Bienen School of Music CHORAL ORGANIZATIONS

Andrew Megill

Director of Choral Organizations

DMA, Rutgers University

Andrew Megill is professor of conducting and director of choral organizations at the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music, where he holds the Carol F. and Arthur L. Rice, Jr. University Professorship in Performance. He conducts the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble and teaches Advanced and Graduate Choral Conducting. In addition, he leads Music of the Baroque, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Chorus, the Carmel Bach Festival Chorale, and Fuma Sacra.

Megill is recognized as one the leading choral conductors of his generation, admired for both his passionate artistry and his unusually wide-ranging repertoire, which extends from early music to newly composed works. He has prepared choirs for the American Composers’ Orchestra, American Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonie, National Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Venice Baroque Orchestra for conductors including Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit, Joseph Flummerfelt, Rafael Frühbeck du Burgos, Alan Gilbert, Neeme Järvi, Zdenek Macal, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, John Nelson, Rafael Payare, and Julius Rudel. Recordings of choirs conducted or prepared by him may be heard on the Decca, EMI, Canteloupe, Naxos, Albany, and CBC labels.

Megill is particularly admired for his performances of Baroque choral works. He regularly collaborates with leaders in the field of historically-informed performance, and has conducted many period-instrument orchestras, including Piffaro, Rebel, Sinfonia NYC, Brandywine Baroque, the Sebastians, Tempesta di Mare, and the Trinity Baroque Orchestra. A frequent champion of music of our own time, he has also conducted regional or world premieres of works by Caleb Burhans, Paul Chihara, Dominic DiOrio, Sven-David Sandström, Caroline Shaw, Lewis Spratlan, Steven Stucky, Jon Magnussen, Arvo Pärt, and Krzysztof Penderecki.

Prior to his appointment at Northwestern, Megill served as professor and director of choral activities at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) and taught at Westminster Choir College for more than 20 years. He also previously served as music director of the Masterwork Chorus and Orchestra and Chorusmaster for the Spoleto Festival USA. He has been a guest artist with the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, TENET vocal ensemble, the Juilliard Opera Center, and Emmanuel Music, and served as interim choirmaster for Trinity Church in Manhattan.’

A.J. Keller

Associate Director of Choral Organizations

DMA, Northwestern University

A.J. Keller is an active performer, conductor, and educator throughout the Chicagoland area. He conducts the Northwestern University Chorale and University Singers, and teaches the graduate Choral Literature sequence, Basic Conducting, and Choral Music Education Methods. In addition to his work on the choral faculty at Northwestern, he is the founder and artistic director of Stare at the Sun, a 24-voice professional chamber choir specializing in the curation of contemporary music, and he serves as the Music Director at Glencoe Union Church.

A.J. has been actively involved in various projects both within and beyond Chicago. He served as chorus master for the Chicago premiere of Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick with Chicago Opera Theater and as assistant chorus master for the world premiere of David Lang’s prisoner of the state with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Jaap van Zweden. Previously, he served as a music assistant in the American premiere of Lang’s 1000-voice crowd out at Chicago’s Millennium Park. He is also internationally active, recently serving as guest conductor in an artistic collaboration with the Danish contemporary-music chamber choir Ensemble Edge, involving performances of Lang’s the little match girl passion at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus and OrkesterEfterskolen in Holstebro. Previous faculty appointments include serving as Director of Choral Activities at Beloit College and a sabbatical replacement appointment on the choral faculty at North Park University. He has also served as Artistic Director of the Wicker Park Choral Singers and Assistant Conductor at the Green Lake Choral Institute. Originally trained as a K-12 music educator, he has held various teaching positions throughout the Chicagoland area and still teaches privately.

A.J.’s primary areas of interest are contemporary choral music, postminimalism, and the Danish New Simplicity style. His 2020 dissertation, “Poor in Material, Non-Dramatic, Without Pathos: Elements of the Danish New Simplicity in the Choral Works of Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen” won him the American Choral Directors Association Julius Herford Dissertation Prize.  He holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Illinois Wesleyan University, and he earned the Master of Music and Doctor of Music degrees, both in conducting, from the Bienen School of Music.

