Professor, Music
Steven Zopfi is Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music at the University of Puget Sound where he oversees four choirs, teaches conducting, applied voice, and conducts the award-winning Adelphian Concert Choir. Prior to his appointment at Puget Sound, he served on the faculties of Penn State University, the University of Washington and Pacific Lutheran University. Choirs under his direction have been invited to sing at the local and regional conventions of the American Choral Director’s Association, the National Association for Music Education, the Society of Composers, Inc., the Colorado Early Music Society, and other professional organizations.
A native of New Jersey, Zopfi has a Bachelor degree in music education from the Hartt School of Music, a Master of Music degree in conducting from the University of California, Irvine, and Doctor of Musical Arts in choral conducting from the University of Colorado. He taught in the public schools in Vermont and New York, where he also served as Vermont State President of the American Choral Directors Association and an executive board member of the Vermont Music Educators Association. Since coming to the Pacific Northwest in 2001 he continued to remain active in professional organizations serving as Chair of Collegiate Activities for WA ACDA and NW ACDA. He is in constant demand as a conductor, adjudicator, and clinician. In 2015 he was named the Outstanding Choral Conductor of the year by WA ACDA.
Dr. Zopfi served as Artistic Director of the Portland Symphonic Choir from 2003 to 2018, the official chorus of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. Zopfi led the Oregon Symphony in performances of Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, and music by Beethoven, Bach, and Wagner. Critics have hailed his work as “magical” and “superb.” Zopfi has prepared choruses for Carlos Kalmar, Bernard Labadie, Alastair Willis, Murray Sidlin, Jean Marie Zeitouni, and Peter Schickele. As a singer, he has sung for many leading conductors including Robert Shaw and Sir David Wilcocks. He has performed with the Prague Philharmonic, the Colorado Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony, and the Pazardzhik Symphony and is the founder and past Artistic Director of the Foundling Hospital Singers, the Boulder Schola Cantorum, the Grace Chamber Orchestra, and The Portland Sinfonietta.
Zopfi is the founder and Artistic Director of the Tacoma Bach Festival.
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