Wisconsin Chamber Choir Artistic Director
Dr. Robert Gehrenbeck
Robert Gehrenbeck is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater, where he conducts the UWW Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, Harmonia, and opera and musical theatre productions. He has served as the WCC’s Artistic Director since 2008, leading the ensemble in critically acclaimed performances of choral-orchestral masterworks as well as innovative programs featuring familiar and rarely heard a cappella works.
Gehrenbeck’s choirs have been invited to perform at state and regional conferences and in Europe, and he has guest conducted honor choir festivals throughout Wisconsin. As a singer, he has appeared with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers, Boston’s Cantata Singers, New York State Baroque, and the Bloomington Early Music Festival. He is recognized as an authority on eighteenth-century performance practice, German Romantic choral music, and contemporary music. A committed advocate on behalf of living composers, he has conducted world premieres by Peter Bloesch, Stephen Chatman, Brent Michael Davids, Christian Ellenwood, Wayne Oquin, Judith Shatin, Giles Swayne, and Augusta Read Thomas.
Dr. Gehrenbeck earned degrees from Macalester College, Boston University, and Indiana University, with additional studies at the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Conservatory in Leipzig, Germany. He is a recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award from UW-Whitewater’s College of Arts and Communication, and the Julius Herford dissertation prize from the American Choral Directors Association.
Organist and Collaborative Pianist
Mark Brampton Smith
Mark Brampton Smith holds degrees in Organ Performance from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan. Currently the organist at Grace Episcopal Church, Madison, Mark has served on the music staff of churches in seven states. A prize winner in several national organ competitions, he has given solo concerts in numerous churches and auditoriums, including Madison’s Overture Center for the Arts. Recent seasons included appearances with Just Bach and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. As a collaborative pianist, Mark has worked with singers, instrumentalists, and ensembles, including the Ann Arbor Cantata Singers, University of Michigan choirs, Colgate University Chorus, and, since 2012, the Wisconsin Chamber Choir.
