Pearl Shangkuan
Dr. Pearl Shangkuan
Office: Spoelhof Center 347
Phone: (616) 526-6519
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Biographical Information
Dr. Pearl Shangkuan is a professor of Music at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she directs the Calvin Alumni Choir and the Calvin Women’s Chorale, and teaches Choral Conducting and Choral Literature. A sought after conductor and clinician all across the United States and in Asia, Dr. Pearl Shangkuan is a professor of music at Calvin where she directs choirs and teaches choral conducting and choral literature. She is also the chorusmaster (endowed Covenant chair) of the Grammy-nominated Grand Rapids Symphony, has her own signature choral series with earthsongs called Mosaic, and serves as the music editor of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship choral series published by GIA. She served as president of the ACDA Central Division (2007-09) and Michigan state president (2003-05). Prior to her appointment at Calvin College, she taught at Rutgers University and at the Westminster Conservatory of Music of Rider University in New Jersey.
Her choirs have performed at the national, regional and state conventions of the American Choral Director Association and other professional music organizations. She has led performances and given workshops all across the United States and in Asia, as well as in Australia and Canada. She has conducted all-state and honor choirs in several states, and has been a guest clinician and faculty for nationally recognized programs such as the Chorus America conducting masterclass, the University of Michigan’s Choral Conducting Symposium, the Rene Clausen Choral School, the St. Olaf National Conference on Worship, Theology and the Arts, and the Westminster Choir College Summer Session among others.
Recipient of the Grand Rapids YWCA’s Tribute! Award for outstanding professional women, she is also a past recipient of its Woman of Achievement award. Shangkuan has served on the national boards of the ACDA and the Chorister Guild, and the boards of the New Jersey Music Teachers Association and the New Jersey ACDA. She is a member of the ACDA, Chorus America, MENC, IFCM, MSVMA (Michigan State Vocal Music Association), and the Phi Kappa Lambda and Mu Phi Epsilon Music Honor Societies.
A student of preeminent American choral conductor and New York Philharmonic chorusmaster Dr. Joseph Flummerfelt, she received a Bachelor of Music in Church Music summa cum laude and Master of Music in Choral Conducting with distinction from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. She received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
