Clinicians
Summer 2026 Clinicians
Lee Kesselman Session 1
Composer Lee R. Kesselman is best known as a composer of vocal works, including opera, music for chorus, chamber music and solo songs. Large vocal works include the opera The Bremen Town Musicans (commissioned by Opera for the Young), The Emperor's New Clothes (a choral opera), Measuring the Holy for SATB, children and orchestra, Shona Mass for voices and African percussion, and Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand, a symphony for treble chorus and orchestra, and Praise to the Light of the World for men, women, SATB and symphonic band. The Bremen Town Musicans has been performed over 350 times for schoolchildren in Wisconsin, Illinois, Tennessee and Texas.
Kesselman has been honored as a composer with prizes in the Melodious Accord (New York) Composition Search, Chautauqua Chamber Singers Composition Contest, the Chautauqua Children’s Chorale Composition Contest and the Illinois Choral Directors’ Association Contest. Kesselman is the composer or arranger of over 90 published choral works and an equal number of unpublished works in the genres of choral, opera, symphonic, solo voice and chamber music.
Kesselman has written numerous pieces for instrumental ensembles,
including O lente, lente currite noctis equi!, CG, and Love Song for a Common Destiny for string orchestra, Metallum and Bei Mir for percussion ensembles, and works for various combinations of solo piano, violin and piano, cello and bass, violin and bass, and Duo Mythologique for flute and string bass. His extended works for solo voice and instruments include JOLERE for soprano and string quartet (and dance), Ashes & Dreams for soprano, clarinet and piano, Make Me A Willow Cabin for soprano, clarinet and piano, FACES for soprano and piano, In the Garden of Love for soprano and piano, LOVE PHASES for baritone and piano, How I Hate This Room for soprano, cello and piano, and CIRCLES for soprano, string bass and piano.
Composer & arrangement of many works for choruses of all voicings and levels, Kesselman’s best-known choral works include BUZZINGS for SATB on poetry of Emily Dickinson, Ad Amore for treble or tenor/bass voices and bells, SHONA MASS for various voicings and African percussion, Be Thou My Vision for SATB, Kaddish for My Father for SATB, clarinet and piano, Hope is the Song to words of Gordon Parks, Love Song for a Common Destiny for SATB, As One is One for SATB, string bass and piano, SENSOO for SATB and crotales, Nights in Armor for SATB, Kadosh/Benedictus for SSA or SAB brass quintet and organ, and Moonplay for SSA, flute and marimba. His choral arrangements span the worlds of African, Scottish, American, Japanese, Swedish, Native American, Spirituals, Hebrew and Yiddish songs and Christmas carols. He has also ‘re-thought’ works by Bach, Handel, Monteverdi for voices.
Mr. Kesselman’s works for children have brought him national attention and he has been commissioned to write for children’s choirs, middle school, junior school, high school, college, community, church, and professional ensembles. Boosey & Hawkes, Roger Dean Music, Lawson-Gould Music Publishers, Colla Voce, Carl Fischer Music and G. Schirmer have published many of Mr. Kesselman’s choral works. His compositions and arrangements are also available through www.kesselmanpress.com and www.MusicSpoke.com He served as a long-time choral editor for Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers. He is also the co-founder and Associate Director of the Choral Music Experience Teacher Training Institute.
Kesselman served as Director of Choral Activities at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, a suburb of Chicago, from 1981-2022. He is Founder and Music Director of the New Classic Singers, a professional choral ensemble. He also directed the DuPage Chorale and College of DuPage Chamber Singers. A native of Milwaukee, he holds undergraduate degrees in piano and composition from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and a master’s degree in conducting from the University of Southern California. In addition to teaching and composing, Mr. Kesselman is active as a conductor, pianist, clinician and lecturer. He has been music director for a variety of opera and musical theatre productions. Kesselman was Chair of the Music Program at College of DuPage and Founding Curator of the Music Fridays @ Noon series. He served as President of Illinois Choral Directors Association. Chicago a cappella awarded Kesselman its Tribute Award in 2018.
Cristian Larios Session 2
Cristian Larios (he/él) is a choral conductor, educator, and composer from Joliet, IL, dedicated to building musical communities where singers feel seen, supported, and inspired. He serves as the choir director at Plainfield North High School, leading five curricular ensembles and multiple extracurricular groups. In his work as a teacher, Cristian focuses on creating inclusive, collaborative spaces in which young musicians can take artistic risks, explore diverse musical traditions, and cultivate a deep sense of belonging.Cristian is also an active composer whose work centers storytelling, identity, and human connection. His music has been performed by ensembles including the Resonance Ensemble, No-Name Chorale, Challenge the Stats, and Tonality, and featured at the REDNote New Music Festival. His piece In This House appears on Tonality’s 2024 album America Will Be. He has served as a fellow or commissioned artist for organizations such as the PREMIERE|Project Festival, the New Canon Project, and the William Ferris Chorale, collaborating closely with students and community musicians.Cristian holds degrees in Music Education and Composition from Illinois State University and a Master of Music Education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Larios is the recipient of the 2017 Harlan Peithman Music Scholarship for
excellence in music theory and composition, the 2018 Illinois Minority Teachers Scholarship, and most recently, the Teacher of the Year award at Plainfield North High School. He’s also an enthusiastic supporter of ramen, fresh flowers, and the sparkle emoji ✨
Summer 2025 Clinicians
Roland Hatcher
Roland Hatcher serves as Director of Vocal Music at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, IL. He holds a Masters Degree in Music Education from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from The Ohio State University. A highly committed advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, his professional interests include utilizing culturally responsive music education as a means of developing cultural competence across diverse student bodies, and creating structures to serve underrepresented student populations in the choral classroom. Prior to his appointment at Stevenson, Hatcher held the same position at Alan B. Shepard High School in Palos Heights, where he directed four concert choirs, the award winning show choir ‘NOVA’, and oversaw the musical theatre program as the director and music director. He has also worked as a Conductor with Chicago Children’s Choir, working with the Humboldt Park Neighborhood Choir and the In-School Program, and as a percussion instructor at numerous schools across the Midwest. Choirs under his direction have performed at St. John’s Cathedral, Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall, Guaranteed Rate Field, Chicago Symphony Center and countless
other high profile venues. Hatcher has studied music abroad in England and Corsica, and is frequently sought after as a clinician, music director and adjudicator across Chicago. Roland is a proud member of ILMEA, ACDA, NAfME, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and currently serves as the District 7 Representative for IL-ACDA executive board.
