DAVID RAYL
D.M.A.
Michigan State University
David Rayl is professor of music, director of choral programs, and associate dean for graduate studies and research at the Michigan State University College of Music. Under his baton the University Chorale has appeared at the national convention of the American Choral Directors Association (2007), the Central Division convention of ACDA (2006), and the national meeting of the College Music Society (2002). He has also prepared the Chorale for five sets of performances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Prior to joining MSU in 2002, he held the same position at the University of Missouri-Columbia for 12 years. He conducted the University Singers and Choral Union and taught in the undergraduate and graduate conducting programs. Under his direction, the University Singers sang at the national convention of the American Choral Directors Association (1995), at the 27th annual Florilège Vocale in Tours, France, (1998), and at Maggio Musicale in Florence, Italy, (2000).
Rayl has appeared as guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator throughout the United States. He has led all-state choirs in Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Mississippi. He has presented or conducted workshops at the national conferences of MENC, NATS, and MTNA, the North Central Division Convention of ACDA, and the Iowa, Mississippi, Massachusetts, Missouri, and Wisconsin Choral Directors Associations.
His international engagements include the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria; the V Festival di Musica Antica in Urbino, Italy; the VII Festival Internaçional de Música de Camera do Pará, in Belem, Brazil; the II Festival de Corais in Brasilia, Brazil; the Painel Unicanto de Regencia Coral in Londrina, Brazil; and the Classical Music Festival in Montreal and Quebec City, Canada.
Several of Rayl’s articles and reviews have appeared in the Choral Journal, The Journal of the Conductors’ Guild, and Fontes Artes Musicae. His editions of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Nine Settings of the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary were published by A-R Editions of Madison, Wisconsin.
Rayl has also taught at Marymount College in Salina, Kansas, and St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. He is the former music director of the Chamber Singers of Iowa City (1985-1990) and the Quad City Mozart Festival (1987-97). He received particular notice for his performances of the choral, operatic, and orchestral repertoire of the 18th century, especially the works of Bach and Mozart.
In 1993, Rayl received the Provost’s Outstanding Junior Faculty award, recognizing teaching excellence among young faculty members at the University of Missouri-Columbia. In April 1996, he was named one of 10 recipients of the William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence. In 2009 he was one of the first recipients of the MSU College of Music’s Dortha J. and John D. Withrow Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Rayl holds a B.M. in voice from Illinois Wesleyan University; a M.M. from the University of Oklahoma; and a DMA in choral conducting from the University of Iowa.
PEARL SHANGKUAN
D.M.A.
Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI)
A sought after conductor and clinician all across the United States and internationally, Dr. Pearl Shangkuan is a professor of Music at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan where she directs choirs and teaches choral conducting and choral literature. She is also the chorus master (endowed Covenant Chair) of the Grammy-nominated Grand Rapids Symphony. Her performances and preparation of choruses consistently receive outstanding reviews for their combination of precision, artistry and passion. In addition to her Mosaic: the Pearl Shangkuan choral series for earthsongs, she serves as the music editor of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship choral series, published by GIA.
Her choirs have performed at national, division and state conferences of the American Choral Directors Association and other professional music conferences in the United States. Recent conducting engagements took her to Austria, South Africa, Hong Kong, and all across the United States. She has conducted honor choirs for several ACDA divisions and has been a headliner for various ACDA state conferences. She has led performances and given workshops all across the US and in Asia (China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and the Philippines), as well as in Austria, Australia, and Canada. Dr. Shangkuan has served as guest faculty in prominent professional programs in the US including the Chorus America national conference conducting masterclass and its A Capella Conducting Masterclass, the University of Michigan Choral Conducting Symposium, the Westminster Choir College Summer Session among many others. She has conducted all-state, honor choirs and festivals in numerous states.
She has served on the National Board of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) as the president of the Central Division (2007-09), and as Michigan ACDA state president (2003-05). Prior to her appointment at Calvin College, Dr. Shangkuan taught at Rutgers University and at the Westminster Conservatory of Music of Rider University in New Jersey. Recipient of the Grand Rapids YWCA’s Tribute! Award for outstanding professional women, she is also a past recipient of its Woman of Achievement award. Dr. Shangkuan has also served on the national board of the Choristers Guild and the board of the New Jersey Music Teachers Association and the New Jersey ACDA. She is a member of the ACDA (American Choral Directors Association), Chorus America, IFCM (International Federation for Choral Music), and is a member of the Phi Kappa Lambda and Mu Phi Epsilon Music Honor Societies. A student of pre-eminent American choral conductor and New York Philharmonic chorusmaster Dr. Joseph Flummerfelt, she received a Bachelor of Music in Church Music summa cum laude and Master of Music in Choral Conducting with distinction from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and a DMA in Choral Conducting from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
