Conductors & Clinicians

Dr. Joshua R. Jacobson – Conductor and Clinician, Songs of Life Festival
Director of Choral Activities – Northeastern University, Boston, MA
Founder and Director – Zamir Chorale of Boston, MA
Den – School of Music, Hebrew College.

Dr. Joshua R. Jacobson holds a Bachelors degree in Music from Harvard College, a Masters in Choral Conducting from the New England Conservatory, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Jacobson is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Northeastern University, where he served nine years as Music Department Chairman and six years as the Bernard Stotsky Professor of Jewish Cultural Studies. He is a Visiting Professor and Acting Dean of the School of Jewish Music at Hebrew College. He is also the founder and director of the Zamir Chorale of Boston, a world-renowned ensemble, specializing in Hebrew music.

He has conducted workshops on choral music for various groups, including the American Choral Directors Association, and has guest conducted a number of ensembles, including the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Bulgarian National Symphony and Chorus, the New England Conservatory Orchestra and the Boston Lyric Opera Company. He has also written articles on various aspects of choral music, and over one hundred published compositions and arrangements.

In 1989 he spent four weeks in Yugoslavia as a Distinguished Professor under the auspices of the Fulbright program. In 1994 he was awarded the Benjamin Shevach Award for Distinguished Achievement in Jewish Educational Leadership from Hebrew College. Prof. Jacobson is past President of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Choral Directors Association.

He is the conductor and host of the PBS film, Zamir: Jewish Voices Return to Poland. His book, Chanting the Hebrew Bible: The Art of Cantillation, published by the Jewish Publication Society in 2002, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. He is co-author of Translations and Annotations of Choral Repertoire—Volume IV: Hebrew Texts, published by earthsongs in 2009. In 2004 the Cantors Assembly presented Prof. Jacobson with its prestigious “Kavod Award.”

www.joshuajacobson.org
www.zamir.org

Professor Henry H. Leck – Conductor and Clinician, Songs of Life Festival
Founder and Artistic Director - Indianapolis Children's Choir
Director of Choral Activities - Butler University

An internationally recognized choral director, Henry Leck is an associate professor and director of choral activities at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1986 he became founder and artistic director of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir, one of the largest children’s choir programs in the world. The touring choirs of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir have performed regularly for national ACDA, MENC, OAKE and AOSA Conferences. Additionally, the ICC tours internationally every year and has sung in prestigious concert sites throughout Great Britain, Greece, Scandinavia, Central Europe, South America, Latin America, North America, Australia, New Zealand and China. In 2004, the touring choir performed in the Czech Republic and Russia, recording live with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra in the famed Pavel Slobodkin Center for Music.

Prof. Leck is widely known as a specialist in choral techniques, the child's voice, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, and the boy's changing voice. He authored the choral section of Silver Burdett music textbooks for grades 4, 5 and 6. He has produced three teaching videos titled Vocal Techniques for the Young Singer, The Boy’s Expanding Voice: Take the High Road and Creating Artistry through Movement, Dalcroze Eurhythmics. He is a lead author for the choral textbook series published by McGraw Hill/Glencoe titled Experiencing Choral Music and is also the editor of two nationally known choral series published by Hal Leonard Corporation and Colla Voce, Inc./Plymouth. Each year he teaches his conductor's workshop entitled Creating Artistry at venues across the country. He has recently completed his first textbook, Creating Artistry through Choral Excellence.

Prof. Leck founded the Indiana All-State Children's Honor Choir and the Indiana Middle/Junior High School Honor Choir, and has conducted Mixed, Men's, Women's, Junior High and Children's All-State choirs and festival choirs in nearly every state. He is a frequent conductor of regional and national honor choirs, including the ACDA Southern, Southwest, North Central, Central and Northwest Divisional Honors Choirs.

He is the artistic director of the highly acclaimed Pacific Rim Festival in Hawaii and the International Children's Choral Festival in Canterbury and London, England. For 15 years, he has conducted the National Youth Choral Festival in Carnegie Hall.

www.icchoir.org