Jamestown College Concert Choir: Mr. Aaron McDermid, Director

Director

Aaron McDermid is Director of Choral Activities at Jamestown College. In addition to conducting the Concert Choir and the Chapel Choir, McDermid teaches applied voice, conducting, and other related classes.

Prior to coming to Jamestown, McDermid was the Conductor and Artistic Director of the Tucson Masterworks Chorale, where he conducted performances of the Bach St. John Passion, Duruflé Requiem, Bach Magnificat, Brahms' Alto Rhapsody and Nänie, and Handel's Dettingen Te Deum, among others. He was also the Assistant Conductor of the internationally acclaimed University of Michigan Men's Glee Club, and Director of Choral Activities at Northfield High School in Northfield, Minnesota. Under his leadership, the choral program in Northfield came to be recognized as one of Minnesota's best, with invitations to appear as a solo choir at five prestigious festivals and conventions in three years. In 1999 McDermid was named Outstanding Young Choral Conductor by the American Choral Director's Association of Minnesota.

Establishing a reputation as a composer of both challenging and accessible music, McDermid has written 14 commissioned works. Recent commissions have come from The National Lutheran Choir, Westminster Choir College, and The Dale Warland Singers. His choral works are published by Walton Music, Mark Foster Music, and MorningStar Press and are performed and recorded by collegiate and professional choirs, as well as church, civic, and high school choirs throughout the United States. McDermid's compositions have also been performed at the American Choral Directors Association Division and National Conventions, by All-State choirs and many other festival groups, including the International Honor Choir in Berlin, Germany and the Australian National Choral Association Honor Choir in Melbourne, Austrailia.

An active clinician and guest conductor, McDermid has most recently conducted workshops and festival choirs at the collegiate, high school levels in Arizona, Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In March 2006 he was invited to guest conduct a choral festival at Iowa Wesleyan College featuring his choral music, which included six choirs from Iowa and Minnesota.

As a tenor soloist, McDermid has performed the role of Evangelist in Bach's St. John Passion, Ascension Oratorio, and the Schütz Christmas Oratorio, and has recently appeared as the tenor aria soloist in Bach's St. Matthew Passion and Mendelssohn's St. Paul. McDermid is also the Artistic Director and a member of Chanson, a professional a cappella male vocal ensemble, and is Minister of Music at Trinity Lutheran Church in Jamestown.

McDermid has received degrees in Music Education and Choral Conducting from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota and the University of Michigan, and in currently finishing his doctorate in Choral Conducting at the University of Arizona.