Paul Laprade
Paul Laprade is an award-winning conductor, lecturer, and teacher of choral music and music theory/composition. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, New York, USA) and Westminster Choir College (Princeton, New Jersey, USA), with degrees in music education, music performance, conducting, and music theory/composition. Laprade studied choral conducting under Joseph Flummerfelt, James Jordan, Donald Neuen, and Robert Shaw. He has been the recipient of several awards, including the Award for Teaching Excellence from the Eastman School of Music, Faculty of the Year award from Rock Valley College, and First Place winner of the Award for International Musicological Research. He has taught in high schools, two-year colleges, and both undergraduate and graduate courses at the college/university level.
Ensembles under his direction performed throughout North America and at the White House for American Presidents Clinton (1994), Bush (2001), and Obama (2010). In addition to his activities as a clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor, he composes frequently for choral and orchestral ensembles as well as for solo voice.
Laprade’s research interests focus on the intersection between analysis, hearing, interpretation, and performance. His articles and reviews appear in several journals, including The Journal of Music Theory, Theoria, The Choral Journal, and MUSIQ (2019). Recent papers include “Perspectives on Rhythmic Syllabification” (IMEC- 2020), Appropriation and Artistic Synergy (18th International Conference on the Arts and Humanities, Venice, Italy, 2020), and
Richness of the “Other”: Musical Appropriation as Fundamental Defining Language (13th Annual International Conference on Arts and Humanities, Athens, Greece, ATHIER, June 2022.) In addition, he has presented papers and conducted at national conferences for the American Musicological Society, the Society for Music Theory, American Choral Directors’ Association, Music Educators’ National Conference, and ATHIER. He was appointed National Chair for University/Collegiate Research and Repertoire for the American Choral Directors Association, and was editor of Choral Reviews for Choral Journal. He is currently the President of Illinois-ACDA, Conductor/Artistic Director of the Oak Park Concert Chorale and the Tutti Voce Collective, and serves on the faculty of Vandercook College of Music, where he teaches courses in Choral Literature.
Summer 2024 Clinicians
Madeleine Woodworth
Madeleine Woodworth developed her love of choir, conducting, sacred music, organ, and collaborative music while participating in the music program at Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park. She began studying piano with Dr. Sally Sloane at age 6, and organ with Dr. Dennis Northway at age 13, and she graduated from the Chicago Academy for the Arts, with a double major in piano and organ. Madeleine earned her Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance, studying with Nathan J. Laube at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where she also studied conducting with Dr. William Weinert and church music with Stephen Kennedy.
At the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Madeleine sang in the Yale Schola Cantorum and studied with Marguerite Brooks, Dr. Jeffrey Douma, and David Hill to earn her Master of Music in Choral Conducting. During her second year at Yale, Madeleine served as Choir Director of the Marquand Chapel Choir, the experimental service laboratory for the Yale Divinity School students, where she emphasized programming of living and minority composers. She has participated in master classes and workshops with conducting mentors including Masaaki Suzuki,
Simon Carrington, Dr. Jerry Blackstone, Dr. Joe Miller, Diane Witry, and Sarah Ioannaides. Upon graduating from Yale, Madeleine was awarded the Robert Shaw Prize for excellence in conducting and the Richard Paul DeLong Prize in church music. Now based in Chicago, Madeleine serves as the Director of Music at Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park, where she conducts the Adult Choir, Madrigal Choir (grades 6-12) and Schola Choir (grades K-5). She teaches private students in voice, piano, organ, and theory/aural skills and serves as a staff accompanist in the vocal department at the Merit School of Music in Chicago. Madeleine sings with professional voice ensembles in the Chicago area, including the nine-voice treble ensemble, La Caccina, as well as the mixed-voice William Ferris Chorale.
Emily Ellsworth
Nationally recognized as a leader in the field of youth choral conductors, Emily Ellsworth enjoys an active schedule as guest conductor nationally and abroad. She has conducted all-state choirs and festivals in over 30 states, honor choirs for the Northwest, North Central, Southwest, and Western divisions of the American Choral Directors’ Association, the national children’s honor choir for ACDA’s 60 th anniversary conference (2019) and the National Honor Choirs for the Organization of Kodaly Educators (2013 and 2023). She is on the conducting roster for Manhattan Concert Productions and conducted a national youth festival there in June of 2024. International appearances include festival choirs in Ireland, England, Hong Kong, Grand Cayman Island, Greece, and presentations for the National Association of Choral Directors in Brazil.
Collegiate work includes an adjunct position at Elmhurst University teaching Conducting III for Choral Music Ed majors (2023-24), a visiting professorship at Luther College (2020-21) conducting both Aurora and Collegiate Chorale, and conducting the University Singers at Northwestern University (2012-15). From 1996-2018, Ms.
Ellsworth was Artistic Director of Anima-Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus outside of Chicago, earning several national awards for her work. More information can be found at www.emilyellsworth.net.