Richard Bjella received his bachelor degree from Cornell College and his Master's Degree from the University of Iowa. Bjella's teaching experience prior to coming to Lawrence University includes four years as Choral Director at Ripon High School in Ripon Wisconsin, and six at Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At both high schools, the choirs consistently received top ratings including national recognition in Music Maestro Competition and World of Music Festival Competition. He also served as director of the Old Gold Singers at the University of Iowa, and conductor and founder of the Cedar Rapids Symphony Chorus. He studied with Don V Moses at the University of Iowa and has had the pleasure of working with the late Robert Shaw, Eric Erickson, Frieder Bernius, Helmuth Rilling, Margaret Hillis, Doreen Rao, and Dale Warland in master classes. Bjella has conducted in Prague, Paris, Lucerne, and London and has guest conducted over 350 festivals throughout the United States including recent appearances as the Wisconsin and Missouri All-State conductor.

Bjella is Past President for the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association, was program co-chair for the NC ACDA Convention 2000, current chair of the NC ACDA for Community Choirs, and a member of the Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) leadership task force for the Wisconsin Music Educators Association. He has served on the board of the WMEA for student activities, division chair of Youth and Student Activities of ACDA and as chair of the Visions committee for WCDA.

The Lawrence University Concert Choir has performed with such diverse ensembles as Musica Sacra, Dave Brubeck and his quartet, and the National Choir of Israel. In 1992 they appeared at the North Central Divisional Convention of the ACDA and in March 1995 they performed at the National Kodaly Music Educators Convention in Minneapolis. Their live performance of the Verdi Requiem was released on CD in 1998. Their recent CD "A Time for Remembrance" was given national recognition in the May 5th, 1995 issue of the Chronicle for Higher Education. The choir was the first to record "Songs of Children" by Robert Convery, a cantata of nine poems written by children interned at Terezin, a Nazi concentration camp. In February 1996 they were the first choir ever to perform at the Regional Bandmasters Association Convention. They performed in New Orleans at the National Kodaly Music Educators Convention in 1998. The choir is dedicated to performing both traditional and contemporary choral literature to the highest standards.

They have sung with such noted conductors as Richard Westenburg, Margaret Hillis, Paul Salamunovich, Sir David Willcocks and Don Moses. They have appeared on state, regional and national ACDA conventions in recent years as well as the National Kodaly Music Educators Convention in New Orleans this year. Major works performed recently include the Britten War Requiem, Brahms Requiem, Bach B Minor Mass, Verdi Requiem (on CD), Mahler Resurrection Symphony, Beethoven Ninth Symphony (on CD), the Bach St. John Passion and Magnificat, Stravinsky's Les Noces and Songs of Children by Robert Convery (on CD).

The choir's membership represents many areas of musical study in the conservatory as well as the liberal arts disciplines. Their newest CD VOICES... was released in January '99 to the following reviews: "...the best I've heard Past Life Melodies " writes Dennis Shrock , former editor of the ACDA Choral Journal, "Excellent CD - guts, sensitivity, tonal variety, interesting repertoire" writes Craig Arnold of Manhattan Productions, "I just need to tell you how perfectly fabulous it is" writes Richard Westenburg of Musica Sacra, and Bob Youngquist NC ACDA President writes "Prayer of the Children made me run to the computer to thank you". It features many contemporary American composers including Samuel Barber, Norman Dinnerstein, Eric Whiteacre and Moses Hogan with a wide array of poets from the classical and folk traditions. In addition, the music of Australian composer Sarah Hopkins, Finnish Composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, Czech composer Zdenek Lukas, Mongolian composer Se Enkhbayar, English composer Gustav Holst and others are also featured. In addition, a portion of the B Minor Mass performance given in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, June 3, 1999 was included.

Contact details and further information

E-mail Richard.L.Bjella