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Pearl Shangkuan
Pearl Shangkuan
director: Women's Chorale & the Calvin Alumni Choir, Music
(616)
526-6519
pshangku@calvin.edu
CFAC 170
Educational background
M.M. (Westminster Choir College, 1988), D.M.A. (Rutgers, 1998)
Biographical Information
A sought after conductor and clinician all across the United States and in Asia, Dr. Pearl Shangkuan is a professor of Music at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan 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. Her performances and preparation of choruses consistently receive outstanding reviews for their combination of precision, artistry and passion. In addition to her signature Mosaic choral series for earthsongs, she serves as the music editor of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship choral series, published by GIA.
Her choirs have performed at national, division and state conferences of ACDA and other professional music conferences in the United States. For the 2011-12 season, her conducting engagements will take her to Austria, South Africa, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and all over the United States including conducting honor choirs for two ACDA division conferences. She has led performances and given workshops all across the US and in Asia (China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan among others), as well as in Australia and Canada.
She has served on the National Board of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) as the President of the Central Division, and as Michigan ACDA state president. Prior to her appointment at Calvin College, Dr. Shangkuan taught at Rutgers University and at the Westminster Conservatory of Music of Rider University in New Jersey.
Dr. Shangkuan has served as guest faculty in programs including the Westminster Choir College Summer Session, the Chorus America A Capella Conducting Masterclass, the St. Olaf National Conference on Worship, Theology and the Arts, the Rene Clausen Choral School, the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, and the Southern Methodist University Perkins School of Theology Church Music Summer School. She has conducted all state, honor choirs and festivals in numerous states and in Japan and Austria.
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. Dr. Shangkuan has also served on the national board of the Chorister Guild and the board of the New Jersey Music Teachers Association and the New Jersey ACDA. As an accompanist, she has played for ACDA state and regional conventions. She is a member of the ACDA (American Choral Directors Association), Chorus America, IFCM (International Federation for Choral Music), MENC (Music Educators National Conference), MSVMA (Michigan State Vocal Music Association), and is a member of the Phi Kappa Lambda and Mu Phi Epsilon Music Honor Societies.
A student of pre-eminent 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, and a DMA in Choral Conducting from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Courses Taught
