 Glen Thomas Rideout, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, is an award- winning conductor and baritone. Glen Thomas holds a bachelor’s degree in voice from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has studied voice and vocal pedagogy with Gayle Shay, Jonathan Retzlaff and Stephen West. His conducting mentors include Philip Olsen, Robin Fountain, Paul Rardin and Jerry Blackstone. Glen Thomas 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, Glen Thomas 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. Glen Thomas gained national recognition for conducting as second prize winner in the 2009 Conducting Competition of the American Choral Directors Association. His recent international schedule includes conducting engagements in Poland, the Czech Republic, Canada, Croatia, Finland, Iceland, Estonia and Russia. Upcoming conducting engagements include concerts in Spain, Andorra and France. In the United States, Glen Thomas founded chamber choirs in Maryland and Tennessee that continue to provide unique leadership opportunities to aspiring young conductors and music educators. He is a member of the American Choral Directors Association and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity. Glen Thomas’ work as a vocalist includes singing engagements with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the Mark Morris Dance Group and the University of Michigan. 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. Glen Thomas has served the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor as Director of Music since August, 2007 Zebulon "Zeb" M. Highben, is a choral conductor, composer, and church musician. He is a doctoral student in choral conducting at Michigan State University, where he is a teaching assistant in both the choral and musicology areas. He was also recently appointed Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church of Lansing. Prior to moving to Michigan, Zeb taught at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and at the University of Wisconsin River Falls. He was also the full-time Choirmaster and Associate Musician at Westwood Lutheran Church in suburban Minneapolis, where he conducted multiple choirs and oversaw the congregation’s Fine and Visual Arts ministries. Under his direction, Westwood’s 70-voice adult choir recorded two CDs and was invited to perform at the St. Olaf College Choral Festival (2008) and the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota’s Fall Convention (2006). Since 2005 he has taught on the faculty of the annual Lutheran Summer Music Academy & Festival, a month-long residential training and performance program for gifted high school and college musicians. As the Paul Bouman Chapel Choir Director his responsibilities include conducting the Chapel Choir, designing and coordinating the annual Festival of Hymns, and teaching the elective church music course. Currently Zeb serves as president of the Midwest region of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians; other professional memberships include ACDA, The Hymn Society, and the American Composers Forum. A published author, reviewer, and composer, his choral and liturgical music is published by Augsburg Fortress. Zeb holds the B.M.E. from Ohio State University (magna cum laude and with distinction) and the M.S.M. in choral conducting from Luther Seminary with St. Olaf College. He has studied with Hilary Apfelstadt, Anton Armstrong, James S. Gallagher, and Robert Scholz (conducting); John Ferguson and Paul Westermeyer (church music); and David Cherwien and Ronald A. Nelson (composition). He recently moved to Haslett with his wife, Amanda, who is studying to become a Lutheran pastor. |
