Choral Conducting Symposium

Dr. Diana V. Sáez is the Director of Choral Activities at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland, directing the University Chorale, Women’s Choir, and Choral Society. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Sáez served as Visiting Choir Director at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and Visiting Choir Conductor at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. Dr. Sáez also directed the Catholic University Women’s Choir for six years and served as artistic director of the World Bank-IMF Chorus for sixteen years.

As a leading specialist in the field of Latin American music, Dr. Sáez is a frequent guest conductor, adjudicator, and lecturer in both the United States and abroad. In the past five years, she has presented at American universities, national and regional ACDA conventions, and various engagements in North and South America. She has also guest conducted at the Festival Distrital de Coros en Bogotá, Colombia and directed regional honor choruses in Virginia, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Dr. Sáez is perhaps best known for serving as artistic director of Cantigas, an award-winning chamber choir that she founded with the mission to increase awareness and appreciation of Latin America and Spanish choral music. For 25 years, Cantigas was a principal performer of Latin American music in North America, with appearances at the ACDA Eastern Division Convention, Kennedy Center, and Strathmore Center, as well as international tours in Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. In 2014, the choir was awarded the Choral Excellence Award for Most Creative Programming by the Choralis Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Sáez began her musical education at the Escuela Libre de Música in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She earned a Master of Choral Conducting from Temple University and a Doctorate in Musical Arts at the University of Maryland, College Park. She also holds a Master of Education from Harvard University.

Her compositions for choir are published by Hal Leonard, Boosey and Hawkes, and the Roger Dean Publishing Company, a division of the Lorenz Corporation. Her academic writings have been published in Maryland Music Educator Journal and in an anthology, Choral Perspectives: Insights from American Choral Conductor-Teachers.

“I am a firm believer that we must learn and teach music from different cultures. And by different cultures, I don’t mean only the music from specific geographical areas but also the music from different cultural groups within the United States, such as music created by the working class, the LGBTQ+ community, urban and rural areas, native people, women of color, the Appalachian region, and my own community, Latinx.”

A two-time Michigan Emmy Award winner, a 2017 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient, and a 2015 GRAMMY® Award nominee, Eugene Rogers is recognized as a leading conductor and pedagogue throughout the United States and abroad. In addition to being the founding director of EXIGENCE, Dr. Rogers is the director of choirs and an associate professor of conducting at the University of Michigan. Recently, he was named as the fifth Artistic Director of the two-time GRAMMY® Award-Winning Ensemble, The Washington Chorus (Washington, D.C.).

Rogers holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in choral music education from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in choral conducting from U-M. He currently serves on the board of Chorus America and is the former national chair of the Diversity Initiatives Committee for the American Choral Directors Association.

Julie Skadsem is associate professor of choral music education and conducting at the University of Michigan where she conducts the Women’s Glee Club and teaches courses in conducting, choral techniques, and vocal methods. Before coming to Michigan in fall 2006, Skadsem was associate professor of music education at the University of Alabama, where she taught courses in choir, conducting, and music education, and was the founding director of the Birmingham Children’s Choir. She taught vocal music (7-12) in Ironwood, Michigan and is an active clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor.

She is a member of the VoiceCare Network and is certified in Dalcroze eurhythmics, Orff-Schulwerk, and Kodaly. In addition to her choral work, Skadsem is also an active researcher. Her research on choral conducting and rehearsal techniques has been presented at MENC, ACDA, and the Southeastern Music Education Symposium, and is being published at the state, regional, and national levels. She currently serves on the editorial board of the Southern Music Education Journal.