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His varied conducting experience includes leading the highly select Chamber Singers at Arizona
State University, which he took to an ACDA convention in 2008, the first such appearance by an
ASU choir in 15 years. He has conducted such major choral-orchestral works as Handel's Messiah,
Bach's B-Minor Mass, Bloch's Sacred Service, Orff's Carmina Burana, the Requiems of
Brahms, Mozart, and Fauré,
and most recently, Mendelssohn's Elijah. Equally at home with chorus and orchestra,
he has also led performances of the standard symphonic repertory and such works as Leonard Bernstein's
Jeremiah.
He has taught and conducted overseas, having led a series of lectures and master classes at Keimyung
University in Daegu, South Korea, in 2008, and given a series of talks and coachings at University
of the Andes in Merida, Venezuela, last May. In June, he was named by the U.S. Department of State
to the Fulbright Specialist roster, which qualifies him to do longer-term residencies at overseas universities.
Schildkret, a conductor, scholar, performer, and educator, was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew
up in southern New Jersey. He holds the Master and Doctor of Music degrees in Choral Conducting from
Indiana University, where he studied with Robert Porco and George Buelow. He holds the Bachelor of
Arts degree in Music from Rutgers University in New Jersey. In addition to his work at Arizona State
University and Salem College, he has taught at the University of Rochester in New York and Centre
College in Danville, Kentucky.
Schildkret is also Director of Music at Scottsdale United Methodist Church in Scottsdale, Arizona.
A sought-after clinician, he has conducted choirs at all levels and served as Music Director for the
Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra in upstate New York for eight seasons. His published articles include
essays on the music of Mozart, Bach, and Handel and several articles on choral conducting. He is the
founding editor of The Choral Scholar, the NCCO's online journal. In February of 2010, he will present
a series of four lectures at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art in North Carolina called Echoes
of Eden: the Garden as Symbol in Art, Music, and Literature. The talks will explore the ways that
artists, musicians, and composers use gardens as settings in their work. The lectures are derived from
a book with a similar title that Schildkret hopes to complete during his sabbatical year.
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