Stephen Alltop

Director of Chapel Choir and Baroque Music Ensemble

DMA, Northwestern University

A conductor, harpsichordist, and organist, Stephen Alltop is director of music for Alice Millar Chapel, conductor of the Baroque Music Ensemble, and an instructor in conducting, harpsichord, and oratorio. A specialist in oratorio performance, he has conducted over 100 oratorio and operatic masterworks. He also serves as music director for the Apollo Chorus of Chicago, the Green Lake Choral Institute, and the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra. Under his direction, the Apollo Chorus has expanded its collaborations to include appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theater, London Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia Festival, Peninsula Music Festival, Josh Groban on Tour, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

In 2012, he was named Conductor of the Year by the Illinois Council of Orchestras for his work with the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra has received multiple awards for excellence in programming. He has also been named to Northwestern’s Faculty Honor Roll. Dr. Alltop became the music director and conductor of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra commencing with the 2013-14 season. He has guest-conducted numerous choruses and orchestras across the United States. He has led opera and orchestral concerts with a number of Italian orchestras, including I Soloisti di Perugia, Fondazione Arturo Toscanini (Bologna), Teatro Reggio Orchestra (Parma), Festival Mozart (Roverto), Orchestra Sinfonica della Provincia di Bari, Teatro Piccinni (Bari), and the Festival Duni (Matera). In February 2013, he was a guest conductor for the International School Choral Music Society in Busan, South Korea.

Dr. Alltop has worked closely with leading composers of the day, including residency projects with John Corigliano, Eleanor Daley, Stephen Paulus, and Eric Whitacre. He has conducted world premieres of works by John Luther Adams, Jan Bach, Frank Ferko, Stephen Paulus, Alan Terricciano, Janika Vandervelde, and many others. In 2007, he made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting music of Eric Whitacre.

An active musician in historic performance practices, Stephen Alltop has performed with many of today’s outstanding early music musicians, including Julianne Baird, Elizabeth Blumenstock, David Douglass, Ellen Hargis, Ingrid Matthews, Kenneth Slowik and Ton Koopman. He has performed as a harpsichordist and organist with Boston’s Handel and Haydn Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Bach Project, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Music of the Baroque, and the Omaha Symphony. Dr. Alltop has served as principal organist for Soli Deo Gloria’s Chicago Bach Project. In 2011, he was principal organist performing Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and conductor John Nelson at the Basilique St. Denis in France. As conductor of the Annual Celebration of Celtic Music at Chicago’s Symphony Center, he has worked with distinguished television and stage performers such as Brian Dennehy, Bill Kurtis, John Mahoney, and Martin Sheen. Dr. Alltop served as coordinator for WFMT’s Chicago Bach Organ Project, a live performance series of all of Johann Sebastian Bach’s organ works. His performances have been broadcast on Medici TV, RAI Italian Radio and Television, and the WFMT Fine Arts Network. His recordings can be found on the Albany, Cedille, Clarion, and American Gramaphone labels.

In demand as a speaker about music, Dr. Alltop lectures frequently for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Northwestern University Alumnae Continuing Education Series, and other musical organizations. In 2014-15, he gave presentations on leadership for the Advanced Management program of the Kellogg School of Management. He is represented by Joanne Rile Artist Management.

Chelsea Lyons

Administrative Assistant

MMus, Northwestern University

Chelsea is the Administrative Assistant for the Office of Choral Organizations and Institute for New Music at the Bienen School of Music.  She provides administrative oversight and support to the Choral Ensembles and Graduate Choral Conducting Program through planning, logistics, leadership of student employees, and serving as the choral librarian.  She also supports the activities of the Institute for New Music, including the Contemporary Music Ensemble, hosting prestigious guest composers and performers, and all aspects of the biennial Northwestern University New-Music Conference (NUNC!). 

In addition to her administrative role, Chelsea is an active professional choral singer. She is a member of Chicago a cappella, the Grant Park Music Festival Chorus, Music of the Baroque, Stare at the Sun, and The Crossing in Philadelphia.  She can be heard on eight of The Crossing’s studio albums, including Born, the 2022 Grammy Winner for Best Choral Performance.  As a concert soloist, Chelsea has performed with Music of the Baroque, Pacific Chorale, Spektral Quartet, Chicago Master Singers, Madison Bach Musicians, and the Green Lake Music Festival.  Her favorite operatic roles have been Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Hansel (Hansel & Gretel).  A California native, Chelsea is a graduate of California State University Fullerton (’13) and Northwestern University (MM ’17) and studied voice with Janet Smith, James Toland, W. Stephen Smith, and Karen Brunssen.  Chelsea also serves as a board member of Constellation Men’s Ensemble and is Director of Operations for the new-music choir Stare at the Sun.