LAURA
STANFIELD
PRICHARD
About Me
I speak regularly for leading choirs and orchestras, teach graduate and undergraduate courses in music and related arts, and work with music students and college applicants.
Speaking
In the Boston area, I present regular pre-concert lectures Concord's 51Walden Opera, for Masterworks Chorale (dir. Kevin Leong), Boston Collaborative Opera (a consortium of local singers), and Brookhaven.
Nationally, I maintain affiliations with the education departments of the San Francisco Symphony (since 1997), the San Francisco Opera (1995-2002 and 2012-present), and the Chicago Symphony (since 2008), Conspirare (Austin), and the New World Symphony (Miami). I provide engaging thirty-minute lectures before regular subscription concerts and illustrate my remarks with sung and danced examples that encourage audience interaction, participation, and questions.
Writing
My recent program notes include articles for Boston Lyric Opera, Odyssey Opera (Wagner's Rienzi, Korngold's Die Tote Stadt, British Moderns Festival), Masterworks Chorale (on Bach, Bizet, Brubeck, Mozart, Rutter, and Salieri), the Island Community Chorus (Brahms Requiem and Mendelssohn's St. Paul), and regular essays since 2004 for Berkshire Choral International.
I review concerts and music festivals for the Boston Musical Intelligencer, and was sent by Editor Lee Eiseman in 2015 to Havana, Cuba to cover the Salzburg Mozarteum's Cuba Project and Mozart Habana Festival.
Scholarly writing includes:
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editorial prefaces to new editions of rare and out-of-print musical scores for the Repertoire Explorer Series published by Musikproduction Höflich in Munich, Germany, including articles on Beethoven, Berlioz, Bruch, Busch, Cut, Dargomyzhsky, Franck, Liadov, Nicolai, Nielsen, Novák, Revueltas, Saint-Saëns, Salieri, Schreker, Stenhammar, and Vivaldi
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700+ translations of song and opera texts on Lieder.net
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over thirty entries for the recent Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music, the landmark New Grove Dictionary of American Music, Music Around the World: A Global Encyclopedia and the forthcoming SAGE International Encyclopedia of Ethnomusicology.
Performing
I have extensive experience as a K-12 teacher, conductor, singer, and musical director.
Former professional positions include:
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San Francisco Symphony Chorus (current soprano & former Assistant Chorus Conductor)
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Sängerchor Boston German Choir (Conductor & Pianist)
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Sharing a New Song Chorus (Director, collaborative tours of South Africa and Vietnam)
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Vocal Diction Coach for the New World Chorale and Tanglewood Chorus
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Yale Alumni Chorus (Assistant Conductor, leading the Chorus for concerts in Moscow, the Hague, and Rotterdam)
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Director of award-winning school ensembles in California (CSU-East Bay, St. Mary's College, Holy Names College, and Marin Catholic HS), and in Massachusetts (Marlborough HS, Lynn English HS, Lawrence Academy, and a variety of K-8 groups)
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Founding Director of the Argonauts Music Club, which began during my ten years of service as Director of Music at First Parish, Arlington (MA)
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30 years as a Music Director, Choral Conductor, Vocalist, and Accompanist in religious settings
Current positions include:
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Musical Director for the Winchester Cooperative Theater
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Private instructor in voice, piano, guitar, and woodwinds through Keys for Kids Studio in Lexington & privately in Winchester, Stow, Bedford, and Arlington, MA
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K-12 public school teaching (2020-2021 year was Remote only)
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2016 Doctoral CAGS degree (Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Education & Educational Administration) completed with a Thesis entitled: Artists/Teachers in Schools: Best Practices 2016 (102 pages, Fitchburg State University, MA)