Chris Sheppard, chorus master

Dr. Sheppard is Director of Choral and Vocal Activities in his third year at Montana State University Billings. He holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin, University of Northern Colorado, and Marshall University. He taught previously at Bluefield College in Bluefield, Virginia, and Aims Community College in Greeley, Colorado. Besides directing the choirs at MSU-B, he also teaches private voice, choral conducting, and vocal pedagogy. He recently began conducting the Magic City Singers. He debuts as Chorus Master in Rimrock Opera’s The Elixir of Love. Sheppard has been honored twice in “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.” For the past two summers, he served as chorus master and voice instructor at the Maud Powell International Opera Institute in Illinois, and will return this summer. In 2001, Sheppard was choral director for the World Scholar-Athlete Games, which involved over 2,000 participants ages 15-19, from 152 countries and all fifty states. He has directed All-County/All-District Festivals in three states and, while teaching at Bluefield College, led choir tours from Ohio to Florida. A proficient baritone, Sheppard has appeared in Northwest College’s 2006 performances of Handel’s Messiah, and numerous operas, musicals, and plays. Sheppard has served several churches as a music administrator and choir director and recently became Music Director at First English Lutheran Church in Billings.