Biography

Conductor and Master Teacher Doreen Rao was appointed in 2008 as the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus Music Director and Cameron Baird Conductor’s Chair.  Celebrated internationally for her inspirational teaching, moving concerts and award-winning publications, Rao’s distinguished career links the standards of professional performance with the goals of music education.  
Recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on children and youth choirs, Doreen Rao changed the landscape of music education in America.  Her seminal work fostered the children’s choir movement and inspired a generation of conductors and teachers to lead children and youth choirs in schools and communities around the world. In a national tribute presented to her by the American Choral Director's Association in 1993, the eminent conductor Robert Shaw wrote: "The world of choral music owes her special thanks. She is preparing our future."

As Director of Choral Programs at the University of Toronto until 2011, Doreen Rao proudly holds the Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting Emeritus.  In this position, Rao established and led the Faculty of Music’s Graduate Program in Conducting, and with the generous support of the Heinrichs Foundation, she founded the Toronto Bach Festival with the eminent Bach scholar and conductor Helmuth Rilling.  Her University MacMillan Singers and Bach Festival Singers performed regularly with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under conductors Peter Oundjian, Gianandrea Noseda, Bernard Labadie and Helmuth Rilling. 

During Rao’s association with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, she served as Assistant Conductor to Margaret Hillis and prepared her Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus (Anima) for concerts and Grammy award-winning recordings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by Sir Georg Solti, Claudio Abbado and James Levine.  Her choirs also performed with Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and with Helmuth Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival. 

Doreen Rao began her career in Chicago as a professional singer, music teacher and professor of choral music at Roosevelt University’s Chicago Musical College.  She completed her MM and PhD at Northwestern University and moved to Canada in 1988 to accept an appointment there as Director of Choral Programs at the University of Toronto.  Rao is also the Founding Director of the CME Institute for Choral Teacher Education, a professional development program and certification course for conductors and choral teachers offered in the United States, Canada, Ireland and Great Britain. 

In a pioneering career of “firsts,” Doreen Rao continues to guest conduct and teach worldwide. She regularly leads honor choirs and all-state choruses for music conferences, choral associations and international choral festivals.  She is Choral Advisor to Boosey & Hawkes and Editor of the award-winning Choral Music Experience series of music and textbooks.  Rao’s demonstrated commitment to commissioning and premiering new music of living composers has championed a generation of American and Canadian composers including Imant Raminsh, Stephen Hatfield, David Brunner and Daniel Brewbaker, to name only some.

Music critic Robert Everett-Green wrote "for her, every note has an urgent meaning, not just within the composition, but within the wider world." Journalist Bronwyn Drainie described Doreen Rao as "a brilliant artist and teacher...whose methods and materials could re-energize the art of choral singing”. The Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia awarded her   their National Citation for her significant and lasting contribution to the cause of American music. The American Choral Director's Association has honored her for her “commitment to choral excellence” and a CBS television documentary called her musical achievements "extraordinary."  This year, the Buffalo Business First community named Rao as a Woman of Influence for her inspirational work with the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus. 

Doreen Rao, PhD,
Music Director and Conductor,
Cameron Baird Conductor’s  Chair
Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus
Founder-Director, CME Institute for Choral Teacher Education
Choral Advisor and Editor, Boosey & Hawkes New York and London
www.doreenrao.com