Dirk Garner

Prior to this appointment, Dr. Dirk Garner served as director of choral studies at Oklahoma State University where he conducted the concert chorale and chamber choir and led the graduate program in choral conducting. Garner also served as the director of choral activities at Southeastern Louisiana University and on the faculties of High Point University and Albertson College of Idaho. Popular as a clinician and adjudicator, Garner has conducted festivals in twenty-one states; his choirs have been heard across the country and in regional and state conventions of American Choral Director's Association (ACDA) and the National Association for Music Education. In January 2008 he conducted Mozart's "Requiem" at Carnegie Hall for Mid-America Productions. During the summers he serves as master teacher and coordinator of research and editions for the Westminster Choir College summer workshop in Florence, Italy. He has judged competitions for the National Association of Teachers of Singing and ACDA and has served as state chair of repertoire and standards for colleges and universities in Louisiana. His principal research concerns the golden mean in the Sacred Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, a topic he discussed during a two-hour interview on National Public Radio's "Bach Sunday." In 2014, Garner was appointed artistic director of the BW Bach Festival, the nation's oldest collegiate Bach festival. Garner holds a Master of Music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts in choral conducting and pedagogy from the University of Iowa.