Festival Judges
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Sara Lynn Baird earned a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from Florida State University, a Master of Music in Voice Performance from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education with an emphasis on Choral Conducting from Florida State University. Her previous position was Interim Dean of the College of Music and Dramatic Arts at Louisiana State University. Baird also served as Associate Dean for the College of Music and Dramatic Arts from 1998-2007 and Director of Graduate Studies from 2005-2007. Baird has been choral and music director for several schools and churches across the southeast. She has published and contributed numerous choral reviews to the Choral Journal, has coauthored an article published in the Southeastern Journal of Music Education, and has served as president for the southern division of the American Choral Directors Association from 2005-2007.
Kevin Fenton, Professor of Choral Conducting and Ensembles at Florida State University, holds the Ph.D. from Florida State University, the M.M. from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and the B.M.E. from Friends University in Wichita, Kansas. Dr. Fenton conducts the University Singers and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in choral conducting and choral literature. He is also the Artistic Director for the Festival Singers of Florida, based in Orlando. In 2009-2010 Kevin will be conducting all-state choirs in Alabama, Hawaii, Missouri and New York. Kevin’s textbook Foundations of Choral Conducting (released in the spring of 2007) has been adopted by more than twenty universities throughout the United States, and he has also written articles appearing in the Choral Journal, the Music Educators Journal, and the Bulletin for Historical Research in Music Education. Dr. Fenton is an active member of the American Choral Directors Association and served as Southern Chair and then National Chair of the ACDA College/University Repertoire and Standards Committee from 1999-2006. He is currently President for Florida ACDA.
David Lockart serves as the District Supervisor of Music for the North Hunterdon Voorhees High School District where he has taught music, including Music Theory, choral music, voice, and musical theater for the past 29 years. Mr. Lockart’s award-winning choirs have toured throughout the eastern United States, Canada, and Europe, and have presented joint concerts with college choirs, community choirs and orchestras. Mr. Lockart has serves as a consultant for the College Board and ETS as a reader for Advanced Placement Music Theory Examinations, and served a 4-year appointment to the A.P. Music Theory Development Committee (1997-2001), responsible for writing the AP Music Theory exam. He is a composer of choral music with several works in the Cantate Music Press catalog. In 1999, one of Mr. Lockart’s compositions was selected as a finalist in the Ithaca College Music Composition Contest. Currently a member of MENC and ACDA, Mr. Lockart received his Bachelor of Music degree from Westminster Choir College, a Master of Choral Music degree from the University of Illinois and his Supervisor’s Certification from The College of New Jersey. Mr. Lockart lives in Clinton Township, NJ with his wife, Linda, also a musician.
