Faculty

Biography

Colin Mann is Director of Choirs in the Arthur Satz Department of Music at the University of Rochester where he conducts the concert choir and chamber singers. He also is Lecturer in Music and Director of the Treble Choir at Nazareth University and has served on the faculty at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. As assistant conductor of the Eastman-Rochester Chorus, he conducted a performance of Poulenc’s Gloria and completed a lecture recital analyzing the text and rhythm of this major work. Before returning to Rochester, Mann directed secondary school and community choirs throughout western Massachusetts and New England.

As artistic director of the Monadnock Chorus in Peterborough, New Hampshire, Mann conducted a variety of works for chorus and orchestra. Since returning to Peterborough as conductor of the Viva Bach Festival, the organization has completed a cycle of seven cantatas and three motets with instruments. Mann has sung with several professional choruses and is a baritone soloist of art song and operatic arias. He has sung solos in Durante Magnificat, Schubert Mass in G, and Fauré Requiem and has performed Samuel Barber’s “Dover Beach” with the Amherst-based Cushman String Quartet. In 2019, Mann traveled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to sing Bach St. Matthew Passion with the Malaysia Bach Festival.

A western New York native, Mann is a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting at the Eastman School of Music where he studies with Dr. William Weinert. His research interests include contextualizing Lithuanian folklore themes found in new choral compositions and how these trends relate to other Baltic choral music. He earned the Master of Music degree in conducting with an advanced certificate in community music teaching from the Eastman School of Music and the Bachelor of Music degree in music education and voice performance summa cum laude from Fredonia, State University of New York.