Meet the Conductors!

Visiting Assistant Professor of Music &  Director of Choral Activities 

Peter Kadeli is a versatile conductor and composer passionate about creating music of distinctive beauty and meaning to uplift the lives of individuals and communities. Recent premiere performances include Kian Ravaei’s Feeling New Strength for Orchestra and Daniel Nieberg’s Sinfonietta, Poems,. His choral experience includes conducting Indiana University’s contemporary vocal ensemble, NOTUS, in a performance of Reena Esmail’s Tuttarana at the 2022 ACDA Midwestern Conference. 

In 2015 Kadeli was a featured composer for the “Well that’s a First” Composers Consortium. That same year his Veni Sancte Spiritus received multiple performances in the Washington D.C. area. In 2014 he was the featured American composer for an art song recital given in Telaviv, Israel. His choral work, Beyond the Starlit Skies, is published by Kandinsky Music. 

A firm believer in the positive impact music has on individuals and communities, Kadeli created the Vivaldi Gloria Project, gathering musicians from the Indianapolis area for a benefit concert supporting community members in need. He was the co-founder of the Bishop O’Connell Youth Music Festival (2015-2018) and the Arlington Diocese Honors Music Festival (2016-2017)

PAMELA PIERSON has been involved in the process of producing articulate, engaged, and empathetic young people, who just happen to want to sing, for 45 years, primarily at Coloma Community Schools and then at West Ottawa High School in Holland. Her goal with every choir is to build a family who takes ownership of their prospects, to both understand the meaning of their music and create outstanding performances. An active adjudicator and clinician, she has conducted the High School SSAA State Honors Choir in 2012, led sessions at the Michigan Music Conference and the Michigan School Vocal Musical Assoc. (MSVMA) Summer Workshop, provided choirs for Workshop panels, was the MSVMA Teacher of the Year 2015, and her choirs performed multiple times at the Michigan Music Conference and American Choral Directors Association conferences. Her choirs have performed in Toronto, Chicago, Cleveland, Nashville, New York City and Milwaukee, and have worked one-on-one with some of Americas leading composers, conductors and performers. In the summer of 2019, she was the director of the 80 voice Michigan Ambassadors of Music Choir on their 16-day trip to Europe. She has held multiple positions in the hierarchy of MSVMA up to and including the Executive Board. She volunteers with the Fennville High School Choral program, the Lakeshore Community Chorus and conducts the West Ottawa Alumnae Choir, Las Almas. In the Summer of 2024 she will again be leading an 80 voice choir tour of Europe with the Michigan Musicians Abroad program.

Assistant Professor of Music Instruction and Director of Choral Activities

Born and raised in Southern California, Mexican-American conductor, pianist and vocalist Eric D. Reyes seeks to make music that communicates beauty, inspires hope, and brings about unity amongst people. Eric  serves as an Assistant Professor of Music Instruction and Director of Choral Activities at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. Most recently, Reyes served as the director of ¡Canto! A Latinx Vocal Intensive, a program that seeks to equip High School Latinx vocalists with resources to study and perform Latinx Vocal Music. This project was funded through the Mellon-Foundation, and was done in collaboration with Latin Americans United for Progress (LAUP), Dr. Sarah VandenBrink and Christina Krause. He has served a variety of ensembles including the Southern California Children's Chorus, Moody Chorale, University of Michigan Orpheus Singers, University of Michigan Arts Chorale, and the Community Chorus of Detroit. Eric was one of eight rising conductors selected throughout the country to participate in a conducting masterclass led by Ann Howard Jones and Jerry McCoy at the 2017 American Choral Directors Association National Conference in Minneapolis. At the University of Michigan, Eric was a recipient of the Brehm Endowed Fellowship in Choral Conducting. Reyes is currently pursuing his DMA in Conducting at the University of Michigan.  Eric is grateful for the ceaseless inspiration and encouragement from his wife - Soprano, Jennie Judd Reyes, as well as his mentors and teachers, including Dr. Eugene Rogers, Dr. Xiangtang Hong, and Dr. Jerry Blackstone.