The Columbia Choral Society, celebrating its 75th anniversary, has appointed Dr. William Carswell as the new Music Director and Conductor of the ensemble. Dr. Carswell is an Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Coker College where he conducts the Coker Singers and Coker Chamber Singers and teaches voice, conducting and courses in music education. He holds degrees from Appalachian State University, Florida State University and the University of South Carolina.

In 2004 Carswell led the Coker Singers on tour to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the U.S. Capital in Washington, DC and to New York City, singing at St. Patrick's Cathedral and Carnegie Hall. The featured work on the Carnegie Hall concert was the Requiem by John Rutter, with the composer conducting. Recent performance tours have taken the choir to Atlanta, Birmingham, Philadelphia, Nashville, New Orleans and throughout the Carolinas.

Prior to his appointment at Coker College, Dr. Carswell was a high school choral director, assistant conductor of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra, Greenville, SC and a church musician. He has also served as Music Director and Conductor of the Dutch Fork Choral Society in Chapin, SC. He continues to be active as a choral clinician, guest conductor and adjudicator throughout the southeast. In the past year Carswell has conducted choral workshops and honor choirs in North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina and Georgia. Recent international conducting engagements include performances in Varna, Bulgaria, London, England, Paris, France and Eisenstadt, Austria.

Carswell studied extensively with the famed Robert Shaw during a one-year residency at Florida State University as Eminent Scholar, also as part of the Robert Shaw Choral Workshop at Carnegie Hall, and at two summer festivals with the Robert Shaw Institute in southwest France. He has also studied with Don V Moses for two summers at the Classical Music Seminar in Eisenstadt, Austria.

William has an infectious enthusiasm for choral music and for amateur (from the Italian amatore, those who sing for the love of it) volunteer choruses. Every concert is a celebration of that enthusiasm.

	TOP