DR. KEVIN FENTON

Kevin Fenton is professor of choral conducting and ensembles at Florida State University, where he conducts the FSU University Singers and Chamber Choir.  He has conducted the Virginia Tech Meistersingers (1998), the University Singers (2002, 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2013), and the Festival Singers of Florida (2012 and 2018) in performances at regional and national conventions of ACDA and NAfME.  Dr. Fenton has conducted choirs in 35 states, including thirty All-State choirs. Additionally, he has conducted the ACDA Southern Division High School Honor Choir (2008), the Dublin Ireland International Choral Festival (2016), the Xi’an China International Choral Festival (2017), and the Samarang Music Society AVoice4Peace concert in Indonesia (2017).

Dr. Fenton teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in choral literature and choral conducting. His textbook Foundations of Choral Conducting has been adopted throughout the country. He is a recipient of the Florida State University Teaching Award for Excellence, the Wayne Hugoboom Distinguished Florida Service Award, and the Gamma Mu Chapter of Delta Omicron Music Professor of the Year award.  He taught at the Kenya Conservatoire of Music as a Fulbright Specialist to Sub-Saharan Africa, and he is in his thirteenth year as Artistic Director of the Festival Singers of Florida–a choir of music educators and performers based in Orlando dedicated to “inspiring and engaging through impassioned singing.” 

A champion of new music, Dr. Fenton has conducted over forty premiere performances including Skip Stradtman’s “Psalm 91” (2022); Andrea Clearfields’s Transformed by Fire: Choral Suite(2022) and Kyle Pederson’s . . . and Justice for All (2022); and Elaine Hagenberg’s Illuminare(2021).