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Vocal Arts Project faculty and staff
Camp director
Rebecca Tyree, Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education at VCU, is the director of the VCU Choral Arts Society, the VCU Women’s Choir (which she founded in 2006), and the VCU Vocal Chamber Ensemble. She also teaches choral methods, conducting, class voice, supervises student teachers, and assists with music department admissions and recruitment. Additionally, she is on the faculty for the summer master’s of Music Education Degree at VCU.
Tyree has been a choral music educator for more than 30 years, having spent more than 25 years in public schools. In her last position, she was department chair and choral director at Hermitage High School in Richmond, Va. Her choirs have toured nationally and internationally, performing in many venues including the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, the Teatro Romano in Verona, Italy, and at both Virginia ACDA and VMEA conferences.
Tyree is a frequent guest conductor for honor choirs throughout the mid-Atlantic region, and regularly serves as adjudicator/clinician for state and music festivals. She was the artistic director and conductor of The Chamber Chorale of Fredericksburg for 10 years and also worked as music director for the Fredericksburg Theatre Company. Tyree is immediate past-president of the Virginia Chapter of ACDA American Choral Director’s Association), where she ran a tri-state music conference each summer with internationally known clinicians. She served as repertoire and standards chair for Community Choirs for Virginia ACDA for three terms, participated as an active board member of the Fredericksburg Fine Arts Commission, acted as chair of District I All-State Auditions and hosted many District VMEA events during her tenure as a public school music educator.
Tyree was named Music Educator of the Year for Henrico County Public Schools in 2000 and received the Gilman Award for Excellence in Education from HCPS in 2003. She holds a BME from VCU, an MM from the University of Maryland and is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda.
Guest conductor
Jeffrey Benson, Ph.D., is the newly appointed director of choral activities at San José State University in San José, Calif. Previously, Benson served as director of choral activities and chair of the Fine Arts Department at H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program in Arlington, Va. The Washington Post hails his choirs for singing “with an exquisite blend, subtlety of phrasing, confident musicianship and fully supported tone…that would be the envy of some professional ensembles.”
Benson has served as cover conductor for the Grammy award-winning Washington Chorus, where he helped to prepare the ensemble for maestros Julian Wachner, Leonard Slatkin and Marvin Hamlisch. In 2006, Benson was invited to La Universidad Americana in Managua, Nicaragua to assist the university in forming the first a cappella choir at the institution.
Choirs under his direction have been invited to perform at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, The White House and Washington National Cathedral. His choirs have performed on multiple state and regional conferences for the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the National Association for Music Education, and have toured throughout Europe. In 2006, the Woodlawn Chamber Singers, under Dr. Benson’s direction, were the only high school choir invited to sing on the National Conference of Chorus America in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Benson is an active member of the National Collegiate Choral Organization, the National Association for Music Education and the ACDA. In 2002, the ACDA recognized Benson with the first annual Colleen Kirk Award for his outstanding achievement as a young conductor.
A former member of the Choir of Men and Boys at Washington National Cathedral, Dr. Benson is an active singer and a frequent guest conductor and clinician. Benson will conduct an all-state choir and several honor choirs on both coasts in 2012. Santa Barbara Music Publishing recently released one of Dr. Benson’s folksong arrangements under the Charlene Archibeque Choral Series.
Benson received his master’s degree and his doctorate in choral conducting/music education from Florida State University and his bachelor’s degree in music education from New York University.
Accompanist
Lisa Pennington received her master’s in Choral Music Education from Florida State University and her Bachelor of Music Education degree from James Madison University. She began her career in Fairfax County and is in her 21st year as choral director at Collegiate School where she directs all of the choirs in the middle and upper schools. Her choirs consistently receive excellent and superior ratings in choral competitions and have traveled to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Orlando, Chicago, New Orleans and Jamaica. Camerata, the top ensemble at Collegiate School, was one of four high school choirs selected to perform at the 2008 Virginia Music Educators Association Conference at The Homestead.
Pennington has served as the state music representative for the Virginia Association of Independent Schools for six years. She has served two terms as the District I Chair for the Virginia Music Educators Association and is currently president of the Virginia Choral Directors Association. She has also served as treasurer for the Virginia chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. She has worked with noted conductors such as Anton Armstrong, Andre Thomas, Judy Bowers, Rodney Eichenberger, David Davidson and John Dixon. She works throughout the state as a singer, pianist, voice teacher, conductor and adjudicator, and is an active member of the Virginia Music Educators Association, Music Educators National Conference and American Choral Directors Association.
Drama and movement
Jenny Fralin has been part of the Richmond theatre community since 1991. Over the years she has performed in numerous shows with Swift Creek Mill Theatre, Barksdale Theatre, Dogwood Dell and Henrico Theatre Company. She has been on the SPARC faculty for the past three years and teaches dance for musical theatre at the Center for the Arts at Henrico High School. She has choreographed for Freeman High School, Collegiate Middle School, and last year, directed Henrico Teen Theatre’s production of “The Brementown Musicians.” Fralin graduated from East Carolina University with a B.S.B.A. and a minor in dance.
World Music
Mike Boyd currently serves as the director of Performing Arts in addition to his role as the Jazz Band Director at The Collegiate School. He also served as the percussion instructor from 1999 until 2007. Boyd has served as an adjunct percussion and drum set instructor at VCU as well as the College of William and Mary. As a clinician, he has conducted workshops at many high schools and colleges around the country in addition to providing specialty instruction in Richmond area schools. His career as an active musician has included touring with Fighting Gravity, performing with the Richmond Symphony, Commonwealth Winds, the touring production of Wicked and as a composer. Boyd continues to perform as a freelance musician in the Richmond area.
