Dr. Shannon Gravelle

The Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg

Endowed Festival Choir Director Chair

Biography

Dr. Shannon Gravelle is the Director of Choral Activities University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, where she conducts Chamber Choir, Treble Choir, and the Tenor/Bass Choir. She previously served as the Director of Choral Activities and Music Education Coordinator at Meredith College in North Carolina. Her current research focuses on conducting pedagogy and how the identity points of young conductors affect the way they learn conducting. She is committed to equity work within her field and higher education, and advocacy is a centerpiece of her community building. Other areas of research also include silenced voices in music, conducting pedagogy, the choral works of Russian composer Sergei Taneyev, the early choral works of Johannes Brahms, the life and works of Barbara Strozzi, and music education advocacy.

Dr. Gravelle holds The Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Concert Choir Chair (choir director) at the 2023 Lutheran Summer Music Academy & Festival. She has been an adjudicator, clinician, and guest conductor for choirs in North Carolina, Minnesota, Maryland, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Illinois. She has presented at conferences In Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, and has led professional development for K-12 music teachers. She has served as a church music director, choral conductor, hand bell conductor, pianist, and vocal soloist. Her publications can be found in Notes, Carolina Caroler, The Choral Scholar, and The Choral Journal. She is a member of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), on which she serves on the conference planning committee of Midwestern Region ACDA and as the Bass Clef Choir R&R Chair for Wisconsin ACDA. She is also a member of the National Collegiate Choral Organization, on which she serves as a national board member. Her other memberships are in the National Association for Music Education, College Music Society, and Pi Kappa Lambda music honor society. In addition to conducting and scholarly activities, she enjoys singing, playing piano and guitar, identifying ways to collaborate with other musicians, running, and going to baseball games. She has sung at a TED talk given by Eric Whitacre and, true to the life of a rockstar, has sung back-up for the Rolling Stones.

Her conducting mentors include Timothy Stalter, Jonathan Talberg, Tim Peter, Sandra Peter, and Weston Noble. Dr. Gravelle received her Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting and Pedagogy from the University of Iowa; her research took her to Russia to study the music and history of composer Sergei Taneyev for her dissertation. She holds a Master of Music from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University - Long Beach and an undergraduate degree from Luther College, where her areas of study were music, music education, and religion.

Dr. Gravelle previously served LSM as Dean of Students in 2007 and 2008 and as a counselor in 2005 and 2006.