Mr. Romel K. McInnis

Romel K. McInnis is incredibly honored to serve as the Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at ACIT. Prior to his appointment at ACIT, he was Director of Choral Activities at Clearview Regional High School for ten years. Under his direction, the choral program consisted of three curricular choirs and three extra curricular choirs including View Singers, Concert Choir, Tenor Bass Choir, Acapella, Select Treble Choir,  and the auditioned Vocale Ensemble. The choirs have participated in various events and competitions across the east coast such as; Music in the Parks, Fiestaval Myrtle Beach Choir Competition, Boston Choir Competition, “Joyful Christmas” with national recording artist Jim Brickman, and NJACDA Choir Competition. The Vocale Ensemble has been invited on several occasions to perform at Carnegie Hall and the NJMEA state conference. In the spring of 2023, the Ensemble was selected to perform at the Nafme Convention in Rochester, New York. This is an incredible honor to represent the state of New Jersey and exquisite choral singing at the high school level. At Clearview he conducted major choral works and literature including Mozart's Missa Brevis in B Flat Major, Ola Gjeilo’s Dark Night of the Soul, Stars by Eriks Esenvalds, and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. In addition, he collaborated with world renowned composer Michael Trotta who wrote the selection “ The Dreamer '' for the Vocale Ensemble to world premiere at the Spring Concert in 2023.  Romel was also very involved with the musicals as the acting music director at the high school and middle school. In 2022, he won the Rising Star Award for Best Music Direction for Hunchback of Notre Dame. In 2023, he had the opportunity to direct Mamma Mia. The show was nominated by the Rising Star Awards in three categories with Leah Crossan winning best actress for her performance as Donna Sheridan.

In his graduate and undergraduate work Romel had many performing and teaching opportunities.  Studying at Rowan University, Romel has led sectional rehearsals with the auditioned Rowan Concert Choir, participated in the Teacher Assistant program with the Men’s Choir where he led rehearsals, sectionals, and conducted in their fall concert. He also taught collaboratively with professor Jack Hill in choral literature for undergraduates at Rowan. During his undergrad at Rutgers, Romel performed in the Faure Requiem singing the baritone solo as a junior, as well as participated in various  conducting master workshops with highly recognized educators. He also auditioned for Marlena Malas, teacher of the  famous opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti, and received acceptance in the world renowned program at Chautauqua Institution at the age of 19. Romel continues to contribute his vocal abilities to various choirs around the area and is very involved with Choral Arts of South Jersey as the assistant conductor. Romel is a private voice teacher and is an active clinician with high school choirs in the Greater Philadelphia area. One of his major highlights was being selected to conduct the 61st All South Jersey Senior High Chorus in 2019.  He continues to be an active member of ACDA and SJCDA.

Romel received his Bachelor’s in Music Education with a concentration in voice from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. He completed his Masters in Choral Conducting at Rowan University under the direction of Dr. Christopher Thomas. In the future, Romel plans on receiving his doctorate.