THOMAS BROOKS, DIRECTOR
As conductor and clinician C. Thomas Brooks has performed throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, including such venues as Carnegie Hall in New York City, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the Hall of Five Hundred in Florence.
In 1971 he founded and conducted the Mercyhurst College Choir and Chamber Singers, and in 1972 he was named conductor of the Symphonic Singers of Erie, Pennsylvania, posts he held until 1974. In 1974 he moved to the Hartt School in Hartford, Connecticut, where he conducted the Hartt Chorale, the Collegiate Singers, the Hartt Touring Opera Theatre, the University Civic Chorus and Chamber Choir, and taught voice, conducting and vocal pedagogy. While in Hartford Professor Brooks also conducted the Arts in Unison Bel Canto Opera Company and Connecticut Light Opera on the Sound, and was cofounder and musical director of the New Lyric Theatre. His interest in the high school singer led him to teach voice and musical theatre, and to conduct choirs in the Hartt School Summer Clinics, the University of Wisconsin Summer Clinics and the national program America’s Youth in Concert.
In 1984 he joined the faculty of Texas Tech University as conductor of the Collegiate Singers, the Musical Theatre, the summer musical theatre season—a shared program with Texas Tech—and the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, and served as associate conductor of the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers. In 1987 he became director of choral activities and chair of vocal studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, choral conductor at the Chicago Academy for the Arts and guest conductor of the Chicago Chamber Orchestra.
Professor Brooks is presently chair of Gordon’s Department of Music and conductor of the Gordon College Choir and Chamber Singers. Brooks is codirector of music at the historic Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts. From 1993 to 2000 he was conductor of the Montage Chamber Singers, and is currently the director of Lyricora. He has been guest conductor of the Portland Repertory Opera Theatre and is a regular conductor with Commonwealth Opera. He continues to work with the high school singer by conducting numerous festivals annually, including in recent years the Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island All- State Music Festivals. He has served as president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Choral Director’s Association.
His educational video series Singing, Acting, Surviving, coauthored with stage director Ronald Luchsinger, was released by TRL Enterprises in conjunction with Schaffner Music Publishers, which also publishes the Thomas Brooks Choral Series. He is currently coauthoring a new text on training the high school singer, along with his wife, soprano Susan Brooks, who is also a professor at Gordon College.
DANIEL SCHMUNK, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
As founding member and Assistant Conductor of Lyricora, Daniel Schmunk is an active music educator. He has held teaching positions in New Hampshire, and in the North Shore and Metro-west areas of Boston. He has taught all aspects of music at all levels in both public and private institutions, with his most recent post as the Director of Choral Music at Lexington Christian Academy, a private college preparatory school in Lexington, Mass. While at LCA, Dan Schmunk continued to improve and expand the choral program, conducting all four vocal ensembles and bringing the large ensemble numbers to 75 singers in the high school and 65 singers in the middle school. While teaching at both the middle and high school levels, he has also been very involved in the schools’ musical theater productions as director, musical director, and conductor; working on shows such as The Fantasticks, Godspell, and Into the Woods.
Being a professional musician and conductor in the Boston area, Dan Schmunk has held church music positions at Tremont Temple Baptist Church in Boston, the first integrated church in America, and Boston’s historic Park Street Church, where he currently serves as the Associate Music Director.
Dan Schmunk is currently the Associate Director for New England Conservatory’s School of Continuing Education, the adult extension school of the conservatory, where he administers and oversees all aspects of the program.
He continues to teach privately on the North Shore of Boston, where he lives with his wife, a soprano, and toddler son, a promising optional percussionist.