Directors
DSA Vocal Music Department Directors
A native of Cheyenne, Wyoming, Dr. Ryan Garrison is a Director of Choral and Vocal Music at the Denver School of the Arts. Garrison returned to Colorado by way of San Antonio, Texas, where he was the Artistic Director of the Children’s Chorus of San Antonio. Prior to his full-time artistic appointment, Dr. Garrison maintained an active 13-year schedule as a professional choral singer, conductor, and educator in Phoenix, Arizona.
As Artistic Director of the Children's Chorus of San Antonio (CCSA), Garrison oversaw all programming and direction of six choral ensembles involving over 160 young singers ages 5-18, and an early childhood program for parents and children ages birth-4. In addition to the organization's core ensembles was a newly formed partnership outreach and tuition-free after school choral experience with the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Antonio. As conductor, Garrison led all advanced-level ensembles in performances throughout San Antonio as a resident organization with the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, as well as performance appearances with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, Opera San Antonio, San Antonio Chamber Choir, YOSA (Youth Orchestras of San Antonio), and Soli Chamber Ensemble. In 2018, Garrison successfully initiated the first San Antonio city-wide choral festivals, Boys to Men (festival of the male voice) and SongFest (festival of treble voices). As part of the 300th anniversary of the city of San Antonio, Garrison conducted the second premiere of composer Ethan Wickman's, Ballads of the Borderlands, leading the advanced choral groups in collaboration with the San Antonio Chamber Choir, Soli Chamber Ensemble, and soloist Tynan Davis.
From 2005-2013, Garrison was a singing member of the GRAMMY-award winning professional choral ensemble, The Phoenix Chorale, under the artistic vision of renowned conductor, Charles Bruffy. With the ensemble, Garrison is credited on four albums garnering six GRAMMY nominations and two GRAMMY wins, including “Best Choral Performance” in 2016.
In 2013, Garrison joined the choral artistic staff at Arizona School for the Arts (ASA) in central Phoenix, a school acknowledged as a national model for exemplary education gained through intense emphasis on studies in the performing arts. From 2014-2017, as the school’s lead director and contact for the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), Dr. Garrison had over 90 students selected for the Western Regional and National-level Honor Choirs, traveling to Salt Lake City, Utah (2015), Pasadena, California (2016), and Minneapolis, Minnesota (2017).
Dr. Garrison has worked as guest clinician and conductor, leading regional and state-level Honor Choirs and Orchestras in Texas, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming, most recently, conducting the Colorado Middle School All-State Cambiato Choir. In the coming year, Dr. Garrison will conduct the ACDA Wyoming All-State Children’s Choir (June 2022). In addition, Dr. Garrison is also a lecturer at the University of Colorado-Boulder (choral conducting), is on the Colorado All-State Choir Board as a Denver-metro Governor, and is a singing member of Denver-based choral ensemble, Kantorei.
Dr. Garrison received both his Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting (DMA, 2013) and Masters of Music Education (MM, 2006) degrees from Arizona State University, and Bachelors of Music (BM, 2001) from the University of Wyoming.
Meaghan Quigley, is beginning her third year as Director of Vocal Music at Denver School of the Arts. She has taught music, theater, dance, choir, show choir and voice for nine years and enjoys performing throughout Colorado.
Meaghan holds degrees in vocal performance and music education from Casper College, a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colorado Mesa University, and two Master of Arts degrees in choral conducting and music education from Adams State University. She has attended the McClosky Institute of Voice Summer Seminar, Show Choir Camps of America, InterHarmony International Summer Music Festival, Musical Theater International Summer Music Festival, Sarteano Chamber Choral Festival, and has completed the Contemporary and Commercial Music Vocal Pedagogy Institute at Shenandoah University.
Meaghan also works as a musical theater performer and soloist around the state of Colorado. Favorite past musical theater roles include: Margot in Legally Blonde, Grace in Annie, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, The Old Lady in Candide, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, and Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast. She made her Carnegie Hall Debut in 2017 for the world premiere of Dan Forrest's Jubilate Deo, and has been a featured soloist with the Evergreen Chamber Orchestra in Vaughan William's Serenade to Music, Handel's Messiah, and in Altezza and the Evergreen Chorale.
Meaghan currently serves on the CHSAA (Colorado High School Activities Association) music committee, and is a member and adjudicator for NATS (National Association for Teachers of Singing) Classical Singer, ACDA (American Choral Directors Association) CMEA (Colorado Music Educator's Association) and NAfME (National Association for Music Education.
Under her direction, DSA women's choir, Voces Valiosas, was selected to perform at the 2020 CMEA Conference where Meaghan was also chosen as a presenter and presented "So, You Want to Do a Musical?" a session on musical theatre directing and resources for the choral educator. Selected Vocal and Theater students from DSA traveled with Meaghan and Shawn Hann (Director of Theater, DSA) and performed in Manhattan Concert Production's "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat" at Lincoln Center in February of 2020 in New York. Meaghan is also a member of the choral adjudication panel for the 2020 International Winter Park Ski Music Festival. Ensembles under her direction have received superior ratings at festivals throughout the state of Colorado and NoteAUble, her show choir, was awarded Grand Champion Show Choir of the 2017 International Winter Park Ski Music Festival.
Meaghan also has a passion for Musical Theater, and has served as a choreographer, music director, vocal director, set design/technical director, producer and director for many musical theater productions. Directing credits include: Annie, Legally Blonde, Sound of Music, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Meaghan is currently the vocal director for DSA's 2019 All School Musical "Chicago" and as Vocal Director of the DSA Theatre Department's 2019 production of "9-5" which was selected as one of eleven main stage shows for the National Thespians Conference 2020.
As a conductor, Meaghan was selected as a conducting auditor for the 2019 Sarteano Choral Conducting Workshop in Sarteano, IT under the direction of Simon Carrington member of the King Singers and Professor Emeritus at Yale School of Music. Meaghan was also selected as one of twenty international conducting fellows for the 2020 Frost Young Women's Conductor Symposium through Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
Meaghan’s passion is teaching and watching her students learn and grow through the arts. She loves teaching students how to better themselves through music and by using their voices to change the world every day at DSA!