Image
Mentor
Pearl Shangkuan is a highly sought-after conductor, lecturer and clinician who has led performances and workshops across six continents. Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, she is also the chorus director of the Grand Rapids Symphony, a Grammy-nominated professional orchestra. Recently appointed as the Editor of Hinshaw Music, Shangkuan also has a signature choral series with earthsongs, and is the music editor of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship choral series published by GIA. In 2014, she made her Carnegie Hall conducting debut and was an invited guest lecturer at the World Symposium for Choral Music held in Seoul, South Korea.
Shangkuan has served on the jury of several international choral competitions in Europe and Asia and has led conducting masterclasses for the ACDA national conference, Chorus America conferences, the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois Choral Conducting Symposium among many institutions and organizations in the US. She has conducted numerous All State choirs, ACDA division honor choirs, and choral festivals nationally and internationally, and has headlined several ACDA state and other professional conferences. Upcoming engagements include conducting the SSAA Honor Choir at the ACDA National conference, a fourth residency conducting at Carnegie Hall, an international choral festival in Italy and other conference and festival engagements. She serves on the Board of Directors of Chorus America and has served as president of the ACDA Central Division and Michigan ACDA. She has commissioned and premiered numerous choral works and her choirs have performed at ACDA national, division and state conferences. In 2020, she received a Calvin University Award for Excellence in Teaching and previously received the Grand Rapids YWCA Arts Tribute Award. Michigan ACDA in 2013 honored her with the Maynard Klein Choral Award for “artistic excellence and lifetime leadership in choral music.”
