an appointment as a Fulbright Scholar in Vocal Music.  He lectured in Seoul, South Korea, at the Seoul National University School of Music and guest lectured at Kwassui Women’s University in Nagasaki, Japan.  Since 1995, Wyman has conducted two concerts in Avery Fisher (now David Geffen) Hall and four concerts in Carnegie Music Hall. Dr. Wyman is a life member of the American Choral Directors Association having served as a National and Divisional Committee Chair, Convention Program Chair and Collegiate Chair for the Nebraska Choral Directors Association. 

In 1996, the Nebraska Choral Directors Association honored Dr. Wyman as the outstanding choral director of the year.  In 1997, he received an Alumni Achievement Award in Music from Bethany College.  In 1999, his Nebraska Wesleyan faculty peers elected him to membership in the scholastic honor society, Phi Kappa Phi.  He was elected to the Nebraska Music Education Hall of Fame in the fall of 2004 and received the City of Lincoln Mayor’s Arts Award for Arts Leadership in June of 2005.

As a part of its fiftieth anniversary celebration, the Nebraska Choral Directors’ Association named him winner of the Cornell Runestad Award in July of 2012 which honors life-long dedication to choral excellence.  In 2014, Nebraska Wesleyan awarded him the Roy H. Story award for national and international promotion of the University. 

Dr. Wyman is active as a clinician and guest conductor.  In 2015, he appeared at the Festival of the Aegean in Greece where he served as Principal Guest Choral Conductor.  He has served as a grants reviewer for the Nebraska Arts Council and the South Dakota Arts Council as well as a contest adjudicator in Ohio, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Oklahoma and Missouri.  In addition to the Nebraska Wesleyan choral ensembles, Dr. Wyman served for 41 years as Director of Music at Saint Paul United Methodist Church in Lincoln and for 25 years as Artistic Director/Conductor of the Lincoln Choral Artists.  He is a Board of Directors member of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Nebraska Auditions Committee and the Lincoln Boys Choir.

Wyman has conducted the Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir frequently on ACDA state convention programs as well as ten regional and national conventions.  The University Choir also appeared frequently on MENC state and regional convention programs as well as programs for regional AGO and OAKE conventions.  The choir has undertaken annual concert tours throughout the US as well as ten international concert tours in South America, east and west Europe, Estonia, Sweden, Russia, east Asia, Great Britain, and Ireland.  Dr. Wyman has prepared choirs for concerts under such notable conductor/composers as Randall Thompson, Aaron Copland, Daniel Pinkham, John Rutter, Jackson Berkey and Robert Muehlhausen in concerts featuring their own compositions.  The choir has performed with distinguished conductors Craig Jessop, Philippe Entremont, Anton Armstrong, Paul Salamunovich, Robert Shaw, Joann Falletta, Lee Nelson, Elmer Thomas, Edward Polochick, Eric Ericson, Sir David Willcocks, Jonathan Willcocks and Thomas Wilkins.

He is married to Tamara Riley Wyman and together they have one daughter, Rylie Kathryn.