Participants Universitas Cantat 2017
University of Southern Indiana Chamber Choir, USA
Conductor: Prof. Daniel R. Craig
University of Southern Indiana Chamber Choir, USA
The USI Chamber Choir, under the direction of Daniel R. Craig is dedicated to representing the University of Southern Indiana as ambassadors of song. They have performed throughout the United States and have toured in Poland, Germany, Canada, and Ireland. Made up of students from all disciplines of study, the ensemble promotes quality performances of eclectic choral music in artistic settings. Their repertory ranges from Medieval Carols and Madrigals to Classical, Romantic and contemporary settings of liturgical and secular choral music. The USI Chamber Choir’s annual HYPERLINK "http://www.usi.edu/libarts/madrigals/"Madrigal Feaste is known throughout Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky for its delightful combination of period costumes, stirring music, great food, and lively farces. The ensemble has also performed with regional orchestras and have appeared in New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall. They are the 2016 Premier Competition winner of the Mayo International Choral Festival, Castlebar Ireland. Their participation in Universitas Cantat marks the choir’s fourth tour to Poland.
Daniel R. Craig is currently serving his twenty-sixth year as associate professor of music and the Director of Musical Activities at the University of Southern Indiana. He is the conductor of the USI Chamber Choir and the USI Women's Choir, is a lecturer in the area of Music History and also directs the USI Madrigal Feaste. Under Mr. Craig's direction, the USI Chamber Choir has earned recognition for its performances in Poland, Germany, Ireland, Canada and the United States.
In 2007 Mr. Craig was awarded a USI Faculty Research and Creative Award and a College of Liberal Arts grant to research Traditional Irish Song in Ireland. His creative project entitled the SEANNOS PROJECT, resulted in several tours to Ireland between 2008 and 2016. In 2016, the USI Chamber Choir under his direction won the Premier Competition of the Mayo International Choral Festival in Castlebar, Ireland. Included in this tour were several pieces in the Irish language that were composed by Mr. Craig. In 2011, the USI Chamber Choir collaborated with the University of Evansville Concert choir and several other groups to perform Haydn’s Mass in Time of War in New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall. Mr. Craig has also prepared his chorus for collaborative performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 the “Ressurrection,” Poulenc’s “Gloria,” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.
In 1997 Mr. Craig was awarded the International Arts Prize from the Ministry of Culture in Malbork, Poland for his promotion of Polish music in the United States. His awards also include several USI grants for Travel, Research, and Creativity, the USI Student Government Faculty of the Year Award, and the Southwestern Indiana Arts Council Award for Vanderburgh County Indiana, 2012. His choirs have received accolades throughout Poland and Ireland for their work in spreading goodwill and supporting international charities through music performance. Mr. Craig’s original compositions have been performed in churches, cathedrals, and concert halls in the United States and abroad. He is also published in the Choral Journal of the American Choral Director’s Association, the Worship Resources Section of the United Methodist Fellowship of Musicians and the General Board of Discipleship Compositions webpages of the United Methodist Church.
Mr. Craig also is in his twenty-first year as Director of Music at Old North United Methodist Church in Evansville where he directs the Chancel Choir and coordinates the music ministry. During his tenure at Old North, he has also conducted the Evansville Ecumenical Choir, a group of singers from over forty local churches. Daniel has served as director of music ministries in the United Methodist, Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, and Roman Catholic churches over the past thirty years.
Mr. Craig holds degrees from Murray State University (BA, Voice and Conducting, 1986) and the University of Illinois (MM Choral Conducting, 1989). He has studied voice and conducting with Dr. Carl Rogers, Dr. Ronald Hedlund, Robert K. Barr, Dr. Bruce Chamberlain, Dr. Paul Vermel, Dr. Don V Moses, Dr. Chester Alwes, Dr. Ann Howard Jones and Dr. Gerald Welker.
He has served as the guest conductor of the State of Wyoming Community Chorus, the Casper All-City High School Chorus, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Adam Mickiewicz University Chamber Choir, Poznan, Poland. He has conducted clinics throughout the United States, Canada, Poland and Ireland, for university, church, secondary school choirs, and community choruses.
Daniel enjoys music composition, audio recording, Irish traditional folk music, photography and is an avid bass fisherman. He is married to Clara Meadows Craig and has one daughter, Jennifer Anne Craig.
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