Your 2011 candidates for president-elect, Northwestern Division, ACDA

(Election will be held January 3 - January 31, 2012. Expect email ballot January, 2012; national office will mail information on voting procedure; or visit HERE for more.)

Nicole Lamartine, Laramie, Wyoming

Dr. Nicole Lamartine is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wyoming in Laramie where she conducts the Collegiate Chorale, The UW Singing Statesmen and teaches Choral Conducting/Literature and Applied Voice. She previously had lived and performed in the UK and held the post of Assistant Professor of Choral Conducting at the University of Northern Iowa. She holds a D.M.A. in Choral Conducting from the University of Arizona, as well as the M.M. (University of Arizona) and B.M. (New Mexico State University) degrees in Vocal Performance. She has presented her research at national and regional conferences at of ACDA, NAfME, NATS, and CMS.

Dr. Lamartine’s choirs have been invited to perform at state and divisional conventions of NAfME and ACDA and travel regularly to promote quality singing in the west.  Collaborations with prominent musicians such as Jennifer Higdon, New York Voices, and Craig Hella Johnson enrich the lives of her choral students. 

In demand as a guest conductor and clinician, her clinics focus on vocal pedagogy and use of  Laban Movement Theory and Bartenieff Fundamentals in the choral rehearsal.  She has sung professionally with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale and Conspirare. 

Her active leadership in ACDA has included serving as Wyoming state president, chair of the 2011 National ACDA Women’s Honor Choir, and as co-chair for the National ACDA Collegiate and University Honor Chamber Choir.  

Patrick Ryan, Great Falls, Montana

Patrick Ryan is the newly appointed head choral director at Great Falls High School.  Prior to Great Falls, Patrick taught at Havre High School in north-central Montana, where he directed six vocal ensembles and taught courses in music theory and music history.   His select high school women’s ensemble, Belles Voix, performed at the 2009 MENC divisional convention, and the Havre High School A Cappella Choir was one of eleven groups worldwide selected to premiere the concert version of Eric Whitacre’s Paradise Lost at Carnegie Hall in 2010.  He began his career in rural Shelby, Montana, where he taught junior and senior high school choirs.  Mr. Ryan has a passion for secondary school music, and his experiences have taught him that any size school can have a thriving and successful choral program.

Mr. Ryan is the immediate Past-President of the Montana Choral Directors Association.  He is a frequent clinician and adjudicator in Montana, and recently presented sessions for the Montana Choral Director’s Association, Montana Collegiate MENC, the Arizona Music Educator’s state convention, and the American Musicological Society’s Rocky Mountain Chapter regional convention.  In 2012 Patrick will conduct the Korean English-Speaking Schools National Honor Choir in Seoul, South Korea.

Mr. Ryan received his Masters degree in Choral Conducting from Northern Arizona University, where he studied conducting with Edith Copley and Gary Weidenaar.  While in Flagstaff, he conducted the Northern Arizona University Men’s Chorale and the Coconino Community College Choir.  He received his music education degree with an emphasis in secondary choral music from Pacific Lutheran University, where he studied with Richard Sparks and Richard Nance.  As a high school student in Puyallup, Washington he was fortunate to sing under master teachers Richard Nace, Dinah Helgeson, and Pat Michel.  He has been privileged to sing with the PLU Choir of the West, The NAU Shrine of the Ages Choir, Choral Arts Northwest, and Tacoma Opera.  Mr. Ryan is an active member of ACDA, NAfME, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and NFHS.

Outside of his professional life, Patrick enjoys being a football and basketball referee for the Montana Officials Association.  He is blessed to have a wonderful wife, Lynn, also a choral conductor, and two children, three-year old son Kian and infant daughter Kendall.

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