Kym Scott, Artistic Director
Dr. Kym Scott is the Director of Choral Activities at West Virginia University where she conducts the WVU Chamber Singers, Mountaineer Chorus, and Community Choir. She also teaches conducting, choral techniques, and choral literature, and oversees the choral conducting graduate program. She has directed choirs in Australia, Asia, Europe, the UK, and the United States, including several performances by the USC Chamber Singers with The Rolling Stones in Los Angeles and Anaheim during their “50 and counting” world tour.
Dr. Scott regularly presents at state, regional, and national conferences, and has conducted All-State and Festival Choirs. She currently sits on the board of the West Virginia chapter of the American Choral Director’s Association in addition to serving as the collegiate honor choir chair. She is a founding member of MASICA, the Mid-Atlantic Southern Intercollegiate Choral Association and is a regular chorister and conductor with Maestri Vocale Treble, a collaborative treble voice choral ensemble.
An Australian native, Dr. Scott received her undergraduate degree in piano performance from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and her Masters degree in aural pedagogy from the University of Queensland. In 2011 she relocated to the United States to complete her doctoral studies at the University of Southern California.
Having worked with all age groups, Scott is particularly passionate about choral music in the community. She has conducted community choirs for over twenty years, and has worked with choirs for the homeless, disadvantaged, and incarcerated.
When faced with the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, Scott combined her professional past as a couture fashion designer and seamstress with the newfound needs of her choral singers and designed the sing-safe performer’s mask. The mask is now being used by students and performers throughout the United States and Canada as well as in the UK and Europe.
William Larson, Accompanist
William Larson hails from Pittsburgh. He received a fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center in 1989, and completed his graduate studies at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in 1992. In addition to formal studies with Julian Martin (piano) and Samuel Sanders (accompanying), Larson has also worked with Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, and Eugene List, among others. He studied composition with Joseph Willcox Jenkins, receiving feedback and encouragement from Morton Gould and Lukas Foss. His work as a collaborative pianist has included assisting Mstislav Rostropovich with preparing the premiere of Lorin Maazel’s Music for Violoncello and Orchestra in 1996.
Larson’s competition wins include the American Music Scholarship Association Young Artists Piano Competition, the Pittsburgh Concert Society major auditions, the Boston Conservatory Young Composer’s Competition and others. He has been featured on WQED-FM’s Arhaus Performance in Pittsburgh.
In addition to concerto performances with orchestras including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony, Larson has performed as an orchestral keyboardist with the PSO, the Erie Philharmonic, the Edgewood Symphony Orchestra and the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra. Repertoire has included Messiaen’s Turangalila-Symphonie, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and many works by John Adams, with the composer conducting. He has played harpsichord continuo on Pitt’s Bach and Baroque series, and with the St. Vincent Camerata.
He has played harpsichord continuo on Pitt’s Bach and Baroque series, and with the St. Vincent Camerata. He has been Chorus Director/Principal Keyboardist for the Undercroft Opera company.
As a choir director and organist, Larson has served various churches in Baltimore and Pittsburgh. He is Organist and Choir Director for Beulah Presbyterian Church, and Accompanist for the Renaissance City Choir.