John Flanery
John Flanery (series editor) is the Director of Choral Activities at New Mexico State University. At NMSU he supervises the masters in choral conducting program, teaches choral literature and choral conducting, and oversees the University Singers, Concert Choir, and the Masterworks Chorus.
His Doctor of Musical Arts and Master’s degrees are both in Choral Conducting from the University of Kentucky. He holds a Bachelor’s of Music Education degree from Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa.
Prior to his arrival at NMSU in 2015, John spent nine years as associate choral director at the University of Southern Mississippi. At Southern Miss John’s responsibilities included teaching choral conducting, choral procedures, and choral literature, directing the Concert Choir, Spirit of Southern, Men’s Chorus, and the Southern Miss Gulf Coast Civic Chorale. His ensembles have been selected to perform at various state and regional conferences and concert series.
John has served ACDA in various positions including having served as the Mississippi Chapter president. In service to national ACDA, John has been on the poster selection committee for both the national conferences in Dallas for 2013 and Salt Lake City in 2015. For the National Collegiate Choral Organization, he served on the Choral Series selection committee for the 2015 conference in Portland. He has also served as church choir director at several churches in Iowa, Kentucky, and Mississippi.
As a founder of new events, John began an ACDA summer conference in Mississippi in 2013. He began a summer camp at Southern Miss that he oversaw for seven years and had over 1,000 high school and junior high students along with teachers attend. John began the Festival of Choirs on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2007 with the intent of encouraging choral singing in an area hit hard by hurricane Katrina. The event featured the Southern Miss Gulf Coast Civic Chorale in concert joined by local high school and community college choral programs. Additionally at Southern Miss he began the Spirit of Southern men’s a cappella group which became a recruiting tool and ambassadors for the choral department throughout the region. The ensemble was selected to perform at the Mississippi ACDA/MMEA joint conference in 2011 and 2015.
As a high school music educator in the state of Iowa for nine years, John conducted concert choirs, madrigal dinners, show choirs, jazz choirs, and many other ensembles. John is a regular clinician and judge throughout the United States including serving as an All-State conductor in Alabama and Kentucky. John and his wife, Juliane, have five children – Elias, Cecelia, Josephine, Lucinda, and William.