Connecticut Choral Artists (CONCORA) announces the appointment of Christopher Shepard as its second artistic director, succeeding artistic director emeritus Richard Coffey, who founded the ensemble as the region’s first all-professional choir in 1974. The ensemble has been led by guest conductors throughout its 2014–15 season, as a two-year nationwide search for a new leader was concluded. During this season, three finalists led the ensemble in concerts as guest conductors. Dr. Shepard will begin his duties with the 2015–16 season.
Christopher Shepard founded the Sydneian Bach Choir and Orchestra in Sydney, Australia, where he was music director of Bach 2010, a project to perform all of Johann Sebastian Bach’s choral works. Since returning to the United States in 2008, he has served as music director of the Dessoff Choirs in New York City and the Worcester Chorus in Worcester, Massachusetts. Shepard was guest choral conductor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester from 2011 to 2013, director of music for the Sydney Grammar School (1996–2008), and leader of the choral program for the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut. Since 2004, he has been music director of the Hotchkiss Summer Portals Chamber Music Program. He earned the Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Sydney, as well as degrees from the Hartt School, Hartford, Connecticut, and the Yale University Institute of Sacred Music, where he studied choral conducting with Marguerite Brooks. For more information, visit www.concora.org.
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