 WVC Artistic Director Allan
Friedman also serves as Assistant Conductor of the Duke
Chapel Choir and directs the Duke Vespers Ensemble and the Duke
Divinity School Choir. During the summer months, he conducts the Duke
Summer Choir, which sings at the Sunday morning services in Duke
Chapel. Originally from Duluth, Minnesota, Allan earned his BA in music
at Duke where he studied conducting with Rodney Wynkoop. In the fall of
1997, he studied at the University of Natal, Durban in South Africa
where he learned choral music from Joseph Shabalala, leader of
Ladysmith Black Mombazo, renowned for their work on Paul Simon's album
Graceland. In 2001, he graduated with a Masters Degree in Musicology
from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he wrote his
thesis on South African choral competitions. While at UNC, he also
conducted the Collegium Musicum, the Harambe Choir, and was assistant
conductor of the Carolina Choir. In the spring of 2005 Allan earned his
Doctorate of Musical Arts from Boston University where he studied
conducting with Ann Howard Jones and David Hoose. During his time at BU
he conducted the BU Women's Chorus and the BU Repertory Chorus, and
wrote his dissertation on Russian Jewish Choral Music from St.
Petersburg circa 1905-1925. While in Boston, he also found time to be
the music director of both First Parish Unitarian/Universalist Church
in Canton, Massachusetts and of the Harbour Choral Arts Society in
Hanover, Massachusetts, as well as assisted The Zamir Chorale of Boston
as the Mary Wolfman Epstein Conducting Fellow. In addition to
conducting, Dr. Friedman has studied composition with Marjorie Merryman
at Boston University and Steven Jaffe at Duke University and has had
several performances of his choral compositions, most notably his
Holocaust Cantata "With Perfect Faith." |
Copyright(c) 2008 Women's Voices Chorus. All rights reserved.
Webmistress