William Weinert (Eastman-Rochester Chorus) Since 1994, William Weinert has served as Professor of Conducting and Director of Choral Activities at the Eastman School of Music, where he conducts the Eastman Chorale and the Eastman-Rochester Chorus and supervises the masters and doctoral programs in choral conducting. He has conducted throughout Europe and the United States, as well as in the Far East, and has served throughout the country as a clinician and an adjudicator, as well as giving conducting master classes in North America, Europe and Asia. Ensembles under Weinert's direction have performed at conferences of the American Choral Directors' Association and the Music Educators' National Conference.
The Eastman Chorale has undertaken annual tours in recent years under Weinert's leadership, performing significant repertoire from the sixteenth through twenty-first centuries. They have regularly performed with Eastman instrumental ensembles in such works as the two Bach Passions and in contemporary repertoire. In addition, the Chorale undertakes annual readings and recordings of Eastman student works, and regularly presents premieres of significant new choral music.
Recent performances of the Eastman-Rochester chorus have included the premiere of Dominick Argento's Four Seascapes, the Britten War Requiem, the Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony, Requiems of Mozart, Verdi and Brahms, and the Beethoven Missa Solemnis. Critic John Pitcher wrote that the 2004 Beethoven performance "was terrific in every respect...The chorus sang full-throttle, sending vocal sparks throughout the concert hall." Pitcher's review of the chorus's 2005 performance of Alexander Nevsky stated that "the RPO's joint performance with the mighty Eastman-Rochester Chorus of the Prokofiev cantata is the most powerful and satisfying thing I've heard in the city all year...The Chorus sang with unforgettable emotion."
Weinert has also frequently conducted opera and symphonic repertoire, and has performed extensively as a recitalist and oratorio soloist. He has published articles on the music of Brahms and Bruckner and Georg Schumann, as well as Geistliche Gesäng und Melodeyen: a Critical Edition with Commentary, an edition of twenty-four motets by the prominent baroque composer Melchior Franck. In 1998 he succeeded Alfred Mann as editor of The American Choral Review, the journal of the American Choral Foundation.
The graduate programs in conducting at Eastman have been ranked by US News as the finest in the country. A small number of students are admitted to these degree programs, and they are given significant podium experience with regular Eastman ensembles. In recent years Eastman graduate students in both the masters and doctoral programs have won first place in the ACDA national student conducting competitions.
Weinert holds the A.B. in history and B.Mus. in music education from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music; the M.M. in conducting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and both the M.M. in music history and the D.M.A. in conducting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied with Robert Fountain, and then taught for five years as Fountain's assistant. He has studied conducting with Daniel Moe, Geoffrey Simon, Karlos Moser, and Robert Porter. His vocal training has included study with Yolanda Marculescu, Howard Hatton and Ilona Kombrink; his study of the clarinet included work with Lawrence McDonald, Russell Dagon and Alois Heine at the Salzburg Mozarteum. He was the founder and director of the Schütz Ensemble of Madison (1984-90), musical director of the Madison Savoyards (1983 and 1987).
He has previously served on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside (1982-84), University of Wisconsin-Madison (1984-89), and the University of Southern Mississippi (1989-94), and has served for three summers as guest professor at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany.