Drew Collins is the newly-appointed Artistic Director of the Festival Choir.

Mr. Collins began his music career teaching in the public schools, and continues this interest in education as a festival clinician for singers of all ages.  He has served as Music and Artistic Director for Tempus (Boston), Choir of the Lakes (Minneapolis), and Trinity Concert Singers (Boston) and as assistant conductor for Elgin Choral Union, Trinity Choir, Boston University Choral Society, and Handel Oratorio Society.  He has conducted performance tours with choirs in the U.S. and Europe, appeared at the AMC Mountains & Music Weekend, and recently enjoyed his Carnegie Hall debut.

An advocate for living composers, he edits the Drew Collins Choral Collection, a series of innovative choral scores published by Curtis Music Press.  He was a staff conductor at the prestigious MusicX new music festival, where he worked with Michael Torke.  Mr. Collins is himself a published composer, with works in the catalogs of several publishing houses.

Collins's degree work includes studies at Concordia College with René Clausen, Boston University with Ann Howard Jones, and University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he is pursuing a doctorate in choral conducting.  In 2003, he was named a fellow for Chorus America's inaugural A Cappella Conducting Workshop, where he studied with Charles Bruffy, Alan Harler, and Dale Warland.  He has also appeared in master classes with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, Eric Whitacre, and Stephen Darlington.

He is also Associate Director of Choral Studies and Music Education at Wright State University (Dayton, OH), Senior Choral Editor of the Neil A. Kjos Music Co., and repertoire forum editor of Choral Director magazine.

John Wack has been a professional Music Minister in churches in California and Colorado for the past 29 years and is currently in his ninth year as Music Minister at Faith Community Church of Fort Atkinson, WI.  He received his BA in voice from Corban College (Salem, OR) and his MA in Voice and Choral Conducting from San Jose State University in San Jose, CA where he studied conducting with Dr. Charlene Archibeque.  He has done doctoral work at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he studied conducting with Drs. Linn Whitten and Lawrence Kaptein and vocal pedagogy with Barbara Doscher.

John is in his ninth season with the Festival Choir as bass section leader and soloist.  Before coming to Wisconsin he was a principal soloist and assistant conductor with the Colorado Chorale of Denver and the San Jose State Alumni Chorale.  While at the University of Colorado he was baritone soloist in Stravinsky’s Les Noce.  He performed with the San Jose Symphony Chorus for eleven years and has been soloist with the Sinfonia Orchestra of San Francisco, the Littleton (Colorado) Orchestra, and in the Vail Summer Music Festival production of Turandot with the Rochester (NY) Philharmonic.  John counts it a privilege to be able to work with such a talented group of musicians as the Festival Choir.

Paul Carey studied composition with Alfred Blatter and Ben Johnston at the University of Illinois. Mr. Carey's graduate studies were at Yale University.

Mr. Carey’s compositions have been performed by choirs worldwide and at ACDA, MENC, OAKE, and AGO conventions across America. His Rise Up, Emma Lazarus was the winner of The New York Treble Singers 2003 composition competition Esta Tarde, mi bien (This Evening, my love) was the winner of the Cambridge Madrigal Singers Competition in 2004.

Mr. Carey's music is published by Oxford University Press, Walton, Roger Dean, Santa Barbara, and Kjos. His music is also available directly at www.paulcarey.net.

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