Vocal Arts Institute

Lauded for leading performances of “pure magic” (The Washington Post), conductor Eugene Rogers is at the vanguard of American musicians, recognized as a musical leader and teacher across North America and, increasingly, around the globe.
Animated by a commitment to championing timely new works, bringing historically overlooked music to life, and supporting next-generation talent, Rogers brings a wide-ranging artistic vision to his work as a conductor of orchestra and chorus; as a teacher and arranger; and as an industry thought leader.
Rogers is a two-time Michigan Emmy Award winner, a 2017 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient, and a 2015 GRAMMY® Award nominee. He is the founding director of EXIGENCE, a Sphinx Vocal Ensemble; director of university choirs and professor of music at the University of Michigan; and the fifth Artistic Director of the two-time GRAMMY® Award-winning ensemble The Washington Chorus (Washington, D.C.). At the University of Michigan, Rogers leads the graduate choral conducting program, conducts the Chamber Choir, and administers a program of nine choral ensembles. His choirs have toured throughout China, South Africa, and the United States and have appeared at national and regional conferences. In December 2017, Musical America named Rogers one of the top 30 “Movers and Shapers” professionals in North America.
Rogers’ notable guest appearances as a conductor and chorusmaster include the New York Philharmonic; the Chicago Symphony Chorus; the National Symphony Orchestra; the Grant Park Symphony Chorus; the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra; the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; the National Philharmonic Orchestra; the 2023 ACDA National Honor Choir; the State Choir of Latvia; Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid; the Ministry Branch of Education Inaugural World Youth Choir Festival (Singapore); the Lisbon Summerfest Chamber Choir and Festival Chorus; VocalEssence and Minnesota Public Radio’s Harmony in the Park; the Association for Music in International Schools (AMIS) High School Mixed Honor Choir (Luxembourg); the Flint Symphony Orchestra; the British Columbia Music Education Association Honor Choir; the NAfME All-Northwest High School Mixed Choir; Westminster Chamber Choir (Florence, Italy, and Princeton, New Jersey); Choral Music Experience (London, England); and the Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asia High Schools Biennial Music Festival (Singapore).
His extensive All-State and honor choir conducting experience includes appearances in Tennessee, Ohio, Colorado, North Dakota, Illinois, Michigan, Texas, Arkansas, California, Missouri, Minnesota, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Massachusetts, Indiana, Washington, and Oregon.
Rogers’ past appointments include serving as director of the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club, as well as positions at Macalester College (St. Paul, Minnesota), the Boys Choir of Harlem (New York), Waubonsie Valley High School (Aurora, Illinois), and Anima Young Singers of Greater Chicago (formerly the Glen Ellyn Children’s Choir).

Distinguished American tenor Stanford Olsen joined the faculty of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater & Dance as professor of voice after 15 years as artist-in-residence and holder of the Shelfer Eminent Scholar in Music chair at Florida State University. One of this generation’s most successful and versatile artists, his career spans more than 1,200 performances on five continents over the course of 30 years. Since his professional operatic debut there in 1986, opposite Dame Joan Sutherland in Bellini’s I Puritani, Stanford Olsen has performed more than 160 times with New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Olsen has been heard throughout the world at venues such as San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Miami Opera, La Scala di Milano, Landestheater Stuttgart, Theatre du Chatelet, Teatro Bellini di Catania, Theatre La Monnaie, Australian Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Nederlandse Oper, Tokyo Opera City, and most other significant opera companies in the USA and Europe. His recording of the fiendishly difficult role of Argirio in Rossini’s Tancredi (Naxos/Alberto Zedda) netted a GRAMMY nomination.