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Betsy Weber

Professor of Choral Studies

Director of Choral Studies

Betsy Cook Weber (Choral Conducting, Division Head) is active internationally as a conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and lecturer. In the summer of 2013, Weber became the thirteenth person and first woman to receive the Texas Choral Director Association's coveted Texas Choirmaster Award. She is editor of the Betsy Cook Weber Choral Series with Alliance Music Publishing. Weber also serves as Director of the Houston Symphony Chorus, a post to which she was appointed in the Fall of 2014. In that role, she prepares choral-orchestral masterworks for some of the world's greatest conductors, including Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Christoph Eschenbach, and David Zinman. Choirs under Weber's direction, including the Moores School Concert Chorale, have been, or will be, featured at multiple state (TMEA 2002, 2005, 2008, 2013, 2017) and national conventions including the American Choral Directors Association national convention in Miami in 2007 and Minneapolis in 2017. Concert Chorale will also be a featured choir at the national convention of the National Collegiate Choral Organization in the fall of 2017. Internationally, Weber has led the Chorale to top prizes and acclaim at prestigious competitions in Wales, France and Germany, including a first-place finish as one of only ten choirs world-wide selected to compete in the famous International Chamber Choir Competition in Marktoberdorf, Germany. The Chorale also won first place in their primary division in the Grand Prix of Nations in Magdeburg, Germany in 2015. Weber has prepared singers for Da Camera, for early music orchestras Ars Lyrica and Mercury Houston, and is also routinely called upon to prepare singers for touring shows, including Josh Groban, NBC's Clash of the Choirs, Telemundo's Latin Grammys, Star Wars in Concert, Andreas Bocelli, Legends of Zelda, It's a Wonderful World, Dreamworks, and Final Fantasy. Before coming to the University of Houston, Weber taught vocal music (K-12) in the public schools. She holds degrees from the University of North Texas, Westminster Choir College, and the University of Houston