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Professor/Director of Choral Activities , Music
Professor/Director of Choral Activities , Music
Dr. Gary Seighman is Director of Choral Activities at Trinity University. Under his direction, Trinity’s choirs have garnered regional and national accolades with invited conference performances, tours throughout the United States and abroad, and innovative collaborations. A charismatic and passionate artist, Seighman is highly engaged as a clinician, guest conductor, and speaker on a wide variety of topics ranging from music pedagogy to entrepreneurship.
Dr. Gary Seighman is Director of Choral Activities at Trinity University. Under his direction, Trinity’s choirs have garnered regional and national accolades with invited conference performances, tours throughout the United States and abroad, and innovative collaborations. A charismatic and passionate artist, Seighman is highly engaged as a clinician, guest conductor, and speaker on a wide variety of topics ranging from music pedagogy to entrepreneurship.
Seighman has traveled to East Asia five times between 2015-2019 where he conducted for the Peking University Summer Opera Program, led graduate masterclasses in Taiwan, and guest conducted throughout China. Other recent conducting engagements include the Arkansas Intercollegiate All-State Choir, TMEA honor choirs, Mozart’s ‘Great’ Mass in C minor, and Haydn’s Creation. In 2018, he was chorusmaster for the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt and Vienna, Austria. Locally, he has served as chorusmaster for numerous engagements with the San Antonio Symphony. His professional schedule in 2019 had him traveling to Nashville, New York City, Missouri, Washington, DC, Hong Kong, London, and Dublin.
Seighman has traveled to East Asia five times between 2015-2019 where he conducted for the Peking University Summer Opera Program, led graduate masterclasses in Taiwan, and guest conducted throughout China. Other recent conducting engagements include the Arkansas Intercollegiate All-State Choir, TMEA honor choirs, Mozart’s ‘Great’ Mass in C minor, and Haydn’s Creation. In 2018, he was chorusmaster for the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt and Vienna, Austria. Locally, he has served as chorusmaster for numerous engagements with the San Antonio Symphony. His professional schedule in 2019 had him traveling to Nashville, New York City, Missouri, Washington, DC, Hong Kong, London, and Dublin.
Seighman has served on the boards of the National Collegiate Choral Organization, the Children’s Chorus of San Antonio, and the DC/MD Choral Director's Association where he was also editor of the state newsletter. He is also a regular panelist and grant-evaluator for the Texas Commission on the Arts in Austin, TX. Always eager to explore new artistic and creative outlets, Seighman is signed as a model with Avant Agency and has been featured in print, internet, and television.
Seighman has served on the boards of the National Collegiate Choral Organization, the Children’s Chorus of San Antonio, and the DC/MD Choral Director's Association where he was also editor of the state newsletter. He is also a regular panelist and grant-evaluator for the Texas Commission on the Arts in Austin, TX. Always eager to explore new artistic and creative outlets, Seighman is signed as a model with Avant Agency and has been featured in print, internet, and television.
To learn more about Dr. Seighman we asked him a few questions.
To learn more about Dr. Seighman we asked him a few questions.
As the Director of Choral Activities, you have an impressive number of students who you see only once a week. Yet your students have often praised you for your ability to remember each of their names and thereby make your classes more engaging and personable. Are there any other techniques that help you create a more inclusive and welcoming environment for your students?
As the Director of Choral Activities, you have an impressive number of students who you see only once a week. Yet your students have often praised you for your ability to remember each of their names and thereby make your classes more engaging and personable. Are there any other techniques that help you create a more inclusive and welcoming environment for your students?
That is way too kind! It’s funny because I don’t really use any strategies that other TU faculty don’t already employ. I’m pretty candid when soliciting input from students and quick to admit when I’m not an expert on something. This openness with the students is something that I’ve really learned from observing all of my colleagues in the music department who I greatly respect. But one idea that I stole from a teacher up in Boston is keeping an “idea box” in the back of the classroom where students can anonymously offer input or suggestions for me anytime during the semester. As a student, I’ve also been on both sides of the aisle when it comes to favoritism shown by a teacher. I’m especially sensitive to this perception and hope many of my students will agree that I’ll call something as I see it regardless of who, what year, or which ensemble they are in. With name learning, I’ll study the roster lists before classes start, but I’ve always been decent at quickly connecting faces with names simply from having large classes all of my career as a choral director (including a K through grade 8 stint with over 500 students back in the early 2000s).
During the pandemic, the performing arts experienced many challenges. However, you enjoyed several successes including My Hair is a Garden and teaching choir during a pandemic. Could you explain your thought processes as you met any challenges associated with these endeavors?
During the pandemic, the performing arts experienced many challenges. However, you enjoyed several successes including My Hair is a Garden and teaching choir during a pandemic. Could you explain your thought processes as you met any challenges associated with these endeavors?
The pandemic has forced all of us to think outside of the box in terms of pedagogy. I’m obviously biased, but among the enormous range of activities humans, I can think of few that exist more intrinsically opposite from social distancing than choral singing. It’s an art form dependent on human connection at the deepest levels. A super-spreader event early in 2020 involving a choir literally made national headlines and so people are right to have concerns. But there has also been a lot of research performed during the pandemic examining data such as aerosol transmission rates from singing and ways to significantly mitigate risks. Keeping myself updated on all of this has been crucial. With the logistical challenges of rehearsing and the safety protocols, we’re clearly not going to “learn as many notes” than in previous years. But this is also an opportunity to step back and look a little deeper into the music that we are preparing and to reflect on our role as artists. That was definitely part of our purpose with My Hair is a Garden.
What tech/software did you find most useful for powering through the pandemic?
What tech/software did you find most useful for powering through the pandemic?
Sorry to disappoint, but Google searches and random how-to videos on YouTube! I knew nothing about video-editing and had extremely basic knowledge of audio mixing prior to COVID. I got a little bit more daring tech-wise with each virtual choir project, but basically spent countless hours making tons of mistakes especially early on.
Pre-Covid, you traveled all around the world with your students. What did you find most rewarding about these experiential learning experiences? And where do you look forward to returning to again, or exploring for the first time?
Pre-Covid, you traveled all around the world with your students. What did you find most rewarding about these experiential learning experiences? And where do you look forward to returning to again, or exploring for the first time?
I’m not going to lie, it’s a huge thrill conducting on a major stage and we’ve been blessed with so many opportunities. Even just within two years prior to the pandemic, we got to perform for over a thousand students inside a state-of-the art performing arts center in China, for a packed St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna also broadcast on Austrian radio, and at a national conference in Baton Rouge where I stood in front of nearly all of my former conducting professors and hundreds of choral director colleagues -- I admit, I was a wee bit nervous just before that one!
However, the most rewarding aspect of touring, or even performing a major choral-orchestral work on campus, is seeing how the students don’t take any of these experiences for granted. I vividly remember glancing across a 747 aisle and seeing the excitement of a singer who was on a plane for the very first time - on a flight from Houston to London-Heathrow, nonetheless. The entire family of another student joined us in Austria so his grandmother could watch him perform in the same country where she narrowly escaped the Nazis as a child 80 years earlier. Post-performance I remember watching all of them standing alongside a pew hugging. Those memories just never go away in my mind.
As for after the pandemic? Our choir’s Carnegie Hall debut got cancelled due to COVID as I was set to conduct them and the New York Chamber Orchestra in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass. We are already rescheduling the performance after the pandemic so that is definitely among our upcoming highlights. We’ve also postponed several guest artists from around the world who were going to be in-residence and working with all of our choirs. Having them finally here will be amazing.
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