Atlanta Opera Chorus Master Walter Huff will join the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music faculty this fall as an adjunct associate professor of music in choral conducting. Happily, he will continue as the opera’s chorus master, a job he’s held since 1988.
His professorship at Indiana is the first of its kind in the country, according to the Atlanta Opera. Huff (left) will prepare students in each opera production’s ensemble, and mentor conducting students in the specialized art form of opera chorus mastering. This position is, in part, designed to help elevate the art of the opera chorus.
Huff has prepared Atlanta Opera choruses in more than 80 productions, including the critically acclaimed Porgy and Bess that toured Europe in 2008. His first production with the opera, 24 years ago, was Puccini’s Tosca. Huff has degrees in music from the Oberlin and Peabody conservatories, has performed with singers throughout Europe and the United States, and served as coach with the Peabody Opera Theatre, The Washington Opera, and Baltimore Opera Company.
Atlanta Opera opens its 2012-13 season in November with Bizet’s tragic Carmen.
