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WILLIAM PAYN Director of
Choral Studies
Department of Music Telephone: (570) 577-1391 |
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WILLIAM PAYN has achieved prominence as a conductor and composer. As Director of Choral Studies at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, he has led his choirs to international recognition for their creative interpretation of significant choral literature of the past five centuries. His choirs have performed all over the world, including concert tours in England, Wales, Switzerland, Austria, Holland, West Germany, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica. Closer to home, they have recently sung in Florida, California, and Arizona. The Rooke Chapel Choir will travel to Spain in May 2002 for a ten-day concert tour. Both his Rooke Chapel Choir and University Concert Chorale have sung at conventions of the American Choral Directors Association. Bucknell's popular annual Candlelight Service of Carols, featuring Payn's Chapel Choir and Rooke Chapel Ringers, has been taped and repeatedly televised nationally by PBS since 1988 and was nominated for an Emmy in 1996. Five compact discs featuring his Rooke Chapel Choir have been recorded on Lovely Music and Albany labels. With the recent completion of several commissioned works, Payn has 30 compositions which are published, including a new work, Heart Melodies, distributed by Paradigm Press and scheduled to be performed by the Phoenix Symphony on February 14, 2002. His works are performed virtually every week in the United States and abroad.
Payn received his Bachelor of Music degree from Westminster Choir College and his Doctor of Musical Arts in organ and harpsichord literature from West Virginia University. As a member of the American Choral Directors Association, Payn has served as Pennsylvania state president. Information about him appears in two reference publications: Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary, and Who's Who in American Music: Classical. In 1987, he was presented with the Harriman Award for contributions to the intellectual life of Bucknell University, and in 1994 he received the Bucknell University Cook Award, given annually to a member of the faculty to promote creative travel. In May 1996, his undergraduate alma mater presented him with the Westminster Choir College Distinguished Alumni Merit Award. In June 2001, Bucknell University awarded Payn the "Class of '56 Lectureship" for inspirational teaching. He is currently Music Director and Conductor of the Susquehanna Valley Chorale and Orchestra.
Information on Ensembles |
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Mickey Mouse March
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
Whistle While You Work
When You Wish Upon a Star
Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo
Winnie the Pooh
It's a Small World
Love Is a Song