CTC Judge Spotlight #4 Dr. Melissa Morgan

As we continue to introduce you to each member of our judging panel for the upcoming 2022 Canada's Top Choirs competition, we're happy to introduce Dr. Melissa Morgan—an award-winning choir conductor, researcher, and scholar.

Dr. Melissa Morgan is the Assistant Professor of Choral Music in the Media, Arts, and Performance department at the University of Regina. Her responsibilities include conducting the auditioned Chamber Singers and the non-auditioned Concert Choir and teaching vocal diction and choral conducting courses.

An active conductor, she is frequently asked to serve as a clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor with high school, children's choirs, and church choirs throughout Canada. Previous to her appointment at the University of Regina, Dr. Morgan was the Pfeifer Memorial Chair of Music at Luther College High School and the founder and artistic director of the former community ensemble, Prairie Chamber Choir.

As a researcher and scholar, Dr. Morgan has contributed articles to Teaching Music through Performance in Choir, Vol. 5. She is also published in the Canadian Music Educators Journal and the American Choral Directors Association monthly publication, Choral Journal. She has done significant work to promote choral art music by Prairie composers. Her recording, Wake the Grain: Choral Art Music from the Prairies, which was created to celebrate and honor composers from the Prairie region with the hope to encourage and support new Canadian music, can be found on Spotify and Apple Music.

In October 2017, Dr. Morgan was named as one of CBC Saskatchewan's Future 40 under 40 recipients. Her choirs have won numerous awards, including second place in the Choral Canada National Competition for Amateur Choirs, chamber choir category. She has prepared choirs to perform with the Regina Symphony Orchestra on several occasions. In addition, her choirs have received invitations to perform on the stage of Lincoln Centre and at events including the Association of Canadian Choral Communities, Podium Conferences, and several provincial and national music festivals and ceremonies.

Originally from Regina, Saskatchewan, Dr. Morgan holds a Doctorate of Music Performance in Choral Conducting from the University of Toronto, a Master of Music Performance in Choral Conducting from the University of Western Ontario, a Bachelor of Arts, and a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Regina. She is also an Associate of the Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music (ARCT) in piano, voice, and flute.

To find more information about Canada's Top Choirs and how to enter, please visit https://www.feelitlive.com/canadas-top-choirs