Thomas Lloyd
Associate
Professor of Music
Director of Choral and Vocal Studies
Director of the Choral and Vocal Studies Program for Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges since July 1996
responsibilities include:
- Haverford/Bryn Mawr Chorale (150-voice oratorio society)
- Haverford/Bryn Mawr Chamber Singers (30-voice touring concert choir)
- coordinating the applied voice program
- teaching conducting, vocal literature, and music history
Artistic Director, Bucks County Choral Society, Doylestown, PA beginning May 2000
Education:
University of Illinois, Doctor of Musical Arts (choral conducting and
literature), 1994
Yale School of Music, Master of Music (voice), 1979
Yale Divinity School, Master of Arts in Religion, 1978
Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, Bachelor of Music (bassoon),
1974
Scholarship and publications:
ACDA Interest Session presenter,
with the Chamber Singers of Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges,
2008 Eastern Division Convention: Being true to the music and true
to yourself: singing a
variety of music with authenticity without pretending to sound like
a different of choir.
Invited oral presentation: The origins of the African-American Spiritual, paper to be presented at symposium From Slavery to Freedom: The Formation of African American and American Identity, October 26, 2007 at Haverford College.
Singing for Seniors – an interview with Helen Kemp, in the Fall issue of The Voice of Chorus America (national organization of independent choruses) related to new program initiated by me with the Bucks County Choral Society.
Extended letter to the Editor on Brahms and religion, Choral Journal, August 2007.
ACDA Panel discussion leader: "Approaches
to Teaching Sacred Music in Secular Contexts" at Eastern Convention,
February 16, 2006, New York City; published in the March 2007 issue
of the Choral Journal.
Article: "New-found
hope in the unifying language of music – Teaching Sacred Music
in a Secular Setting," in Constellation, the online
journal of the Center for Progressive
Christianity, Spring 2005; revised and republished in the March
2007 issue of the Choral Journal.
Recording: Voices in Exile - The Choral Music of Jean Berger and
Hans Gal, with the Chamber Choir of the Bucks County Choral Society,
distributed nationally by Classiquest, September 2005. - Emotionally,
they're right on target, plumbing the spiritual depths of songs like
Berger's "Eyes of All" and Gal's "To Sleep" with
all the intensity one could wish for. - American Record Guide
Article: "Shout
all over God’s heaven – The survival of the Spiritual through
dramatically chang-
ing social and musical contexts,” published in the Choral
Journal August 2004.
Recording: The Wishing Tree – The Choral Music of Robert
Maggio– released by Albany
Records, Spring 2004; with the Chamber Singers of Haverford and Bryn
Mawr Colleges
and the Bucks County Choral Society.
Article: “Alternative
Images for Helping Singers Connect to Their Breath Support in Warmups:
"Drawing-in the Tone" and "Breathless Breaths,"”
Choral Journal 43:9 April 2003.
Extended
Letter to the Editor on choice of repertoire following 9/11, Choral
Journal 43:2
September 2002.
Article: "When the Orchestra Arrives," in the Choral Journal, December 1999.
Article: "Am
I being followed? - Finding the Elusive Connection between Conductor
and Ensemble," published in the Choral Journal, February
1996; revised and reprinted in the Journal of the Conductor's GuildWinter/Spring
1998.
Dissertation: "A Comparative Analysis of 18 Settings of Petrarch's Tutto
'l dì piango; e poi la notte, quando, University of Illinois,
1994.
Compositions (for scores and recordings, click here):
Sojourn
for SATB choir and four violins, text by Albert Einstein from The
World as I see it;
first performed October 6, 2007 at the inauguration of Stephen Emerson
as President of Haverford College.
Jubilant Intimations,
for SATB choir and organ; composed for the 2007 Eastern European tour
of the Bucks County Choral Society; premiered June 3, 2007 at Trinity
Lutheran Church, Lansdale, PA, with Eric Plutz, organ.
