Stewarts Creek High School Choirs​
(all social media maintained by the Stewarts Creek Arts Alliance)
About
The Choirs at Stewarts Creek High School are comprised of the Stewarts Creek Giovani Voci (freshmen treble), Meistersingers (tenor/bass ensemble), Bel Canto (auditioned treble), Apollo Ensemble (advanced tenor/bass), and Athena Treble Choir (advanced treble). The choirs perform five yearly concerts, at adjudicated events, in the school and community, and co-produce two yearly musicals with the RedHawk Theater. Choirs perform music of all styles and time periods, from classical to musical theater classics.
The high school choirs are joined every other year by the Stewarts Creek Choral Union, a community ensemble of adults who enjoy singing major works with orchestra alongside the Stewarts Creek Choirs. On alternating years, the Stewarts Creek Opera2Go takes a Spring tour to local elementary schools, performing a short children's opera for nearly 5,000 students.
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Choir students have the opportunity to participate in many special opportunities, such as the Freshmen Honor Choir and Mid-State Honor Choir, the Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts, the ACDA National and Southeast Honor Choirs, and the Tennessee All-State Choir.
Dr. Susan Kelly, Director of Choirs
Susan Kelly is Director of Choirs at Stewarts Creek High School, where she conducts five choirs, teaches Dual Enrollment Ear Training, and music directs the campus musicals and operas. She joined the faculty of Stewarts Creek in 2020.
Dr. Brian T. Russell, Director of Choirs
Brian Russell is Director of Choirs at Stewarts Creek High School, where he conducts five choirs, teaches Dual Enrollment Music Theory, music directs the campus musicals and operas, and is Fine Arts Department Chair. Dr. Russell founded the Choral Program when Stewarts Creek opened in Spring 2013.
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Prior to coming to Stewarts Creek, Dr. Kelly served as an Assistant Professor of Music/Choral Director at Tennessee State University where she directed the University Choir and Meistersingers, taught classes in Music Education and Conducting, and taught Applied Voice. She currently serves as an associate conductor for Vox Grata Women’s Choir and as Adult Choir Director at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Murfreesboro. Dr. Kelly is also in demand as a guest conductor, having recently conducted the KY-ACDA All-State Middle-School Choir, as well as choirs in Georgia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia. Additionally, she has sung soprano with the Tennessee Chamber Chorus, a professional choir based in eastern Tennessee and The Cecilia Ensemble, based in Augusta, Georgia.
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Before coming to Tennessee, Dr. Kelly taught at Abington Heights High School in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania and Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop, Pennsylvania. She also served as director of the Cantare Choir of The Choral Society of Northeast Pennsylvania, a community high-school women's ensemble that performed at both state ACDA and PMEA conferences, as the Director of Music at the First Presbyterian Church of Clarks Summit, and as a soprano with The Lyric Consort, an eight-voice vocal ensemble.
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Susan holds undergraduate degrees in Music Education and English Education from Wilkes University, a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance and Choral Conducting from Temple University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting from the University of South Carolina. Prior to her move to Tennessee, Susan was active in both PMEA, in which she served as Choral Coordinator of District 9, and ACDA, in which she served as President-Elect Designate of PA-ACDA. Currently she is serving as the Vice-President of TN-ACDA.
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B.M., Music and English Education, Wilkes University
M.M., Vocal Performance and Conducting, Temple University
D.M.A., Conducting, University of South Carolina
A native of Nashville, Dr. Russell holds his Bachelor of Music degree from Middle Tennessee State University where he studied trombone, piano, violin, and voice. He received his Masters and Doctorate degrees in Conducting from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where he won the coveted Walter Hagan Conducting Prize and the Julius Herford Prize, awarded for outstanding research in his dissertation on the music of G. P. Telemann.
Before returning to Murfreesboro in 2012, Dr. Russell was Assistant Professor of Music at Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington) and Hobart and William Smith Colleges (Geneva, NY), where he conducted vocal and instrumental ensembles, taught conducting and courses in secondary instrumental and vocal methods. He has also taught middle and high school instrumental and vocal music at five different schools in Rutherford and Sumner counties. He remains an active guest conductor, having been an invited clinician for regional and All-State choirs across the Southeast, Midwest, and Northeast.
Dr. Russell is the Executive Music Director of Murfreesboro’s Ethos Youth Ensembles, where he conducts the Ethos Philharmonic Orchestra and Wind Symphony and oversees a comprehensive youth ensemble program including four orchestras and a jazz ensemble. Dr. Russell is also Director of Music at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Franklin, the State Choral Performance Assessment Coordinator for the Tennessee Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association, and is All-State Choral Chair for the Tennessee Music Educators Association.
Dr. Russell lives in Murfreesboro with his wife and three children, all of whom attend Stewarts Creek schools.
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B.M., Music Education, Middle Tennessee State University
M.M., Conducting, Eastman School of Music
D.M.A., Conducting, Eastman School of Music
Voice Faculty
Sarah Chapman is a classically-trained soprano and voice instructor.
A native of Bowling Green, Kentucky, she graduated with a BA in Vocal Performance from Western Kentucky University and an MM in Vocal Pedagogy from Belmont University. She has distinguished herself in stage performances, recitals, and choral masterworks as a soloist and actress. Some of her stage roles include Christine Daae from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera,” Cinderella from Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods,” Angelina from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Trial by Jury,” and Ruth from Ronald Beckett’s “Ruth.”
Sarah also is a member of the Theta Eta Chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda, a selective music honors society. She currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee..
Kristine Smith is a Lyric Soprano based in Nashville, TN. Her most recent role was her debut as Mimì from Puccini's La Bohème with Midwest Opera Institute. She has performed as a soprano soloist in Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music with the Nashville Symphony Chorus.
Other roles performed from past seasons are the role of Laurie from Aaron Copland’s the Tender Land, and Donna Anna from Mozart’s Don Giovanni alongside Nathan Gunn.
Kristine completed her undergraduate education with a Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance from Middle Tennessee State University and her Master’s degree in Vocal Performance and Literature as a Fellow at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.