Grammy-Winning Choral Expert Dr Christopher Kiver Announces Australian Tour

Dr Kiver to visit every Australian state and territory in June and July 2025, offering workshops and events for choirs and conductors.

SYDNEY, NSW, AUSTRALIA, May 12, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Australian National Choral Association (ANCA) is thrilled to announce its 2025 National Tour clinician, Dr Christopher Kiver. A globally respected choral conductor, educator, and Grammy Award winner, Dr Kiver will visit every Australian state and territory throughout June and July 2025, presenting an inspiring range of workshops, choir events, and professional development opportunities for singers and conductors alike.

Currently Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Pennsylvania State University, Dr Kiver is known for his dynamic and inclusive approach to choral leadership. He has worked extensively across the USA, China, Australia, and New Zealand, presenting for leading organisations such as the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). His areas of expertise include conducting and vocal pedagogy, changing adolescent voices, rehearsal technique, choral programming, score study, music ministry, ensemble recruitment, and choral advocacy.

Dr Kiver is a recipient of multiple prestigious accolades, including two Grammy Awards, a World Choral Symposium Foundation Scholarship, and the Pennsylvania State University President’s Award for Engagement with Students.

“ANCA is excited about this unique opportunity for choirs and conductors around Australia to work with this outstanding choral clinician through events and workshops,” says ANCA National President Marianne Rigby. “We’re proud to offer access to a musician of Dr Kiver’s calibre to communities nationwide.”
In Sydney, Dr Kiver will be presenting two events on Sunday 29 June. The morning will be a professional development opportunity for choral conductors of all levels. The session will cover two main topics, 1) vocal pedagogy to enhance conductor's understanding of the vocal mechanism and learn to identify and remedy standard vocal issues that arise in rehearsal, and 2) incorporating physical movement in the rehearsal transforms to engage singers in more beautiful and thoughtful singing. The afternoon session will be a festival choir, with the opportunity for singers to learn and rehearse two pieces with Dr Kiver, and for conductors to observe theory in practice.

Dr Kiver’s national tour with ANCA represents a rare opportunity for Australian choirs, conductors, educators and students to engage with world-class choral pedagogy, and to be part of a unifying celebration of community singing across the country.

Tickets and Information:
Times: 10am-1pm: Vocal Pedagogy and Rehearsal Techniques Workshop
2pm-4pm: Festival Choir
Date: Sunday 29 June, 2025
Location: Harold Park Community Hall, Forest Lodge

Tickets: https://www.trybooking.com/CZQIW

Contact:
Alex Siegers
Treasurer
ANCA NSW/ACT Chapter
alex@anca.org.au

Images:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gso4Wwh_XqoeWDSPRB4-FGoZO9fMUXFl?usp=sharing

About Dr Christopher Kiver

Dr. Christopher Kiver is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Pennsylvania State University where he directs the Concert Choir and Glee Club, oversees the graduate choral conducting program, and teaches classes in choral conducting and choral literature. He founded and directed The Orpheus Singers and is a regular guest conductor of the Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra.

Choirs under Kiver’s direction have performed at numerous state and regional conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and National Association for Music Education (NAfME). With the Penn State Concert Choir, Kiver directed a performance of Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize winning composition, Anthracite Fields, with Bang on a Can and led the choir in an appearance with the Rolling Stones. He has been engaged as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator in the United States, Australia, China, and New Zealand.

As well as teaching and performing, from 2002-2021 Kiver served as Director of Music Ministries at First Baptist Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and University Baptist and Brethren Church in State College, Pennsylvania.

For ACDA, Kiver currently serves as Past President of the Eastern Region. He is a former national Repertoire and Standards chair for Men’s/TTBB Choirs and is past president of the Pennsylvania state chapter.

While living in Brisbane from 1996-2002, Kiver conducted the Brisbane Chorale, Brisbane Concert Choir, Queensland University Musical Society, Blackstone-Ipswich Cambrian Choir, and was Director of Choirs at Brisbane Boys’ College. He was a part-time teacher for various choral courses at the University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, and Griffith University. In 2001, Kiver was guest conductor for the massed choir at the Goodwill Games Gala Concert in Brisbane, the Queensland Pops Orchestra, and the Australian Intervarsity Choral Festival in Adelaide.

A native of England, Kiver has received numerous prizes and scholarships including a Fulbright Award, and the 2002 Sydney World Choral Symposium Foundation Scholarship. In February 2006 he was a double Grammy Award winner ("Best Choral Performance" and "Best Classical Album") as a chorus master for the critically acclaimed Naxos recording of William Bolcom’s monumental Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Kiver was the recipient of Penn State University’s President’s Award for Engagement with Students in 2017. He is a graduate of the University of London, Florida State University, and the University of Michigan where he received the D.M.A. in choral conducting.

About Australian National Choral Association

The Australian National Choral Association (ANCA), an Incorporated Association, was established in 1990 from the merger of two associations, the Australian Choral Association (ACA) and the Australian Choral Conductors Association (ACCA). The formation of ANCA took place at the ACCA National Conference in July 1989 and was seen as a bench mark for development in quality and quantity of choral directors, choirs and choral literature.

Over 65 different people filling 150+ positions over a period of over 20 years of ANCA’s existence provides some very strong and broad shoulders for the current national council to stand on. The objectives of the association over the years have remained the same; to stimulate interest and participation in choral music and related activities, linking choral musicians throughout the country and nurturing growth of all choral activities.

Alex Siegers
Australian National Choral Association
alex@anca.org.au

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