Garrett named Assistant Professor of Music in choral activities in Korff School

Marques Garrett
Marques Garrett

Garrett named Assistant Professor of Music in choral activities in Korff School

calendar icon12 Apr 2018    

Marques Garrett has been named as assistant professor of music in choral activities at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Glenn Korff School of Music following a competitive search process.

“We are thrilled to welcome Marques Garrett to our faculty,” said Sergio H. Ruiz, professor and director of the Glenn Korff School of Music. “I was particularly impressed with his musical artistry working with the student choir, as well as his encouraging, student-centered approach to working with students. His compositions and choral arrangements have been published by international publishing houses, and his research on the ‘Non-Idiomatic Choral Music of Black Composers’ will make a very welcome addition to our remarkable faculty.”

Garrett was most recently the Director of Choral Activities at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. He holds the Master of Music degree in choral conducting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Hampton University where he graduated magna cum laude. He is currently enrolled at The Florida State University pursuing a Ph.D. in music education.

Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts Endowed Dean Chuck O’Connor is excited to bring Garrett to Nebraska.

“Our nationally renowned choral tradition at Nebraska includes invited performances to national and international conventions, performances at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and more,” O’Connor said. “We are excited about the opportunities for Marques Garrett to build upon this tradition in the Glenn Korff School of Music and look forward to welcoming him to campus.”

Garrett is excited to join the Glenn Korff School of Music faculty.

“I am indeed honored and excited to join the faculty,” Garrett said. “The University of Nebraska–Lincoln is a wonderful school with many opportunities for faculty and students. One of my joys is working with conducting students and seeing them grow beyond what they imagined for themselves. To see students learn and retain knowledge is one of the most satisfying parts of being an educator.”

As a conductor, Garrett has worked with noted choirs such as the Hampton University Concert Choir, Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church Sanctuary Choir (Memphis, Tennessee), Bennett College Choir (Greensboro, North Carolina), and Friendship Missionary Baptist Church Choirs (Charlotte, North Carolina). He has studied conducting with Andre J. Thomas, Carole J. Ott, Carl G. Harris, Jr., and Royzell Dillard. At the Hampton University Choir Directors’ Organists’ Guild Workshop, he has served as the basic conducting workshop clinician. In 2016, Indiana University South Bend honored him by allowing him to conduct four of his songs for their Black History Month concert.

Throughout college, he competed and placed in various vocal competitions while studying with Lorraine Bell and Levone Tobin Scott. He has sung at various churches as a baritone soloist. Garrett was a featured soloist at the 4th Annual High School Gospel Festival sponsored by Ithaca College (New York) where he performed Raymond Wise’s “Afro-American Suite.” He was the baritone soloist for the Germantown Concert Chorus’s performance of Haydn’s “Missa in Augustiis” in 2014.

He began composing and arranging while at Hampton University. His compositions have been performed by collegiate and professional choirs nationwide such as the Brigham Young University Men’s Chorus, Biola University Chorale, University of North Carolina at Greensboro Combined Choirs, and I. Sherman Greene Chorale while the National Lutheran Choir, Winston-Salem State University Choir, and Missouri State University Concert Chorale have preserved some of his music on recordings. His compositions and arrangements are published with G. Schirmer, Hinshaw Music, Mark Foster Music Corporation, GIA Publications, Walton Music Corporation and Santa Barbara Music Publishing.  

“I also look forward to the research opportunities that await me at Nebraska,” Garrett said. “Being able to share what I have already learned about choral literature and even to research more will afford me the chance to add to the body of research on choral literature that is already available.”

Garrett holds membership in the American Choral Directors Association; American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers; National Association for the Study and Performance of African-American Music; and National Association of Negro Musicians.

“I believe great things are in the future for Professor Garrett, the Glenn Korff School of Music, the university and the international community,” Ruiz added.