Profile: Liz Geisewite, Director of Choral Education

Liz Geisewite is a Brooklyn-based conductor, singer, teacher, and choral music enthusiast. She is the Director of Choral Education for Brooklyn Youth Chorus and teaches choral conducting at Manhattan School of Music. Get to know more about Liz here.

1.) What's your favorite part about working at BYC?

I love building connections with singers and their families that last over years and watching students' growth over time. Some of the students I taught as Pre-Teens in my first years at BYC are now in Concert Ensemble or have graduated. It's special to be part of that journey for so many singers.

2.) What's the funniest/coolest thing that has ever happened during a BYC rehearsal?

This is impossible to answer - there are too many moments to choose from! One of my favorite things that happens occasionally in rehearsal is having a guest come in to talk about the cultural background and musical style of a piece we are learning. We all learn so much from the culture bearers and experts (like our Artistic Advisors) who visit classes to work with the singers, and they help us transform the way we understand and perform the music.

3.) If you could conduct any piece, what would it be and why?

"Credo" by Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), text by W.E.B. DuBois

This is a large-scale work for mixed chorus, soloists, and orchestra. Bonds was a trailblazing black woman composer, and this work (along with many of her other compositions) was only recently published, so it has not been performed many times. I'd love to bring this piece to life for a broader audience so others can appreciate the brilliance of Margaret Bonds.

4.) What composer would you love to have coffee with?

Living composer - Brittney Boykin (B. E. Boykin). She writes great choral music for treble voices, and she is a professor of Music Education. She's smart, interesting, and I'd love to get to know her better.

Nonliving composer - Imogen Holst who was a composer in early 20th century U.K. (1907-1984). She worked closely with Benjamin Britten (another of my favorite choral composers), but I am sure her professional opportunities were limited because she was a woman living in a time when very few women were allowed to choose and pursue music composition as a career. I'd love to know what ambitions she may have had that were not realized.

5.) What do you love most about teaching?

I like teaching because I like learning. Anything I teach - a song, a musical concept, a vocal technique - requires me to dig deep into my own understanding and clarify the process of learning for myself. There is always more to learn and more to be discovered about music, our voices, and ourselves. I enjoy making sense of the learning process and sharing it with others so we can always be discovering new things together.