Album Notes

University Singers Description

The University Singers, founded in 1948 by Dr. Wiley Housewright, is the premier undergraduate auditioned choir at Florida State University. The choir is composed of undergraduate students including those majoring in music and the other degree programs offered by the many academic units making up The Florida State University. During its rich history, University Singers has performed with such remarkable musicians as Kristof Penderecki (2004), Bobby McFerrin (2004), Sir David Willcocks (2002), Aaron Copland, Norman Dello Joio, Billy Taylor, and the esteemed Atlanta Symphony Conductor Robert Shaw, who continued to conduct concerts with the University Singers into his eighties. Additionally, University Singers has frequently performed at national and regional conventions of the Music Educators National Conference and the American Choral Directors Association, including their 2007 performance at the national convention of ACDA in Miami. During the summer of 2007, members of University Singers will be performing for the National Association of Choral Directors of China in Beijing.

Throughout the over fifty-eight year history, several distinguished conductors have led the University Singers, including Walter James, Joseph Flummerfelt, Clayton Krehbiel and André Thomas. Today, the traditions established by these outstanding conductors have been passed to the current conductor, Kevin Fenton.

Kevin Fenton is associate professor in choral conducting and ensembles at Florida State University. He holds the Ph.D. from Florida State University, the M.M. from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and the B.M.E. from Friends University in Wichita, Kansas.

His prior appointments include Director of Choral Activities at James Madison University and Virginia Tech, as well as the Topeka High School. On nine occasions, he has conducted ensembles in performances for state, regional and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and the Music Educator’s National Conference. As a result of his positive approach to choral conducting, Dr. Fenton has served as a clinician for numerous workshops, honor choirs and clinics in twenty-five states throughout the country, including guest conducting all-state honor choirs in Oklahoma, West Virginia, and South Carolina in 2007. Kevin has authored articles appearing in the Choral Journal, the Music Educators Journal, and the Bulletin for Historical Research in Music Education, and is a recipient of the Gamma Mu Chapter of Delta Omicron Music Professor of the Year Award.

Dr. Fenton has been National Chair of the ACDA College/University Repertoire and Standards Committee since 2003.