RSS 2.0 FeedAugust 31, 2011, Local Arts News
William Baker Choral Foundation announces new Associate Music Director & Vocal Coach
The William Baker Choral Foundation recently announced the appointment of Christine Freeman as Associate Music Director for KC area ensembles, and Senior Vocal Coach for the organization. Ms. Freeman succeeds Melissa Ann Shallberg, who held the position from 2002-11.
The William Baker Choral Foundation, a Roeland Park, Kansas-based non-profit organization that sponsors ten choral ensembles in three states, recently announced the appointment of Christine Freeman as Associate Music Director for KC area ensembles, and Senior Vocal Coach for the organization. Ms. Freeman succeeds Melissa Ann Shallberg, who held the position from 2002-2011, before relocating earlier this month to northern Iowa.
Founder and Music Director William O. Baker, in making the appointment said, “Christine Freeman is one of the most artistically mature and poised young choral leaders I have worked with in my career of 35 years. She will quickly become one of the leading conductors in the Kansas City area.”
As Associate Music Director, Ms. Freemen will share conducting responsibilities with Dr. Baker for the Foundation’s 50-voice flagship ensemble, The William Baker Festival Singers based in Prairie Village, Kansas, and for the organization’s 150-voice non-auditioned Summer Singers of Kansas City, based in Kansas City, Missouri. Ms. Freeman already serves the Choral Foundation as Music Director and Conductor of the Overland Park, Kansas, based Kansas City Youth Festival Singers. As Senior Vocal Coach, Ms. Freeman will provide instruction and support for members of all Choral Foundation ensembles in the area of vocal training and development. She will also be a resource person in the area of choral pedagogy for all of the Choral Foundation’s conducting staff.
Christine Freeman is a native of Topeka, Kansas, and holds both the Bachelor of Music Education in Vocal Performance and the Master of Music Education in Choral Pedagogy from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. In addition to her work with the Choral Foundation, she is a Music Educator for the Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, instructing kindergarten-middle school general and choral music. Ms. Freeman was recently nominated by her colleagues and named runner up for the Kansas Choral Directors Association “Outstanding Young Choral Director Award.”
She was appointed to the William Baker Festival Singers in 2006. She was named Student Intern for the Foundation for the 2007-2008 season, and was appointed to the music staff following her internship in 2008. She has conducted a cappella works of Palestrina and Hassler with the Festival Singers, and has conducted Vivaldi Beatus Vir, Haydn’s Te Deum, and Mozart’s Regina Coeli with Foundation choruses and members of the Kansas City Symphony. She has conducted at the Christmas Atlanta Festival in Georgia and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. She appears conducting selections on two recordings of the William Baker Festival Singers on the Amber Waves Sound Recordings label: Promised Land and A Festival for Christmas.
Ms. Freeman resides in Overland Park, Kansas, with her husband Daniel Freeman, a music educator in the Blue Valley, Kansas, School District.
For more information on The William Baker Festival Singers visit http://festivalsingers.org/
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