Susan Kelly
A native of Plains, Pennsylvania, Susan M. Kelly is summa cum laude graduate of Wilkes University, where she attended on a full-tuition Trustee Scholarship, and gained degrees in Music Education and English Education. While at Wilkes, Susan was president of the Wilkes chapter of MENC and president of the Pennsylvania Division of Collegiate MENC, receiving the Collegiate MENC Professional Achievement Award in 1994. In 1999, Susan completed a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting and Vocal Performance at Temple University, where she was also a recipient of a full teaching assistantship in the Aural Theory Department. During her years at Temple, Susan was also selected to be the conducting apprentice of the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia. Following graduation, Susan served as a one-year visiting instructor of music at Bloomsburg University.
Susan is currently in her seventh year of public-school teaching. For five years she taught chorus and general music to grades 7-12 at Mid Valley Secondary Center. In those five years, the program grew from 25 singers to over 200 singers, encompassing 5 choirs: Junior-High Men, Junior-High Women, High-School Mixed, Varsity Women’s Choir, and Varsity Men’s Choir. Under her direction, the Varsity Women’s Choir won 6 consecutive superior ratings at both Music in the Parks Festivals and Classic Festivals, including an award for best overall choir. Since 2005, Susan is the Director of Choirs at Abington Heights High School, where she directs the 150-voice Concert Choir, the Women’s Ensemble, and the newly-formed Men’s Ensemble. Last year, in their first year of adjudication, both the Concert Choir and Women’s Ensemble received Superior ratings.
Outside of her public-school work, Susan is the Director of Children’s and Youth Programs of The Choral Society of NEPA and conductor of its Cantare Choir. Under her direction, the Cantare Choir embarked on a tour of Wales and England and was selected to perform on the 2001 summer ACDA-PA conference. The Cantare Choir also recently accepted an invitation to perform at the 2007 PMEA State Conference. The Choral Society is also actively involved in the performance of and commissioning of new music, most recently commissioning two choral pieces for Cantare from composer Daniel Kallman, which premiered in May of 2005.
Additionally, Susan is the Director of Music at the First Presbyterian Church of Clarks Summit where she directs the 35-voice Adult Choir and the Teen Choir. She is a member of the 8-voice professional vocal ensemble The Lyric Consort, which was a featured performer at the 2001 Eastern Division ACDA Conference and has performed on numerous concert series, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Johns Hopkins University, Bucknell University, and Dartmouth College. Susan is also on the faculty of the Wilkes University Community Conservatory as a voice instructor and on the summer faculty of the Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary. Susan was recently named to be the ACDA-PA state chair of Repertoire and Standards for Middle-School and Junior-High School Choirs. In that capacity, she presented a Junior-High Reading Session at the 2006 State PMEA Conference and has hosted two statewide Junior-High Honor Choirs at the summer ACDA-PA conference.