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The American choral conductor and music pedagogue, Eugene Rogers, obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Choral Music Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; and his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Choral Conducting from University of Michigan (2005-2008).
A two-time Michigan Emmy Award winner, a 2017 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient, and a 2015 GRAMMY® Award nominee, Eugene Rogers is recognized as a leading conductor and pedagogue throughout the USA and abroad. He has served as Director of the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club (2011-2018); Director of Choral Activities at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota (2008-2011); Assistant Artistic Director at Boys Choir of Harlem in New York (2003); Co-Director of Choirs at Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, Illinois; Anima Young Singers of Greater Chicago (formerly the Glen Ellyn Children’s Choir); Director of Choirs at Grosse Pointe North High School in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Since September 2018, he serves as Director of Choirs and Associate Professor of Conducting at the University of Michigan. In July 2020, he was named as the 5th Artistic Director of the two-time GRAMMY® Award-Winning Ensemble, The Washington Chorus (Washington, D.C.). He is also Founding Director of Exigence Vocal Ensemble - Sphinx Organization.
At the University, Eugene Rogers leads the graduate choral conducting program, conducts the University of Michigan Chamber Choir, and administers the program of over eight choral ensembles. His choirs have toured throughout China, South Africa, the USA, and have appeared at national and regional conferences. In December 2017, Musical America named Eugene Rogers one of the top 30 “Movers and Shapers” professionals in North America. In 2016, Eugene Rogers' passion for issues of social justice and music was featured in the award-winning documentary Love, Life and Loss which highlights Joel Thompson’s powerful Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, and in 2013, he co-managed the production of the joint CD "Ye Shall Have a Song" with the Michigan, Yale, and Harvard Glee Clubs, a collaboration celebrating America’s three oldest collegiate choirs.
In 2015, Mark Foster Publishing began the Eugene Rogers Choral Series, a series featuring emerging composers who specialize in contemporary classical and folk music traditions, and the EXIGENCE Choral Series in 2018 which features folk and contemporary works by Black and Latinx composers. In 2011, Eugene Rogers traveled to and studied the choral traditions of East Africa (Tanzania).
Eugene Rogers currently serves on the board of Chorus America and is the former national chair of the Diversity Initiatives Committee for the American Choral Directors Association. He currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. |
