Andrew Clark, Director of Choral Activities

Andrew Clark serves as Director of Choral Activities and Senior Lecturer on Music at Harvard University. Clark is the Music Director and Conductor of the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum and teaches courses in conducting and music theory in the Department of Music. He has led Harvard’s Holden Choruses in performances at the Kennedy Center, cathedrals in Salzburg and Vienna, and throughout Germany and the United States. Since arriving at Harvard, Clark has developed several residencies with distinguished conductors and ensembles and launched new outreach projects and community partnerships. His first studio recording with the Holden Choruses, featuring the choral music of Ross Lee Finney, will be released in 2012.

Prior to his appointment at Harvard, Clark was Artistic Director of the Providence Singers, an award-winning choral arts organization, and served as Director of Choral Activities at Tufts University for seven years. He previously held conducting posts with the Worcester Chorus, Opera Boston, the Boston Pops Esplanade Chorus, and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, the chorus of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Clark has commissioned numerous composers and conducted important contemporary and rarely heard pieces as well as regular performances of choral-orchestral masterworks. His choirs have been hailed as “first rate” (Boston Globe), “cohesive and exciting” (Opera News), and “beautifully blended” (Providence Journal), achieving performances of “passion, conviction, adrenalin, [and] coherence” (Worcester Telegram).

Clark has led ensembles in prominent venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and throughout Europe and North America. He has collaborated with the Pittsburgh and New Haven Symphonies, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Boston Philharmonic, Stephen Sondheim, Sweet Honey in the Rock, the Trinity Wall Street Choir, the Kronos Quartet, and the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

Beth Willer, Resident Conductor

Recognized for her work with women’s voices, Beth Willer was Assistant Conductor of the Radcliffe Choral Society from 2008-2012, and has served as the choir’s Resident Conductor since 2012. As Founder and Artistic Director of Boston’s Lorelei Ensemble, she has collaborated with numerous composers from the U.S. and abroad since the launch of her Boston career. Committed to the expansion of repertoire for women’s voices, ensembles under Ms. Willer’s direction have delivered numerous World, U.S. and regional premières, while working to expose lesser-known works from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods. Currently Ms. Willer holds positions as Interim Director of Choral Activities and conductor of the Women’s Chorus at The Boston Conservatory.

A candidate for the D.M.A. in conducting at Boston University, Ms. Willer holds degrees from Boston University and Luther College. Ms. Willer has studied with Ann Howard Jones, David Hoose, Bruce Hangen and Weston Noble. During the summer of 2007 she studied conducting with Mark Shapiro of Mannes and counterpoint with Phillip Lasser of Juilliard at the European American Music Alliance in Paris, France. As a member of the Boston music scene, Ms. Willer has served as conductor of the New England Conservatory Youth Chorale and Youth Camerata, the Walnut Hill School Chorus, and as conductor and vocal music staff at the Boston Arts Academy. Additionally, Ms. Willer has conducted the Boston University Concert Choir and Women’s Chorale, and has served as a teaching fellow with the Boston Children’s Chorus. An active church musician, Ms. Willer directed choirs at First Church in Wenham, Massachusetts from 2006-2008 and has sung with the BU Marsh Chapel Choir. Previous to her career in Boston, Ms. Willer served as a conductor of the Memorial High School Choirs and the Chippewa Valley Youth Choirs in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.