William Culverhouse serves as Director of Choral Activities at Binghamton University, where he directs the Harpur Chorale, Treble Chorus, and Chamber Singers, and teaches courses in the music department. He received his undergraduate degree in music education from Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied with Catherine Jarjisian and Herbert Henke, and graduate degrees in choral conducting from the University of Maryland, College Park, where he studied with Edward Maclary.
Culverhouse also founded and directs the Southern Tier Singers’ Collective, a professional-level ensemble of singers from throughout central New York. STSC’s repertoire ranges from Gregorian chant through Palestrina, Lassus, Victoria, Bach, Brahms, and Poulenc to jazz, contemporary a cappella, and music by living composers such as Morten Lauridsen, Zanaida Robles, and Dale Trumbore.
Before coming to Binghamton, he served as Director of Choral Activities Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, and taught courses in musicology, conducting, composition, music education, and musicianship. His ensemble directing responsibilities included the Earlham Concert Choir, Madrigal Singers, and Gregorian Chant Ensemble, and he oversaw the Women’s Chorus and Men’s Ensemble. He also directed the Richmond Chorale in collaborations with Earlham choral ensembles. He came to Earlham having directed choirs at all age levels and in a wide variety of contexts, including the Schola Cantorum of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the Maryland Chorus, the resident symphonic choir of the University of Maryland. Under his direction, the St. Matthew’s Schola Cantorum performed several times for President Bush, and sang at the funeral of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. During his tenure, the Schola developed a reputation for excellence in the performance of Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony, and for championing the work of living composers. They have also recorded numerous CDs.
While at the University of Maryland, Culverhouse taught conducting and directed the Women’s Chorus, Chapel Choir, and Men’s Chorus. He also continued the Maryland Chorus’s traditional specialization in historically-informed performances of Baroque music, and his performances of Handel’s complete Messiah were greeted with wide acclaim. He has also directed choirs and taught general music, music history and music theory in the public school systems of Ohio, Illinois, and Virginia, and has directed community children’s choirs and adult chamber choirs. An enthusiastic collaborator, his high school choirs have joined with other local high school choirs for large-scale performances of major works by Benjamin Britten, Morten Lauridsen, and Carl Orff. He is also an active guest conductor and adjudicator, and has served as a clinician in Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Jordan, and also works as a private vocal coach.
Culverhouse is also a specialist in musics of the Arab world, and has completed several research tours of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Palestine, exploring traditional and contemporary vocal and instrumental music of the Middle East. He has recently conducted performances of Handel’s Messiah and Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Dozan wa Awtar Choir and the National Orchestra of Jordan, incorporating Arabic traditional instruments. He returned there on a Fulbright Specialist grant to conduct a program of Handel and Vivaldi and another program featuring Medieval and Renaissance music of the Mediterranean in May 2016. In February 2017, he returned to Jordan to conduct an honors choir of students from Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia as well as from Jordan. In summer 2018, he co-directed a study-abroad program focusing on migration and the performing arts in Spain and Morocco.
A lyric baritone with a specialization in early and contemporary art music, he has given solo vocal performances in Norfolk, Cleveland, Chicago, the North Carolina Outer Banks, and the Washington, D.C. area, as well as numerous faculty recitals at Earlham College, including a complete performance of Franz Schubert’s Winterreise in January, 2017. He was an original member of the professional vocal ensemble Icarus which has been featured in the Chorworks summer early music conferences led by founding Tallis Scholar Philip Cave. He presented an all-Bach recital with members of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra as part of the Meetinghouse Concert Series in Richmond, Indiana. He has studied singing with David Clayton, Fay Putnam, Joan Heller, Paul Warner, and Gerald Crawford. Additionally, Culverhouse is active as a composer, having studied composition with Adolphus Hailstork, Robert Sirota, and Kathryn Alexander. His compositions have been performed by a wide variety of ensembles. His Requiem for chorus and harp was premiered in May 2008 and performed again in Richmond in April 2012 by members of the Earlham choirs and the Richmond Chorale. It received its New York premiere in March 2016.
Short Bio
William Culverhouse serves as Director of Choral Activities at Binghamton University, where he directs the Harpur Chorale, Treble Chorus, Chamber Singers, and teaches courses in the music department. Culverhouse also founded and directs the Southern Tier Singers’ Collective, a professional-level ensemble of singers from throughout central New York. He received his undergraduate degree in music education from Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied with Catherine Jarjisian and Herbert Henke, and graduate degrees in choral conducting from the University of Maryland, College Park, where he studied with Edward Maclary. Before coming to Binghamton, he served most recently as Director of Choral Activities at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where he directed the Concert Choir and Madrigal Singers and taught courses in musicology, conducting, composition, music education, and musicianship. Prior to teaching at Earlham, he taught music in the public schools in Ohio, Illinois, and Virginia, and served for eight years as Director of the Schola Cantorum at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. A lyric baritone with a specialization in early and contemporary music, he has sung professionally throughout the Midwest and the East Coast. He has studied singing with David Clayton, Fay Putnam, Joan Heller, Paul Warner, and Gerald Crawford. He is an active composer as well, particularly of choral and solo vocal music, with performances also throughout the Midwest and East Coast. His composition teachers have included Adolphus Hailstork, Robert Sirota, and Kathryn Alexander. His Requiem for chorus and harp received its New York premiere in March 2016. He is in frequent demand as a choral clinician, having conducted and adjudicated in Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Virginia. He has recently developed a specialization in choral music of the Arab world, and has given conference presentations on Arab choral music in New York and Virginia. He traveled to Jordan on a Fulbright grant to conduct a program of Handel and Vivaldi in May 2016. In February 2017, he returned to Jordan to conduct an honors choir of students from throughout the region, and in summer 2018, he co-directed a study-abroad program focusing on migration and the performing arts in Spain and Morocco.