The department is pleased to welcome Scott Glysson. He made his Cal Poly debut on June 11 when he was a guest conductor during the final concert for the former director
of choral and vocal studies, Thomas Davies, who retired after 34 years with Cal Poly. The Cal Poly Choirs’ fall concert, “Reflections on Life and Love,” was his inaugural full Cal Poly concert.

Glysson served as director of choral activities at West Liberty University in Wheeling, West Virginia. He has also held the position of assistant director of the internationally recognized Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus, director of music at Floris United Methodist Church, artistic director and founder of the Floris Concert Series, assistant conductor of the Reston Chorale and teaching positions at several high schools in the Washington, D.C., area.

As the conductor of university, high school and community ensembles, he has performed both nationally and internationally. Recent engagements include the Mozart Requiem with the Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra in Bulgaria and the Dan Forrest Requiem with members of the Royal Academy of Music in Dublin, Ireland. Under his leadership as the artistic director of the Tucson Masterworks Chorale, the group’s excellence was recognized through an invitation to perform in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall in March 2014. As a graduate student, Glysson was honored as one of eight finalists from across the country to compete in the National Choral Conducting Competition sponsored by the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).

Glysson holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in choral conducting from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. He also holds a Master of Music in choral conducting from the University of Arizona, and a Bachelor of Music in music education from George Mason University. He has varied musical, pedagogical and scholarly interests. He continues his focus on the choral motets of French composer Camille Saint-Saëns and the Cecilian movement, which were the subjects of his dissertation.

Glysson was recently selected to represent the U.S. in the ACDA International Conductors Exchange Program Fellowship. He and five other conductors will travel to Kenya this summer to work with choirs from across the country, and Glysson will present a concert.

In August, he will hold a choral festival for high school students that will culminate with a concert in Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.