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OUR COMPOSERS
Carolee R. Curtright
Carolee R. Curtright (b. 1934) first joined Choristers Guild when she was director of youth and children's choir at Country Club Christian Church in Kansas City, MO from 1958-1971. She had the privilege of experiencing a festival in Kansas City with Ruth Krebiel Jacobs and was so impressed with what she saw and heard. Her first composition was published with Choristers Guild in 1968. She is presently professor emeritus of Music Education and Choral Activities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music. Carolee often directs choral clinics and festivals both in Nebraska and throughout the United States for elementary, middle school, high school, and college level choirs, and has been a constant advocate for the musical integrity of the treble ensemble.
Carolee was honored with the Parents Award to University of Nebraska-Lincoln teachers, and received a Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Fine and Performing Arts in 2000. She is published through Hinshaw, Boosey and Hawkes, Plymouth, Cherry Lane, Heritage, Lorenz, Roger Dean, and Choristers Guild. She is the founder/artistic director of the Pueri Cantores Organization of Choirs for Young Voices that included three auditioned choirs for young singers from third grade through high school: a training choir, an intermediate choir, and a high school mixed choir. In 2001, she founded a community women's choir, Cantabile. Her choirs have performed for many organizations in Lincoln, in Nebraska, and in the surrounding states, and have toured nationally and internationally. Until July of 2002, Carolee was the North Central Division Repertoire and Standards Chair for Children's Choirs and a member of the National Committee of Repertoire and Standards Chairs.
Carolee presently sings with the Matin Singers at First Plymouth Congregational Church. She has been involved with Sing Around Nebraska since its conception and conducted the first Sing Around Nebraska Honor Choir. Recently, Carolee was recognized by her alma mater, Culver-Stockton College, with an honoroary Doctorate of Music. She also received the Cornell Runestad Lifetime Service Award from the Nebraska Choral Directors Association becoming the first woman to receive that award.