Our Accompanist: Kelly Crandell
Crandell has been an opera coach/pianist for many years. His most notable collaboration was with famed mezzo soprano Frederica von Stade on an arrangement commissioned by the Seattle Men’s Chorus of a work by Jake Heggie (Anna Madrigal Remembers) and Despina (Cosí fan tutte). Most recently, he has been a freelance coach for singers in the Metropolitan Opera chorus in New York, singers in the Grammy Award winning enemble Ars Nova in Copenahgen, Denmark, the Belgian opera house La Monnaie, the San Francisco Opera and oratorio singers with the San Francisco Symphony. In 2007 he was accepted into the Royal Academy of Music in London for studies in opera accompanying, but he chose to pursue a conducting degree in Denmark instead.
While studying at the University of Michigan from 1996–2000, Crandell studied piano with Lynn Bartholomew; flute with Elaine Jorgensen, Leone Buyse and Jeffrey Zook; composition with Erik Santos; and general musicianship with Marianne Ploger (the last student of Nadia Boulanger). He later focused his studies in 2000 on composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with David Conte (another student of Nadia Boulanger) and Conrad Susa, two prominent voices in American choral music. While in San Francisco, he mentored with multiple Grammy Award winning choral conductor, Vance George, a relationship he continues to maintain today. In 2009, Crandell finished conducting studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, working with Giancarlo Andretta (Århus Symphony), capping his degree conducting a performance of Beethoven’s 9th.
Crandell is best known as a choral composer, with commissions from the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, the Seattle Men’s Chorus, and the New Cambridge Singers. He has also had premiers of new works by Chanticleer and Kammerkoret Hymnia, and his works have been aired on Danish/Polish/Dutch National Radios and BBC Radio. One of his works is currently published by Hinshaw Music (Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind).
As a conductor, he has been a guest conductor at UC–Berkeley with the UC–Berkeley Chamber Choir with whom he made California premiers of works by Meredith Monk. He conducted the Danish ensemble Concord Brass Band from 2008–2009, and after working with them for one year, was successful in helping them to win a Danish Championship, their first win on Danish soil in over ten years. He has conducted three times on Danish television, including a performance with the Danish Radio Girls’ Chorus and Swedish soprano Isabel Piganiol.
Crandell currently operates a vocal coaching studio in the New York metropolitan area at Section Studio while producing recordings for the classical record label SECTIONmg.
The Rutgers University Glee Club