New choral director to start in August

Stetson's School of Music is nationally renowned for artistic excellence and professionalism.

Dr. Timothy Peter, professor of music at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, will become Stetson University’s new director of choral activities and professor of music, effective August 2012.

“Dr. Peter brings dynamic leadership, artistry and magnetism to our vibrant School of Music, whose choral tradition and strengths are highly regarded nationwide,” said Dr. Jean O. West, dean of the music school. “We are so pleased to welcome him to our faculty and look forward to the many ways in which he will enrich the experiences of Stetson students. We anticipate many rewarding years of growth and collaboration.”

In collaboration with Associate Director of Choral Activities Andrew Larson, Peter will coordinate Stetson’s outstanding choral program of three university choirs and the large collegiate/community Choral Union. The two will recruit vocal students and administrate Stetson’s annual High School Choral Clinic and Men’s Choral Festival, in addition to overseeing regional and national tours and performances.

“Welcoming Timothy Peter, an exemplary national leader of choral education, is a wonderful reflection of the excellence of our School of Music, and our eagerness to always aspire to new heights,” said Dr. Elizabeth “Beth” Paul, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Stetson. ”I am confident that Tim will take us there!”

Timothy Peter

Head of Luther College’s music department from 2007 to 2011, Peter currently serves as conductor of the Collegiate Chorale, a 90-voice select junior-senior choral ensemble and Luther’s first-year 90-voice men’s choir, Norsemen. In addition, he teaches advanced choral methods and conducting.

Hailing from rural Minnesota, Peter received his undergraduate degree from Luther College, where he studied with Weston Noble. He received his Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Arizona, under the direction of Dr. Maurice Skones.

Previous to his appointment at Luther in 1991, Peter was a high school choral director and church musician in Iowa and Arizona. He has been the state and divisional repertoire and standards chair for College and University Choirs for the American Choral Directors Association. His choirs have been selected to perform at four Divisional NC-ACDA conventions held in Minneapolis, Minn., Sioux Falls, S.D., and Madison, Wis., and at the American Choral Directors National Conference in Chicago, Ill., in 2011.

His off-campus teaching, adjudicating and conducting includes numerous appearances as a convention presenter, festival clinician and all-state conductor throughout the United States, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. He has prepared choirs and orchestras for performances at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, Orchestra Hall and Rockefeller Chapel in Chicago, the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, the TWA Center in St. Louis, Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, the Alamodome in San Antonio, the Seoul Foreign School Center for the Performing Arts and Carnegie Hall in New York City. He has conducted in Germany, Namibia (Africa), Oman (Middle East), South Africa, Italy and South Korea.

Stetson’s School of Music is regarded as one of the best undergraduate-only professional schools of music in the United States. With a student-faculty ratio of 6 to 1, and a select enrollment of more than 200 majors, the School of Music offers students individual attention from outstanding professional performers, conductors and educators. A wide variety of performing and competition opportunities is provided through the international level, and children and adults in central Florida are also served by the university’s Community School of the Arts. Stetson music graduates go on to careers in teaching and performance as well as to some of the nation’s best conservatories and graduate programs.