Award-winning conductor and baritone Glen Thomas Rideout is the sixteenth Artistic Director and Conductor of Saginaw Choral Society. A native of Baltimore, Mr. Rideout holds a bachelor’s degree in voice from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Mr. Rideout is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has studied voice and vocal pedagogy with Dr. Gayle Shay, Dr. Jonathan Retzlaff, Dr. Dean Southern and Mr. Stephen West. His conducting mentors include Dr. Jamie Washington, Mr. Philip Olsen, Mr. Robin Fountain, Dr. Paul Rardin and Dr. Jerry Blackstone.
He is an active music minister, conductor and clinician, having led the music ministries of congregations in Maryland, Tennessee and Michigan. While serving as artistic director of the Voices of Praise at Vanderbilt University, he facilitated the choir’s growth from 20 to 70 members in three years and retains the honor of having been the choir’s longest- serving elected director.
Mr. Rideout gained national recognition for conducting as second prize winner in the 2009 Conducting Competition of the American Choral Directors Association. Rideout's writing on music has been published by the Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Association's largest congregation. His recent international schedule includes conducting engagements in Poland, the Czech Republic, Canada, Croatia, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Russia, Spain, Andorra and France.
In the United States, Mr. Rideout founded chamber choirs in Maryland and Tennessee that continue to provide unique leadership opportunities to aspiring young conductors and music educators. He has premiered works by such composers as Stuart Chapman Hill and MacKenzie Shivers. Mr. Rideout has served the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor as Director of Music since August, 2007.
Mr. Rideout is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network, the American Choral Directors Association and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity.
His work as a vocalist includes singing engagements with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the Mark Morris Dance Group, University of Michigan and the University Musical Society. An award- winning pianist, he has served more than 15 churches, ministries and organizations as a concert and worship service artist. Glen Thomas’ compositions have been performed in the United States and Europe. Notable recordings of his music include work with the Holiday Choir of Hemingway Temple A.M.E. Church in Baltimore, Maryland and with the Chalice Singers of First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor.