Dwight Bigler
Dwight Bigler is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Virginia Tech where he conducts the VT Chamber Singers and has taught choral literature, choral arranging, conducting, and orchestration. Under his direction, the VT Chamber Singers has performed in Carnegie Hall, at VMEA, and throughout Italy, Ireland, and Spain. He has led concerts and workshops throughout the United States and in Austria, China, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Indonesia, and Italy. Dwight is also the Music Director of the Blacksburg Master Chorale and regularly conducts masterworks for choir and orchestra. Bigler’s compositions have won a number of awards, including commissions by the Barlow Endowment, the NCCO composition contest, and The American Prize (2023, for his environmental oratorio for choir and orchestra, Mosaic for Earth), and are published by Alliance, Boosey & Hawkes, E.C. Schirmer, Hinshaw, Just a Theory Press, Oxford, and Walton Music. Bigler holds degrees from Brigham Young University (B.M. in Piano Performance, M.M. in Choral Conducting) and The University of Texas at Austin (D.M.A. in Choral Conducting), with cognates in composition throughout.
Ting-Ting Yang
Ting-Ting Yang is a versatile collaborative pianist and multi-genre composer from Taiwan, currently serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Collaborative Piano at Virginia Tech, whose artistry spans major international stages and diverse educational settings. As a distinguished collaborative pianist, she has served as a Collaborative Piano Fellow at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Brevard Music Festival and has held staff pianist positions at prestigious events, including the Jacobs Summer String Academy at Indiana University, the Thailand International Trombone Festival and the Bass Around Asia Festival in Taiwan. Her performance highlights include performing at Musiqa’s 20th Anniversary Concert (Houston, TX) and recording Anthony Brandt’s chamber opera Kassandra. Simultaneously, as an innovative composer, Yang's work has earned international recognition; her award-winning orchestral composition, Portal, received premieres in both the United States (East Carolina University) and Asia (YST Conservatory, Singapore). Known for works often inspired by Taiwanese culture and her co-founding of the H-Tone Electroacoustic Ensemble, her music has been performed in major venues. Yang received her primary training in piano from a roster of esteemed teachers including Virginia Weckstrom, Kevin Murphy and Anne Epperson, and in composition from Ching-Yu Hsiau and Ho Chee Kong.
Marko Stuparević
Marko Stuparević, a Serbian-American pianist, stands as a distinguished performer with a portfolio comprising over 500 concerts and festival appearances in numerous countries, including the USA, Israel, France, Serbia, Iceland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Slovakia. He has garnered acclaim as both a solo artist and chamber musician.
Hyesoo Yoo
Hyesoo Yoo is an associate professor of Music Education at Virginia Tech where she teaches elementary music methods, secondary music methods, music education lab ensemble, and women’s chorus. Her research interest includes intercultural approaches in music education, creative activities, lifelong music learning, and the innovative uses of technology in classrooms. She has published in many journals such as the Journal of Research in Music Education, Psychology of Music, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Journal of Teacher Music Education, Research Studies of Music Education, Update: Applications of Research n Music Education, Contributions in Music Education, the Music Educators Journal, and General Music Today. She is a member of the editorial committees of the Music Educators Journal. She has presented at numerous conferences throughout the U.S. and internationally, including NAfME Music Research & Teacher Education Conference, Society for Music Teacher Education, American Educational Research Association, the 10th Asia Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research, the International Symposium on Assessment in Music Education, ACDA National Conference, ACDA Symposium on Research in Choral Singing, ACDA Voices United, the Florida Music Educators Association, and the Virginia Music Educators Associations.
Brian Thorsett
Hailed as “a strikingly gifted tenor, with a deeply moving, unblemished voice” (sfmusicjournal.com), tenor Brian Thorsett excels in opera, oratorio and recital across the world. Since taking to the stage, he has been seen and heard in over 100 diverse operatic roles, ranging from Monteverdi to Britten, back to Rameau and ahead again to works composed specifically for his talents. As a concert singer, he fosters a stylistically diversified repertoire of over 250 works, which has taken him to concert halls across the US and Europe.
An avid recitalist, Thorsett is closely associated with expanding the vocal-chamber genre, and has been involved in premieres and commissions of Ian Venables, Stacy Garrop, David Conte, Scott Gendel, Michael Scherperel, Peter Josheff, Shinji Eshima, Gordon Getty, Michel Bosc, Eric Choate and Noah Luna among many others. Recent projects include the premiere of Ian Venables The Last Invocation and Christopher Stark’s Scream.
Thorsett has also been heard in recordings, commercials and movies as the voice for SoundIron’s library Voice of Rapture: Tenor. His CD releases include song cycles of David Conte and Scott Gendel’s Barbara Allen. He is a graduate of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, Glimmerglass Opera’s Young American Artist program, American Bach Soloists’ Academy, the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme at Aldeburgh, England and spent two summers at the Music Academy of the West. He is currently Associate Professor of Voice at Virginia Tech’s School of Performing Arts and served on the faculties as Lecturer at UC Berkeley and Santa Clara University.
Amy Cowan
Amy Cowan holds a B.M. in Vocal Performance from Rice University in Houston and an M.M. in Opera Performance from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. She also earned a Certification in Kodály Methodology from Holy Names University in Oakland, CA and has twenty years of experience working with voices of all ages. She held positions as Choir Director and Music Director with Vivace Youth Chorus of San Jose, Coastal Theatre Conservatory, Coastside Lutheran Church, and taught K-8 music at several schools during her ten years in California. She has adjudicated choral festivals in Houston, Key West, and Oakland, has coached the music for countless musical theatre productions of all ages, and has always maintained a private voice studio. Her choral work and extensive experience with young voices make her a particularly good fit for Music Ed majors. In addition to her work at VT since 2016, Amy is the Choir Director at Luther Memorial Lutheran Church, and a mother of two. She is also a Registered Yoga Teacher, and enjoys bringing this whole-body approach to her work with singers.