Faculty of Music Announces Appointment of Dr. Jamie Hillman
The Faculty of Music of the University of Toronto is very pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Jamie Hillman as Associate Professor of Music, Director of Choral Studies and Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting. Hillman will conduct the U of T MacMillan Singers and lead the master’s and doctoral programs in Choral Conducting. Dr. Hillman will assume his position effective July 1, 2021.
Dr. Hillman is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States and currently resides in the Boston area with his wife and two sons. Growing up in Chatham, Ontario, his passion for choral music was ignited as a member of the Amabile Boys Choir, Ontario Youth Choir, and National Youth Choir of Canada. He earned degrees from University of Western Ontario (BMus, Honours Music Education, 2005), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (MMus, Choral Conducting, 2006), and Boston University (DMA, Choral Conducting, 2014). His visionary doctoral research, for which he was named a Boston University Prison Arts Scholar, included co-initiating a vocal music program in the Massachusetts prison system.
Hillman returns to Canada after serving on the faculty of Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, since 2012, where he directs the Gordon College Choir and other ensembles and teaches a wide range of courses in the undergraduate and graduate degree programs. He also teaches graduate conducting and pedagogy at Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Jamie Hillman is a multi-faceted musician: conductor, singer, pianist, music educator, and composer. A laureate of the prestigious Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting from the Ontario Arts Council (2012), Dr. Hillman has served as a conductor, adjudicator, guest lecturer, and clinician throughout the US and Canada, as well as in France, India, and Indonesia. His international and cross-cultural experience will be a key asset in U of T Music’s strategic goal of expanding the range and diversity of our global presence. Dr. Hillman is in demand as a conductor of All-State and Honor Choirs, with recent engagements in Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia, among others, as well as back home in Ontario and across Canada. His upcoming performances include conducting two national festival choruses at Carnegie Hall. Hillman is actively engaged as an advocacy and repertoire advisor on the Boards of several major choral organizations.
As a tenor soloist, Hillman has performed with choruses and orchestras in the US, Canada, and Southeast Asia, in classical and contemporary choral-orchestral repertoire, from Beethoven, Haydn, Handel, and Mozart, to R. Nathaniel Dett and Ariel Ramírez. As a professional choral singer, he has recorded and toured with the Canadian Chamber Choir, Nathaniel Dett Chorale, and Vox Futura.
As a collaborative pianist, Hillman has shared the stage with several major choruses and professional singers. Hillman’s choral compositions have been performed in North America, Asia, and Europe by high-profile youth and community choirs. He is co-editor of numerous editions of Arabic, Asian, Latin American, and Western choral pieces published by Earthsongs and Hinshaw and is co-author of choral pedagogical curriculum with composer Dan Forrest (Beckenhorst Press).
The Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting represents a distinguished presence on the Canadian choral scene. Iseler himself (1927–1998) had a huge impact on professionalizing the field. And the Iseler Chair at the University of Toronto, established through the generosity of choral champions Vern and Elfrieda Heinrichs, represents excellence and innovation on a national level. Dr. Hillman succeeds Dr. Doreen Rao and Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt as Elmer Iseler Chair. The Faculty of Music views choral music and choral music education as drivers of inclusive excellence, and looks forward to the artistic and visionary leadership that Dr. Hillman will bring to the position of Elmer Iseler Chair and Director of Choral Studies to move our university programs and community presence forward in exciting and innovative ways.
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