Biography
Dr. Russ Shelley is the Elma Stine Heckler Professor of Music at Juniata College (Huntingdon, PA), where he serves as chair of the Department of Music, teaches classroom courses, and conducts the Concert Choir and Alumni Choir. Under his direction, choirs have performed in more than 30 states and more than 35 countries. Juniata choirs under Shelley’s direction have performed on five continents. In addition to his conducting opportunities at Juniata, Shelley is in his 25th year as music director of the State College (PA) Choral Society. Choral Society repertoire under Shelley's direction includes Mendelssohn St. Paul, Haydn Creation, Mendelssohn Symphony No. 2 "Lobgesang," Bach Magnificat, Faure Requiem, Ramirez Misa Criolla and Navidad Nuestra, Brahms Requiem, Tippett A Child of Our Time, Bach St. John Passion, and Mendelssohn Elijah. The Choral Society commissioned its first composition in 2003. Voices of the Holocaust premiered in November 2004 and has since been performed three times in Brazil and more than 10 times in the USA. Extended international teaching assignments include universities in Romania and Brazil. He taught graduate courses in California for six summers. The Regent Chorale, a high school honors choir Shelley co-founded with Huntingdon Area High School choral conductor Nin Hiles as a means of providing international performing opportunities for Central PA high school singers, has performed two European tours. A native of New York, Shelley has baccalaureate degrees in music education and sacred music, a master's degree in vocal performance, and a doctorate in music education. Prior to his graduate work at Penn State, he taught junior and senior high school general and choral music in New York and served as a church musician. Active as a guest conductor, adjudicator, and clinician, he has appeared as a guest conductor more than 70 times in a dozen States and has presented at national Chorus America conferences. Shelley is a member of the national music honorary Pi Kappa Lambda, Omicron Delta Kappa, Chorus America, the National Association for Music Education, the American Choral Directors Association, the International Federation of Choral Music, and the National Collegiate Choral Organization. He has held office in the Pennsylvania Collegiate Choral Association, the American Choral Directors Association-Pennsylvania, and had a six-year tenure as the conductor of the annual Pennsylvania Consort Messiah performance.