Stan’
Still Jordan – Egbe Nukopowo – arrangement of an
African-American spiritual juxtaposed with a traditional Ewe melody
from Ghana, for SATB choir and traditional percussion. First performed
by the Chamber Singers of Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges in Fall 2006
as part of their Ghana tour program; also performed by the PMEA District
12 High School Festival Choir in January 2007; scheduled for publication
in 2008 by Alliance Music Publishers.
traditional, arr. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, Scarborough Fair
/ Canticle, arranged for SATB and guitars (with permission); first
performed by the Chamber Singers of Haverford and Bryn Mawr, May 2006.
Lee S. Roberts, Smiles, arranged
for SAB senior choir, for the first annual Singing for Seniors Choir
Festival, of the Bucks County Choral Society, April 20, 2006.
The spirit
moves in marvelous ways - Ode to Ellington, for SATB choir and jazz
quartet; first performances with the Chamber Choir of the Bucks County
Choral Society and the Eric Mintel Quartet on October 29 and 30, 2005
at
St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Doylestown, PA.
The
World is Too Much with Us, (Wordsworth) for SATB choir, horn, and
piano; commissioned by Unionville (PA) High School, Jason Throne, director
and first performed there May 2005.
Of the Father's
Love Begotten / I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, for SATB choir,
harp, string quintet; first performances with the Bucks County Choral
Society, December 2004, Yardley and Doylestown, PA.
Henri Busser, Le
Sommeil de l'Enfant Jesus, for solo voice, harp, violin: solo part
re-arranged for SATB choir; first performances with the Bucks County
Choral Society, December 2004, Yardley and Doylestown, PA.
Leaves
of Grass / Ode to America, (Whitman) for SSAATTBB choir unaccompanied;
first performances by the Bucks County Choral Society June 2004, in
Doylestown, PA, St. Petersburg, Russia, and Tallinn, Estonia.
Immensity Cloistered in Thy Dear Womb (Donne) for SSAATTBB choir and brass quintet; first performed by the Bucks County Choral Society, December 2003 in Doylestown, PA.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel processional arrangement for SATB choir unaccompanied; first performed by the Bucks County Choral Society, December 2001 in Doylestown, PA; performed by the Philadelphia Singers, David Hayes, director, December 2004 in Philadelphia, PA.
Chamber Singers Touring Program
Highlights of some of the major tours in recent years are listed below. Click here for full narrative accounts of each of the tours.
- 2007: Ghana – trip to Ghana involving several faculty (from Music, Biology, History, and Religion), one dean, one program director (OMA) and 35 bi-college students (27 in Chamber Singers and 8 others (in biology and Africana Studies)) after a semester of directed study in the history of the Atlantic slave trade, the cultural integration of African music in Africa and the African diaspora, and politics of modern Africa. Activities (readings, written assignments, and public presentations) spanned two semesters; funding support obtained from nine different sources at both colleges; activities in Ghana included three collaborative concerts with 5 local choirs, radio interviews and national television coverage, audience with regional chiefs and the US Ambassador, as well as numerous informal and spontaneous performances at village schools, hospitals, and plantations.
- 2006: Puerto Rico – collaborative concerts in San Juan and Ponce with Coro Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Angel Mattos, Director and the Coro Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico Rubén Colón-Tarrats, Director; local coordination through student singer Tommy Bryan HC ’07, his family in Puerto Rico, and Puerto Rican alumni.
- 2005: Poland – concerts in Poznan and Warsaw, including a major collaborative concert at Philharmonic Hall in Poznan with the Adam Mickiewicz University Academic Choir directed by Jacek Sykulski; (this choir just made a return visit to Haverford in November 2007); Asst. Prof. Suava Salameh of the sociology department made local arrangements and co-led the trip. She arranged for numerous visits and discussions with government officials, academic leaders, and students about political and cultural issues in the post-Soviet era.
