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Lester Seigel
Lester Seigel
Joseph Hugh Thomas Professor of Music
Office: Hill Hall 114
Contact Information: Birmingham-Southern College
Box 549033
900 Arkadelphia Rd
Birmingham, AL 35254
Office Phone: (205) 226-4957
Office Fax: (205) 226 3058
E-mail: [email protected]
Biography:
Lester Seigel's work as a conductor has been internationally noted for his choir's "seamless phrasing and sensitive blending" and "wonderfully exuberant and euphonious" sound (Gramophone). His busy schedule of performances as a conductor and accompanist includes prestigious venues throughout the United States and abroad. As founder and conductor of the professional vocal ensemble Sursum Corda, he performed at both state and national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association and has appeared professionally with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra under maestros Justin Brown and Carlos Izcaray. Prof. Seigel has led the BSC Concert Choir in concert at prestigious venues throughout the eastern United States and in Europe, including the choir's New York performance at Alice Tully Hall, and at Carnegie Hall as the sole choral ensemble in Ernest Bloch's Sacred Service, with Seigel conducting the BSC forces and the New England Symphonic Ensemble.
In the coming season, Seigel is looking forward to leading the BSC Choirs and Canterbury Choirs in a December performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ 1936 Hodie with chorus, soloists, and full orchestra, and a return to the Alabama Symphony Orchestra’s “Concertmaster and Friends” chamber music series as a pianist, in music for Johannes Brahms’ 190th birthday observance, including the monumental Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25.
Since 1989, he has been Organist at Canterbury United Methodist Church in Mountain Brook, and its Choirmaster since 1995, where he recently presented a program of harpsichord music with members of the church choir as vocal soloists and friends from the ASO in music by J. S. Bach and Manuel De Falla.
Seigel is a published composer and arranger. The audiobook version of "The Diaries of Adam and Eve" by Mark Twain, for which he composed and conducted an original score, was nominated for a Grammy Award. A selection of his published compositions is available at JW Pepper. Seigel is also active as an organ recitalist and in chamber music. He holds the AAGO certification from the American Guild of Organists.
He has two CDs available commercially with Sursum Corda, and the Christmas recording "To You We Bring This Glad Noel" with the BSC Concert Choir is also available.
Educational Background:
D.M.A. (1991); M.M. (1983), University of Colorado-Boulder
B.M. (1979), Birmingham-Southern College
Areas of Academic Interest:
- Conducting
- Choral Music
- American Music (Classical)
- Jewish choral liturgical music in the Reform tradition
- Organ
Research Interests:
- Musical history of Birmingham's early years
- Choral Music tradition of Reform Judaism
Courses Taught:
- HON 125, America’s Music
- MS 130, 330, 430: Organ
- MU 121, Introduction to Music
- MU 211, Concert Choir
- MU 222, Music History II
- MU 251, Theory III
- MU 371: Conducting
- MU 427: Choral Literature
- Hilltop Singers (no course number)