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Music Z. Randall Stroope Z. Randall Stroope is widely known as a conductor, lecturer, and composer. He is the Artistic Director of summer music festivals in Europe, and frequently conducts in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Washington National Cathedral and other well-known venues in the United States. Choral groups under his direction have taken 35 national tours and 15 international tours, including China, Japan, Russia, Sweden, the Baltics, Finland, central Europe, England, Canada and South Africa. He is constantly sought after as a lecturer and guest conductor, headlining summer ACDA conventions in 12 states and conducting 20 All-State choirs. He was honored in the University of Nebraska system as a Distinguished Professor for Reasearch and Creative Activity in 2000 and 2003. The state music educators voted him “Outstanding Choral Director of the Year” for 2000.
In 1987, Dr. Stroope graduated from Arizona State University with a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting. This followed several years of high school teaching in the Cherry Creek District in the Denver, Colorado area. He also holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Dr.Stroope has been Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska for the past 18 years. He has published 70 musical works, and has sold over a million and a half copies of music. He was the ACDA Raymond Brock commissioned composer for 2004, and his commission “We Beheld Once Again the Stars” was performed at all of the ACDA Regional Conventions in 2004. Of his twelve recorded compact discs, two are of his own music, titled Passages I & II: The Choral Music of Z. Randall Stroope.
Graham Abbott Sydney-born Graham Abbott is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium and was a fulltime high school Music and English teacher from 1980 to 1984. In 1985 he was awarded the ABC / Willem van Otterloo Conducting Scholarship and made his professional orchestral debut with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in 1987. Since then he has been a frequent guest conductor with all six Symphony Australia network orchestras. Whilst his repertoire in orchestral, choral and operatic fields spans almost every conceivable period and style (totaling more than 650 works), Graham Abbott is most respected as a conductor of, and enthusiast for, the music of Handel. A respected teacher, Graham is often involved in educational projects throughout Australia, and he has undertaken similar work in the UK as well. He conducted Camerata Australia, under the auspices of Youth Music Australia (now Australian Youth Orchestras), in concerts in Sydney and Jakarta in 1992, and conducted at National Music Camp in 1991 and 1995. Graham has had many years’ experience as a pre-concert speaker for the Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras. He has developed a reputation as an engaging and entertaining educator, capable of opening the world of music to the untrained music lover. He has taught modules for teachers, community-based musicians and high school students in the Symphony Australia Conductor Training program since 2002 and is highly sought-after as a conducting teacher and workshop director. Since the beginning of 2003 Graham has been producer and presenter of “Keys To Music” on ABC Classic FM, a program heard every week across Australia, as well as internationally on Radio Australia and the internet (http://www.abc.net.au/classic/keys). He is regarded as one of Australia’s pre-eminent communicators on music, a feature which, when combined with his conducting expertise, makes him a unique member of Australia’s arts and education world.