Dr. Derrick Fox is the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Creative Endeavors and a Professor of Choral Conducting at Michigan State University. Prior to MSU, he was the Director of Choral Activities and Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Assistant Professor of Choral Music at Ithaca College.  Dr. Fox has taught at the middle school, high school and collegiate levels. His conducting experiences have included singers from upper elementary choirs through collegiate and community choirs. He was awarded the 2021 Bryan R. Johnson Service Award by the Nebraska Music Educators Association and the 2022 University of Nebraska Omaha Award for Distinguished Research/Creative Activity. 

He has conducted all state and honor choirs and has been in residence at universities across the United States and abroad. He also leads professional development and organizational change initiatives for music focused organizations throughout the United States. His professional educational workshops focus on assessment in the choral classroom, building classroom community and culture, rehearsal strategies, choral conducting techniques and shape note singing in the African American community. Dr. Fox conducted the 2019 National ACDA Middle School/Junior High Mixed Honor Choir and traveled to South Africa as a 2019 ACDA International Conductor Exchange Fellow where he led choral workshops and rehearsals in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Potchefstroom.  

As a baritone soloist, Dr. Fox has collaborated with various organizations; among them are the Arkansas Symphony, Lansing Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Columbia Chorale, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha Symphonic Chorus, University of Missouri, Michigan State University, Webster University and the Espaço Cultural (Brasilia, Brazil). He can be heard singing selections from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess on the compact disc In This Hid Clearing, available on the Naxos Classical Music label. He most recently the baritone soloist in Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony with the Michigan State University Symphonic Orchestra and Choral Union. 

As an author, Dr. Fox has written articles for many organizations and his compositions and arrangements are published by Hal Leonard, Music Spoke and Brilee Music. His book, Yes You Can: A Band Director’s Guide to Teaching Choirs is published by Carl Fischer. He launched The Derrick Fox Choral Series with Music Spoke to publish works by and about marginalized and minoritized people. He has cultivated educational partnerships many musical organizations, among them Hal Leonard, Sounding Spirit and the Country Music Association Foundation. He was the creator, writer and host of the KVNO’s radio show Reflections of Us, a show focused on amplifying diverse voice in the classical music. Dr. Fox currently serves as President of the Midwestern Region of the American Choral Directors Association.

www.drderrickfox.com

Lauded for leading performances of “pure magic” (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 talents, Rogers brings wide-ranging artistic vision as a conductor for orchestra, chorus, and opera; as a teacher and arranger; and as an industry thought leader.  He is a two-time Michigan Emmy Award winner, a 2017 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient, and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2015. Musical America magazine has named him one of the top music industry professionals, and his work has been profiled on CNN, PBS, and on radio stations and in print and online publications across the world.

Rogers was announced in February of 2020 as the fifth Artistic Director of The Washington Chorus (TWC), one of America’s leading choral music ensembles. As Artistic Director, Rogers has brought forth a compelling new vision for TWC rooted in fresh interpretations of choral-orchestral masterworks, a bold commitment to commissioning and premiering new music, and a strong connection to community. Rogers leads TWC’s live performances on the podium and in collaboration with leading conductors at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Music Center at Strathmore, Live! at 10th and G, and National Presbyterian Church. A recent program led from the podium by Rogers with TWC in collaboration with The National Philharmonic, “Anhelos Universales,” elicited a rave review from Michael Brodeur in The Washington Post.  Brodeur later named the performance one of the ten best in classical music of the year for 2023. The program was one of many expressions from Rogers’ visionary “Mahogany” initiative with the Chorus – a multi-year, multi-genre commitment to celebrating and supporting artists and creators of color. Other expressions under his leadership have included TWC’s commissioning, premiering, and recording the world premiere of Damien Geter’s “Cantata for a More Hopeful Tomorrow” and the co-commission and premiere of Geter’s “Justice Symphony,” leading a rare performance of Undine Smith Moore’s landmark oratorio “Scenes from the Life of a Martyr” with chorus and orchestra, serving as chorus master for the world premiere of Adolphus Hailstork’s “A Knee on the Neck” requiem (noted by the Washington Post as one of the ten best performances of 2022), and an upcoming performance: an immersive new staging of Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” with The Washington Chorus and orchestra at The Kennedy Center with acclaimed baritone Will Liverman in the title role. 

In addition to his work on the podium, he has proudly served as chorus master to leading conductors including Gianandrea Noseda, Marin Alsop, Joe Hisaishi, and James Conlon for works including Beethoven Symphony no. 9, the Verdi Requiem, the Bernstein Kaddish Symphony, and many others. Rogers is increasingly active as a guest conductor for orchestra, chorus, and opera. Recent highlights have included guest conductor engagements with the Flint Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Concert Choir and Orchestra (Oregon), the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra’s critically acclaimed 25th anniversary concert tour of Michigan and Washington, D.C., the Charleston Gospel Choir in a program for gospel chorus and orchestra, and for leading youth ensembles across the globe. In 2015, a new recording of Darius Milhaud’s monumental opera L’Orestie d’Eschyle, on which Rogers served as a chorus master, was nominated for a GRAMMY Award.

In 2015, Rogers founded EXIGENCE, a professional vocal ensemble affiliated with the world-renowned Sphinx Organization, founded by Aaron Dworkin. EXIGENCE is a professional vocal ensemble highlighting artistry within Black and Latinx communities, comprised of vocal artists including solo performers, educators, conductors and composers. As Founding Director, Rogers has toured EXIGENCE to festivals, concerts, and conferences, and the ensemble remains an important part of his artistic and community practice.

Additionally active as an arranger, Mark Foster Publishing began the Eugene Rogers Choral Series in 2015, a series featuring emerging composers who specialize in contemporary classical and folk music traditions, and the EXIGENCE Choral Series in 2018 which features folk and contemporary works by Black and Latinx composers.

Rogers serves as Associate Professor of Music and Director of University Choirs at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, where he teaches and trains the next generation of conductors and collaborates with composers and across departments on major artistic initiatives for the University.

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.  

www.eugenerogers.com