Historical Sketch
Emporia State’s premiere choral ensemble is comprised of auditioned singers from all fields of study. The music performed consists of a wide variety of choral music from all historical eras and many cultures. Formed in 1975, A Cappella Choir toured Switzerland, Austria, and Italy in 1978. In 1979, the choir was awarded first prize, the Silver Medal, at an international choral festival in Mexico City. The choir was chosen to perform as laboratory choir for the Second International Summer Course for Latin-Mediterranean Polyphony in Molfetta, Italy in 1982.
A Cappella Choir has performed for the Southwestern Division Convention of the American Choral Directors Association (1980) and the Kansas Music Educators Convention (1985, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1999, 2003, and 2008). International tours by the ensemble include England, France, and Germany (1989), Austria and Czechoslovakia (1992), Spain and France (1996), Denmark and Sweden (2001), and Italy, Switzerland and Austria (2006). In the summer of 1998, the choir sang an all-Brahms program in Carnegie Hall, New York City, under the esteemed German conductor, Helmut Rilling.
In May 2008, the choir’s New York City tour culminated in concerts at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and St. Paul the Apostle Church.
A Cappella Choir members host a High School Choral Leadership Workshop each October, the Renaissance Madrigal Dinner in November, a Small Ensemble Choral Clinic and a High School Large Ensemble Invitational Festival each March. Membership in the choir is by audition. Majors and non-majors are welcome. The choir's repertoire covers the gamut from large-scale works, e.g. Handel Messiah, Britten's Saint Nicholas and Mozart's Vespers of the Solemn Confessor, to a variety of shorter sacred and secular works from all eras and cultures.
Carol Krueger is the Director of Choral Activities at Emporia State University where she teaches conducting and choral methods, and serves as the conductor of the A Cappella Choir, Chamber Singers, Community Choir and Emporia Camerata, a community-based women’s chamber ensemble. A native of Wisconsin, Krueger received her bachelor's degree in Music Education from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and both an M.M. and D.M.A. in Choral Conducting from the University of Miami.
An active clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor, Krueger has most recently conducted festivals and honor choirs at the collegiate, high school and middle school levels in Virginia, Wisconsin, New York, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Washington, Georgia, South Carolina, Kansas, North Dakota, and North Carolina. In addition, Dr. Krueger has also served as the guest conductor of Vivaldi’s Gloria in Carnegie Hall, the Adult Chancel Choir and Chamber Singers at Montreat Presbyterian Association of Musicians Conference, and multiple performances of Epcot’s Candlelight Processional and Massed Choir Program.
Krueger has presented interest sessions at the American Choral Directors National Convention in New York, the OAKE (Kodaly) National Convention in Charlotte, the ACDA Southern Division Conventions in Nashville and Louisville, the ACDA North Central Convention in Madison, the ACDA Eastern Division Convention in Providence, and the Southern Division MENC Convention in Charleston as well as interest sessions or workshops in Vermont, California, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Tennessee, North Dakota, Massachusetts, Maine, Virginia, Georgia, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Florida, Alabama, and South Carolina. Krueger is also widely recognized for her work with music literacy. Oxford University Press publishes her book, Progressive Sight Singing.