Christopher Kiver
- Professor of Music
- Director, Choral Activities
-
Choirs, Conducting
106 Music Building I
- Email cak27@psu.edu
- Phone 814-771-6001
Biography
Christopher Kiver is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Pennsylvania State University where he directs the Concert Choir and Glee Club, oversees the graduate choral conducting program, and teaches classes in choral conducting and choral literature. He served for 16 years as Director of Music at the University Baptist and Brethren Church in State College, founded and directed The Orpheus Singers, and is a regular guest conductor of the Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra.
Choirs under Kiver’s direction have performed at numerous state and regional conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and National Association for Music Education (NAfME). In 2017, Kiver led a performance of Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields with the Penn State University Concert Choir and Bang on a Can. He has appeared as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator in the United States, Australia, China, and New Zealand.
For ACDA, Kiver currently serves as Past President of the Eastern Region. He is a former national Repertoire and Standards chair for Men’s/TTBB Choirs, and past president of the Pennsylvania chapter.
A native of England, Kiver has received numerous prizes and scholarships including a Fulbright Award, and the 2002 Sydney World Choral Symposium Foundation Scholarship. In February 2006 he was a double Grammy Award winner ("Best Choral Performance" and "Best Classical Album") as a chorus master for the critically acclaimed Naxos recording of William Bolcom’s monumental Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Kiver was the recipient of Penn State University’s President’s Award for Engagement with Students in 2017. He is a graduate of the University of London, Florida State University, and the University of Michigan where he received the D.M.A. in choral conducting.