2004 Conference Presenter

Rodney Eichenberger
All-State Choir Conductor

Rodney Eichenberger, All-State Choir Conductor

Rodney Eichenberger, Professor of Choral Music at Florida State University, has lectured and guest conducted throughout the United States and abroad. He has conducted more than 70 All State Choirs in 43 of the 50 states and guest conducted or lectured at more that 50 US Universities. Choirs under his direction have sung at the National Conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and the Music Educators National Conference.

In September 2001 and in April of 2003 he guest conducted the professional Korean National Chorus in concert in the Seoul Arts Center. He conducted the Pusan City Choir in concert in March of 2003, as well. In September of 2002 he led conducting workshops for the Eighth International Choral Conducting Workshop in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has guest conducted and lectured at the Swedish Choral Directors Association in Orebro, Sweden, presented session at the Third World Symposium of Music in Vancouver, British Columbia and the Fifth World Symposium of Choral Music in Rotterdam, Holland. He presented workshops at the First International School and Youth Choral Festival in Buenos Aries, Argentina. He has served as guest conductor of the Singapore Youth Choir Festival, International Schools Choral Festivals in London, Vienna, and Tokyo.

For the past 28 years, he has been an active participant in choral music education in Australia and New Zealand returning annually to guest conduct and lead conducting workshops. In 1995 he was scholar in residence at the University of Western Australia under the auspices of the Fulbright Commission. In 1977 the governing board of the Australian National Choral Association granted him an Honorary Life Membership. He was instrumental in the inauguration of the New Zealand Choral Federation and was an official U.S. Cultural Ambassador to that country during their sesquicentennial celebration. He taught conducting workshops in both countries in January of 2003.

He is the program coordinator for the choral conducting division of International Workshops with recent summer seminars in Stavanger, Norway; Brisbane, Australia; Biarritz, France and Graz, Austria. He annually teaches summer choral conducting workshops at Portland State University�s Haystack Festival of the Arts held in Cannon Beach, Oregon and CCIS�s Chesapeake Bay Workshop in St. Michaels, Maryland. His instructional video on Choral Conducting, �What They See Is What You Get,� is now in its ninth printing. In 2001, a second instructional video, �Enhancing Musicality Through Movement,� was released through Santa Barbara Press.

Professor Eichenberger holds the Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Olaf College and the Master of Arts degree from the University of Denver, with advanced study at the University of Washington and the University of Iowa. From 1976-1900 he was Professor of Choral Music and Conductor of the Chamber Singers at the University of Southern California and prior to his appointment there he was Professor of Choral Music at the University of Washington in Seattle.