The SUNY Fredonia School of Music will present the fourth annual SUNY Fredonia Choral Festival with guest clinician Prof. William Hatcher, director of choral studies emeritus University of Iowa. The festival includes rehearsals and workshops with students; the public is invited to attend two of the festival events.

On Friday at noon, there is a lecture/panel discussion on the topic of “The changing face of choral music education in America: Is there a place for me?” This event will be held in Rosch Recital Hall and is free and open to the public.

On Saturday at 4 p.m. the festival concert features the Fredonia Women’s Choir, the Fredonia College Choir and the Fredonia Chamber Choir, plus a combined piece under the direction of Professor Hatcher. These advanced choirs will perform varied repertoire with compositions by Karl Jenkins, George Mabry, Francis Poulenc, Eric Whitacre, Johannes Brahms and many more. Tickets are required for this concert ($10 public/ free for students with ID). Tickets may be purchased in advance or at the door; tickets by phone at 673-3501 or online fredonia.edu/tickets.

Prof. William Hatcher is the director of choral studies emeritus at the University of Iowa. Past positions include director of choral activities at UCLA, California State University Los Angeles and the University of Washington. Through his 43 year career teaching and conducting in secondary school through top national programs he has served as National President of the American Choral Directors Association from 1991 to 1993 and Chair of the ACDA Endowment Trust. In 1996. He received the Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and in 2000, he was the recipient of the Howard Swan Award for lifetime achievement by the California ACDA. In 2006 received the Weston Noble Award for Lifetime Achievement by the North Central ACDA. In 2010 he was the Convention Honoree of the ACDA Western Division.

Hatcher’s choral ensembles have been internationally honored through concert tours and choral festivals to over twenty countries. His ensembles have been chosen to perform numerous times for regional and national ACDA Conventions. Mr. Hatcher was also the Coordinator and Associate Director of the 1,000 voice Olympic Honor Choir which sang for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Olympiad in Los Angeles, which was telecast to over two billion people around the world. He also served as Minister of Music for many years in various churches in Southern California.

Since retiring he has had guest residencies at the University of Miami, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, the University of Illinois, Oklahoma City University, and served as an adjudicator and clinician for the three-week Hong Kong Music Festival, which included almost 900 choirs. In 2010, he conducted the Arizona Collegiate Honor Choir at the ACDA Western Division Convention.