Lee R. Kesselman has been Director of Choral Activities at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, a suburb of Chicago, since 1981. He is Founder and Music Director of the New Classic Singers, a professional choral ensemble. He also directs the DuPage Chorale and College of DuPage Chamber Singers. A native of Milwaukee, he holds undergraduate degrees in piano and composition from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and a master’s degree in conducting from the University of Southern California. In addition to teaching and composing, Mr. Kesselman is active as a conductor, pianist, clinician and lecturer. Kesselman is best known as a composer of vocal works, including opera, music for chorus, and solo songs. Recent works include Praise to the Light of the World for treble, male, mixed choruses and symphonic band, Make Me a Willow Cabin for soprano, clarinet and piano, JOLERE for dance, soprano & string quartet, an arrangement of Pete Seeger’s The Bells of Rhymney for chorus and orchestra, O Frondens Virga for treble voices, and Shifting the Sun for treble voices and piano. Kesselman is the composer or arranger of over 90 published choral works and an equal number of unpublished works in the genres of choral, opera, symphonic, solo voice and chamber music. Mr. Kesselman’s works for children have brought him national attention and he has been commissioned to write for children’s choirs, middle school, junior school, high school, college, community, church, and professional ensembles. Kesselman has been honored as a composer with prizes in the Melodious Accord (New York) Composition Search, Chautauqua Chamber Singers Composition Contest, the Chautauqua Children’s Chorale Composition Contest and the Illinois Choral Directors’ Association Contest. Large works include the opera The Bremen Town Musicans (commissioned by Opera for the Young), The Emperor's New Clothes (a choral opera), FACES for soprano voice and piano, Measuring the Holy for SATB, children and orchestra, Shona Mass for voices and African percussion, and Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand, a symphony for treble chorus and orchestra. The Bremen Town Musicans has been performed almost 400 times for schoolchildren in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and Texas..
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