Jack Reeder
Visiting Assistant Professor of Choral Music

Jack Reeder is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Choral Music at Longwood University where his responsibilities include conducting the two advanced choral ensmbles and teaching aural skills, conducting, and choral music education courses. Before joining the faculty at Longwood, he taught at Northwestern University where he earned the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees, studying under four-time GRAMMY winning conductor Donald Nally.

While at Northwestern, Jack served as assistant conductor of the school’s top ensemble, the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble, preparing it for performances under Nally, Andrew Megill, and Beth Willer. He also led the university’s treble ensemble, Northwestern Camerata. Equally invested in the operatic and symphonic repertoire, Reeder prepared choruses for operas and symphonic works, including the Midwest premiere of Jake Heggie’s If I Were You and a select octet of singers for Berio’s Sinfonia. His scholarly research focuses on the choral works of Kaija Saariaho, spectral choral music, and the transformation of folk/popular music into liturgical art music in American Jewish music.

Also active as a singer, Jack performs with Philadelphia’s The Crossing, a new music choir with four GRAMMY awards and numerous nominations, Chicago’s Music of the Baroque Chorus and Constellation Men’s Ensemble, and Bozeman’s Roots in the Sky. In his collaborations with these ensembles, he has sung with The Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, the Aspen Music Festival, Park Avenue Armory, and Rice University.

Reeder holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice and Opera and Sacred Music from Northwestern University, studying voice with Kurt Hansen, conducting with Richard Boldrey, and organ with Maggie Kemper. Previous work in religious settings includes large adult choirs in suburban Chicago churches and synagogues, children’s and youth choirs, and handbell ensembles. He holds professional memberships with American Choral Directors Association, National Collegiate Choral Organization, and the American Guild of Organists.