Mary Kay Geston
mary.geston@colorado.edu
303-492-6403
Macky Auditorium Room 109
Mailing Address: 301 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0301
Visiting Associate Professor of Choral Activities
Mary Kay Geston has been appointed Visiting Associate Professor of Choral Activities at the University of Colorado, Boulder, for the 2011 – 12 academic year. At CU she will direct the University Singers and teach conducting fundamentals and applied conducting for graduate students. Prior to this appointment she was associate professor of music at Northwestern College, Saint Paul, Minnesota (1999 – 2011), where she conducted the Women’s Chorale and Chamber Singers, taught Advanced Choral Conducting, Secondary Choral Methods, Class Voice, Introduction to Music, and supervised student teachers. Previously she was director of choral activities at Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota, and taught at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In spring of 2008 she conducted the St. Olaf College Manitou Singers.
Recently, Geston has been an artistic advisor to the Minnesota Chorale, artistic director of Great River Chorale, St. Cloud, Minnesota, and director of Voices of Experience, a choir for senior singers co-sponsored by the MacPhail Center for Music and Minnesota Chorale. She received the doctor of musical arts degree in choral conducting and literature from the University of Colorado, the master of music degree in choral conducting from the University of Minnesota, and teaching certification and the bachelor of arts degree in vocal performance from North Dakota State University.
Choirs under Geston’s direction have been selected to sing at state and divisional ACDA and music education conferences in 2010, 2006, 2004, 2001, and 1999. In 2003 the Northwestern College Women’s Chorale performed with the Minnesota Orchestra and maestro Edo de Waart. Dr. Geston is a frequent guest conductor and clinician, and in 2011 conducted the North Dakota All-State Women’s Choir, the University of Nebraska at Omaha Women’s Honor Choir, and the Mississippi 8 Conference Festival Choir, among others. In 2009 – 10 she conducted honor and festival choirs in Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin, and in January 2010 she was a clinician for the Korea International Choral Association in Daegu, South Korea.
In 2011 Geston was a featured presenter at the Minnesota Music Educators Association Mid-Winter Conference and the Northwestern College Scholarship Symposium, in 2010 at the Iowa Choral Directors Association Summer Symposium and North Dakota ACDA conference, in 2009 at the South Dakota Music Educators Association Conference, and in 2008 at the American Guild of Organists national conference, North Central ACDA conference, and Distler Seminar at Luther Seminary. Additionally, she was a panelist at the 2006 National Association of Teachers of Singing national conference.
Dr. Geston is a member of ACDA, MENC, MMEA, NCCO, NATS, and IFCM. She has served as president-elect of North Central ACDA and as a member of the editorial board for North Central ACDA’s Melisma. She previously served ACDA of Minnesota as president, membership chair, Repertoire & Standards Chair for College and University, chair of ACDA of Minnesota’s 50th Anniversary Committee, and as a member of ACDA of Minnesota’s F. Melius Christiansen Endowment Fund committee. She is working with American choral conductor and composer Dale Warland on a book about the Dale Warland Singers.