- 2003: Costa Rica –concerts in San Jose, St. Helena, and Arenal, including two concerts in collaboration with the Choir of the Municipal Youth Symphony of Cartago and the Chamber Choir of Alajuelita, both choirs conducted by Patricia Valverde
- 2002: Nashville, TN, shared concert with the Fisk Jubilee Singers directed by Paul Kwami, including campus tours, student discussions; return visit by the Fisk Jubilee Singers to Haverford in March 2005
- November 2001: Haverford, shared concert with the Howard University Choir, J. Weldon Norris, Director
- 1998: Venezuela - concerts in Caracas shared with the Orféon Universitario Simón Bolívar under the direction of Maria Guinand and Alberto Grau
Also, tours to Russia, Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Romania with the Bucks County Choral Society.
Major grants and awards:
Philadelphia Music Project - $30,000 grant to the Bucks County Choral
Society for a 30th anniversary commission project (BCCS only first-time
winner in 2002): Rachel and her Children – Small
Hands, Relinquish All; music by Robert Maggio; libretto compiled
by Thomas Lloyd.
First Prize Winner: Graduate Division, 1993 Student Conducting Awards,
American Choral Directors Association National Convention, San Antonio,
Texas.
Previous positions:
Abington (PA) Symphony Orchestra: Interim Director, 1998-1999
Hamilton College (Clinton, NY) 7/94 to 7/96: Acting Director of Choirs
and Orchestra and Visiting Assistant Professor of Music
Assistant Conductor: Illinois Opera Theater, 1993-1994 season, including
conducting performances of Hansel and Gretel and The
Aspern Papers (Argento)
Assistant Conductor: University of Illinois Graduate Chorale, Oratorio
Society 1992-1994 and Director, Madrigal Singers, 1992
Founding Music Director: The Cornerstone Chorale and Chamber Orchestra
of New York City (1990-1991)
Vice President, Information Systems, Prudential Securities, NY, NY (1983-1991)
Teaching Music at Haverford and Bryn Mawr
The bi-college community is a very special environment for music making. For an academic community of this size, the number of students involved in singing in such a wide variety of faculty-led and independent ensembles is truly remarkable. While each of these different groups has its own distinct identity and purpose, they share in common a love forgetting together with other people to sing, play, and listen. This combination of unity and diversity is most visible in our annual combined concerts at Family Weekend at Haverford and Parents' Day Bryn Mawr. This musical atmosphere, going back almost sixty years under the leadership of such teachers as Alfred Swan, John Davison, and William Reese has even inspired a number of local alums to continue as members of the Chorale - one recently said "most of what I did in college I have either forgotten or can recall only with some specific effort ...much of the music I learned or performed then lies just below the surface of conscious recollection, and it has an extraordinary power to recall itself."
It has been rewarding working with the students with
the variety of music interests and aspirations who come to Haverford
and Bryn Mawr, from students approaching music making for the first
time to those who could be in a conservatory if they chose, but prefer
to get a more rounded education while continuing their music making
at a high level. I have especially enjoyed collaborations with
Heidi Jacob and the orchestral program in making it possible for the
Chorale to perform major works with orchestra not just on rare occasions,
but every semester. This collaboration has brought about an opportunity
for our leading instrumentalists to play alongside students from the
Curtis Institute and Temple's Esther Boyer College of Music who are
brought in for these performances.
Haverford and Bryn Mawr are also great places to come for students
interested in seriously pursuing solo singing or conducting. Both
of these disciplines benefit from the kind of breadth and maturity that
a liberal arts education can bring. At the same time, students
can study singing or conducting intensively and gain valuable experience
as soloist or conductor with our departmental ensembles beyond what
would be available at a school with a larger number of music majors.
In short, Haverford and Bryn Mawr are great places to be for student musicians at any level of skill who want to experience music as something vitally connected to life outside the practice room.
Link to complete curriculum vita and bio.
Please contact me by phone (610-896-1006) or email tlloyd@haverford.edu if you have any questions.
Follow this link for more information on Choral Music at Haverford and Bryn Mawr