This week only, from March 3-5, ACU’s music department will host its first ever Choral Artist-in-Residence, ACU alum Dianne Brumley.
Brumley is the director emeritus of choral studies at the University of Texas at Brownville. She brings with her the experience of a career of more than 40 years in the rehearsal room and on stage. After graduating from ACU in 1970 with her bachelor’s degree in music education, she completed her post-graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music.
During her career, Brumley spent 20 years as the founding conductor/artistic director of the South Texas Choral and Festival Orchestra. She also served as the director of choral studies and professor of music studies at UTB before her promotion in May, 2013. Before her time at UTB, Brumley was a public school fine arts administrator, a music teacher and choral music educator in elementary, middle and high schools. In 2011, she was awarded the Choral Excellence Award by TDCA as one of only a handful of Texas choral music educators to be chosen.
Students under her direction achieved equal success. During her ten-year tenure the UTB choral studies program earned much acclaim. Her students had the opportunity to travel to Ireland and Italy for international performances and a 2011 TMEA Convention performance. Some of the choirs she directed were selected for honor performances at Texas Music Educators Association conventions, American Choral Directors Association regional and national conventions and a featured performance at the Texas Choral Directors Association convention.
Jeffery Goolsby, director of choral activities at ACU, said the music department often hosts musical guests for one or two days to perform and teach a master class. Brumley’s vast wealth of experience and history of success made her the natural choice for the first choral program guest to perform and teach master classes to students in the music department.
“Dianne was my first choice and thankfully she was available,” Goolsby said. “Dianne is the natural choice because she can speak with authority in rehearsal and in her lectures because she has been so successful as a professional choral musician.”
While at ACU, Brumley will rehearse all the choirs in “Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana”, which the choirs will perform on campus on May 1. From 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday she will teach a master class for choral conducting students. From 11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday, she will give a lecture on the topic “Inspired Teaching” in which she will be taking a broad look at strategies for making a positive impact on students in the classroom.
Her last rehearsal with the university choral starts at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. All lectures and rehearsals are open to the general public, and students are encouraged to attend to see Brumley’s work firsthand.
“Audiences get to see the finished product at a performance, but what they don’t see is the hours and hours of rehearsal prior to the performance in which the choir prefects every single detail of the music,” Goolsby said. “Mrs. Brumley’s presentations will pull back the curtain on the inner workings of a first-class collegiate choral ensemble.”
