Deborah Simpkin King

Deborah Simpkin King, conductor and choral arts advocate, works primarily out of Manhattan and northern New Jersey. She is known particularly for her work as an advocate for new choral music/composers; also for creative programming and elements of choral pedagogy. As a guest conductor, she takes on projects ranging from workshops and multi-day festivals to more extended interim and sabbatical positions. She is artistic director and founder of the well-reviewed Schola Cantorum on Hudson and founder of its international advocacy initiative, PROJECT : ENCORE™.

Pro-bono leadership within the industry includes her chairmanship of the New York Choral Consortium; also her long-time coordination of the NJ-ACDA High School Choral Festival (since 1994). King is a frequent speaker at professional conferences, a choral clinician, and a presenter of conducting master classes. In addition, she maintains an active conducting and voice studio.

King’s background is a mix of musicology (PhD), conducting (MMus), and vocal performance (BMus). The thread of continuity throughout her varied professional world is her fundamental belief that music is a gift that contains the potential for profound impact on the human spirit, providing lifelong nurture. It is this perspective that informs everything from polished performances to new-music advocacy to vigorous insistence on the development of fluency in sight singing.