Music Director

Joshua Habermann’s program of Nordic music performed this past July at the Loretto Chapel was a highlight of the festival and was the favorite not only of the search committee and Board of Directors, but also of our singers, the public and the critics," said Board President Robert Ripps. Craig Smith wrote in the Santa Fe New Mexican. "Joshua Habermann…beautifully led 16 singers in Northern Lights….Habermann’s genial, easy and unflurried conducting helped the singers cover [the program’s] wide emotional and vocal ranges successfully."

Habermann will make his public debut as Music Director on opening night of Summer Festival 2009. He will return to conduct programs for the winter holiday season in December 2009. "The Desert Chorale has a strong tradition of performing top-notch literature in wonderful venues. I am thrilled to be working with this terrific ensemble of singers," said Habermann.

Habermann will begin working with General Director Don Scott Carpenter October 1, 2008 on preparations for Summer Festival 2009. Together they are responsible for the planning of all programs to be presented in the 2009 season and beyond as well as in selecting the choral ensemble. "I am very excited about collaborating with Josh. His artistic creativity and personal charisma are going to take the Desert Chorale to the forefront of professional chamber choirs," said Carpenter.

Newly appointed as Music Director for the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Habermann is in demand as a guest conductor and lecturer, having led honor choirs, choral festivals, and given presentations in North and Latin America, Europe and Asia. Recent guest conducting appearances include concerts with The Washington Chorus (Washington, D.C), Festival Nacional de Musica (Goiânia, Brazil). For the Desert Chorale, Habermann recently conducted a program of Nordic and Baltic music.

In September 2008 Habermann assumed the position of Director of Choral Studies at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. Featured events in Miami include concerts with the Frost Chorale in music of John Corigliano and Alberto Ginastera. Also beginning in Fall 2008 he will conduct the Master Chorale of South Florida, a 125-voice chorus dedicated to performing major choral-orchestral works. Upcoming projects with MCSF include Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Boca Raton Sinfonia, a collaboration with Empire Brass, and Beethoven’s 9th symphony with the Russian National Orchestra under Itzhak Perlman.

From 1996-2008 he was professor of music San Francisco State University, where he directed the choral program, and taught choral literature, conducting, lyric diction, and voice. Under his direction the SFSU Chamber Singers were invited to appear in conferences and festivals, including international engagements in Havana, Cuba (2002 Festival Internacional de Coros), (2007 Amércia Cantat), Germany and the Czech Republic (2004), and China (2000). In 2006 he was invited to lead a collaboration between the SFSU Chamber Singers and the Orchestre des Jeunes de Provence in music of Poulenc and the Requiem of Maurice Duruflé in concerts throughout France. National invitations include the Waging Peace Festival in Eugene, Oregon in 2003, multiple appearances at the California Music Educators Convention, and an appearance at the American Choral Director’s Association in 2008.

Habermann’s long association with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus began in 1991, when he joined the chorus as a singer and diction coach. Over the course of 13 seasons he sang and helped prepare both the standard canon and lesser-known works of choral-orchestral repertoire. From 1996-2006 Mr. Habermann was assistant to Vance George, and in 2006-2007 served as interim director upon George’s retirement. In that capacity he prepared the chorus for performances with conductors Michael Tilson Thomas and Charles Dutoit in concerts of Mozart, and Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust. Recordings as a singer with the SFSC include Christmas by the Bay (Decca Records), and Mahler Symphony #2 (London Records), also a Grammy nominee for Best Choral/Orchestral Recording.

As a singer (tenor) he has performed with the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus (Eugene, Oregon), where he can be heard on the Grammy-Award-winning recording of Krzystof Penderecki’s Credo. Other projects include three recordings with Conspirare: Through the Green Fuse, Threshold of Night, and Requiem, a Grammy nominee for best choral recording in 2006. Mr. Habermann also maintains an interest in the Hawaiian choral tradition, and sings periodically with Kawaiolaon⎯apukanileo, an ensemble dedicated to performing and preserving this unique repertoire. Other research interests include Latin

American and Nordic music. His dissertation on the a cappella works of Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara was a Julius Herford Prize finalist for music research in 1997.

A native of California, Habermann is a graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Texas at Austin, where he completed doctoral studies in conducting with Craig Hella Johnson. He has also studied under Helmuth Rilling (conducting), Scott Fogelsong (piano) and David Jones (voice).