Bob Demaree, candidate for NC-ACDA President-elect

Bob Demaree joined the UW-Platteville faculty in 1992.  Dr. Demaree conducts the Chamber Choir, the Coro D'Angeli women's choir, and the Singing Pioneers men's choir, and teaches choral conducting, choral literature, and music history.  Annual choral area events include the High School Choral Festival, three tours, and performances of major choral/orchestral works.  Since 1992, the choral area has sponsored performances and workshops by The Dale Warland Singers, the Severacek Children's Choir, Angelica, Chanticleer (twice), the Moscow State Conservatory Choir, the Jubilate Children's Choir, the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, the Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles, and John Wustman.  UWP choristers have also traveled abroad to Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, England, and Ireland since 2000.  In the summer of 2011, he spearheaded a performance trip involving 108 travelers to New York City.

Since 1995, UWP choirs have been invited to perform five times for the Wisconsin School Music Conference, six times for the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association convention, once for the MENC North Central Division convention, and once for the ACDA North Central Division convention.  In addition, UWP choirs have performed the Mozart Requiem, Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms, Brahms Requiem, Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Verdi Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Symphony #9, Mahler’s Symphony #2, Bach’s Magnificat, and Haydn's Paukenmesse, Heiligmesse and Schopfungsmesse with orchestra recently.  In the fall of 1998, UWP choirs were invited to perform Scriabin's Prometheus in Chicago's Orchestra Hall with the Kirov Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre under the direction of Valery Gergiev.  Dr. Demaree organized the commissioning of two works in 2002, a sacred work by John Ferguson and Her Sacred Spirit Soars, a secular work by Eric Whitacre now published by Hal Leonard.  

Demaree is active as a clinician, church musician, and adjudicator.  In October of 2009, he conducted the WMEA High School Mixed Honors Choir.  In 2008, he presented interest sessions at the WCDA state convention, the NCACDA regional convention in Fargo, and at WCDA’s Singspiel.  In 2006-07, he conducted the North Dakota All-State women’s choir and provided workshops or clinics in Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota.  He also is a founder, artistic director, and singer in the Heartland Singers, a private, professional chorus of 36 musicians from Wisconsin and Iowa.  

In 2000, Demaree was awarded UWP's Outstanding Advisor to a Student Organization Award, and in the fall of 2001, he was named a recipient of the Alliant Energy/Underkofler Award for Teaching Excellence.  This prestigious award was one of four given in 2001 to faculty from the Wisconsin System.  He is a past president of WCDA, was the chair for their 2004 and 2005 state conventions, and has chaired, hosted, provided sessions or conducted for most of its major projects, including Singspiel, Singing in Wisconsin, and NextDirection.  He served on the planning committees for the NCACDA conventions in 2000, 2006, and 2012.  In the fall of 2009, Dr. Demaree assumed artistic leadership for the Dubuque Chorale, one of the Midwest’s premier community choirs.