Dale Warland (born April 14, 1932, Fort Dodge, Iowa) is an American conductor, composer, founder of the Grammy-nominated Dale Warland Singers, scholar, teacher, choral consultant, and renowned champion of contemporary choral composers. Warland is one of only two choral conductors (along with Robert Shaw (conductor)) inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.
Weston H. Noble (November 30, 1922 – December 21, 2016) was an American music educator and conductor.
The Ervin and Phyllis Johnson Professor of Music Emeritus at Luther College since 2005, he was best known for his 57-year tenure on the faculty as conductor of the Nordic Choir from 1948 to 2005 and the Luther College Concert Band from 1948 to 1973. He served as guest director for over 800 music festivals in all three media, choral, orchestral and wind, spanning four continents.
Following retirement from Luther in 2005, he engaged in a series of guest professorships at sister Lutheran colleges in the Midwest: artist-in-residence at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he taught in the music department and conducted the Carthage Choir; visiting professor and interim conductor of the Wartburg Choir at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa; and guest conductor of the Augustana Choir at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Donald George Johanos (February 10, 1928 – May 29, 2007) was a conductor and music director with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. He was recognized for his support of contemporary classical music. He performed or conducted on at least 16 recordings.
Max Goberman (8 February 1911 – 31 December 1962) was an American conductor. He conducted ballets, Broadway musicals (including the original productions of Leonard Bernstein's On the Town and West Side Story), and the classical repertoire. He was working on the first recording of the complete symphonies of Joseph Haydn, but died while slightly less than halfway through the project.
Joseph Flummerfelt (February 24, 1937 – March 1, 2019) was an American conductor. He taught at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey for three decades. He was a co-founder of the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina in 1977, and its director of choral activities from 1977 to 2013. He was also the chorus master of the Festival dei Due Mondi in Italy from 1971 to 1993. According to The New York Times, he "played an outsize, if not always highly visible, role in American classical music."
Vance George (born 1933) is an American choral conductor from Nappanee, Indiana.A protégé of Margaret Hillis, Vance George served as choral director of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus for 23 years (1983–2006).As guest conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, he led performances of Bach's Mass in B Minor, St Matthew Passion, and St John Passion.
Under his leadership, the Chorus won four Grammy Awards, including Best Choral Album (for Brahms' A German Requiem and Orff's Carmina Burana) and Classical Album of the Year. The SFS Chorus was also nominated for a fifth Grammy (Best Crossover Recording, Christmas by the Bay).
The SFS Chorus won its first Emmy Award under George for the 2001 concert production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd (broadcast on KQED).
Vance George graduated from Goshen College and Indiana University, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1997 by Kent State University. In 1999, Chorus America presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. He was inducted as a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity on April 3, 2008.
Paul William Whear (November 13, 1925 – March 25, 2021) was an American composer, conductor, music educator, and double-bassist.
Richard John Dufallo (30 January 1933 in Whiting, Indiana – 16 June 2000 in Denton, Texas) was an American clarinetist, author, and conductor with a broad repertory. He is most known for his interpretations of contemporary music. During the 1970s, he directed contemporary music series at both Juilliard and the Aspen Music Festival, where he succeeded Darius Milhaud as artistic director of the Conference on Contemporary Music. He was influential at getting American works accepted in Europe, and gave the first European performances of works by Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, Jacob Druckman, and Elliott Carter as well as younger composers like Robert Beaser. Dufallo, as conductor, also premiered numerous works by European composers, including Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, and Krzystof Penderecki. He was a former assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and worked closely with Leonard Bernstein from 1965 to 1975. He also served as associate conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic.
David Katz (June 28, 1924 – 1987) was an American conductor who founded the Queens Symphony Orchestra (QSO) in 1953, which he conducted until he died of cancer in 1987.
Thomas Avinger (Weslaco, Texas, September 28, 1928 – Houston, Texas, November 18, 2000) was an American composer, conductor and systems analyst for the oil industry.