The Millikin Vocal Festival is an event designed to inject excitement into your students early in the school year with a Festival Choir experience. Join us for two days of singing, concerts from Millikin choirs, and fun!
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Meet our Festival Conductors
Dr. Benjamin Hawkinson
Richard Bjella has distinguished himself as a conductor, clinician, choral pedagogue, and choral arranger around the world. In 2014 Bjella was appointed Artistic Director of the San Antonio Chamber Choir. Their most recent CD, UNFROZEN: A Baltic Christmas received Grammy attention in 2018. He retired from Texas Tech University in 2017, but previous to his work in Lubbock, Bjella served 25 years as Director of Choral Studies at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music, leading the Concert Choir in an acclaimed performance at the 2009 National ACDA Convention. The Texas Tech University Choir has been celebrated for its excellence in Carnegie Hall, Orchestra Hall, at TMEA convention appearances, and at the 2013 ACDA Convention. Bjella has presented workshops at several ACDA national and regional conventions and has been a headliner for countless events from Alaska to Florida for teachers and students alike. It has also been his honor to conduct and present masterclasses around the world and at over 400 festivals and workshops in 34 states, including several appearances at Lincoln Center, Orchestra Hall, and Carnegie Hall. He has also presented workshops and conducted in SOUTH KOREA, ENGLAND, FRANCE, SWITZERLAND, LITHUANIA, COLUMBIA, HAITI, ESTONIA, and ITALY. He is looking forward to leading the European tour for the Texas Choral Directors to Vienna, Prague, and Budapest this summer. He is also deeply honored to be 2025 conductor of the Texas All-State Mixed Choir, performing in San Antonio at the TMEA Convention and at the national ACDA convention in Dallas. He is also active in the promotion of creative choral programming and is a contributing writer for The Oxford Handbook of Choral Pedagogy (2017) with his chapter, The Art of Successful Programming: Study, Selection, and Synthesis. Bjella was the recipient of a ‘2017 Professing Excellence Award’ at Texas Tech University and the Lawrence University teaching award in 2008. This award is given to outstanding faculty who go “above and beyond,” both inside and outside the classroom, to impact student learning and academic success. He was also honored to receive the ‘Morris Hayes Lifetime Achievement Award’ from the Wisconsin Choral Directors.
Special Guest Performer
. The “engaging” (New Yorker) low-voice ensemble Cantus is widely known for its trademark warmth and blend, innovative programming and riveting performances of music ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century. The Washington Post has hailed the Cantus sound as having both “exalting finesse” and “expressive power” and refers to the “spontaneous grace” of its music making. The Philadelphia Inquirer called the group nothing short of “exquisite.”
As one of the nation’s few full-time vocal ensembles, Cantus has come to prominence with its distinctive approach to creating music. Working without a conductor, the members of Cantus rehearse and perform as chamber musicians, each contributing to the entirety of the artistic process, creating programs that give voice to shared human experiences. As the Star Tribune has written, “The main hallmark of the Cantus sound has always been sheer quality and an unbroken belief in the special way that vocal music has of warming and invigorating the human spirit.”
Cantus enjoys a vigorous schedule of national and international touring, in addition to home concerts in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Cantus has performed at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, UCLA, San Francisco Performances, Tanglewood and Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. Cantus also makes all of its home concerts available online. This pandemic-prompted innovation has brought the ensemble’s programs to audiences spanning 50 states and ten countries.
In the 2023-24 season, Cantus performs Brave– a program examines what it means to identify as a man in a society that prizes conformity over personal authenticity. With works by composers from Fanny Mendelssohn to Sara Bareilles, Brave takes a nuanced look at evolving ideas of masculinity. The program also includes works by contemporary innovators like Mari Esabel Valverde and Sydney Guillaume, as well as a new multi-movement work by Griffin Candey. Cantus’ Brave is a powerful program that asks: Are you strong enough to be sensitive?
Cantus records for the UK-based Signum Classics label which has released the popular Into the Light, COVID-19 Sessions, and Manifesto, an album of world premiere recordings of works by Ysaÿe Barnwell, David Lang, Sydney Guillaume, Libby Larsen, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and others. In the fall of 2022, Signum released Into the Light, the first new Holiday album from Cantus in over a decade. Cantus also has a deep catalog of recordings released on the group’s eponymous label.
Committed to the expansion of the vocal music repertoire, Cantus actively commissions new music and seeks to unearth rarely performed repertoire for low voices. Cantus has received commissioning grants from New Music USA, the National Endowment for the Arts, Chorus America, American Composers Forum and Chamber Music America. In line with Cantus’ ongoing commitment to fostering new works for tenors, baritones, and basses, the ensemble has partnered with composer and former Cantus bass Timothy C. Takach and Graphite Publishing on the Cantus Choral Series, distributing Cantus’ signature arrangements and compositions for ensembles everywhere to perform and enjoy.
Cantus has a rich history of collaborations with other performing arts organizations, including the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Pops, Chanticleer, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Lorelei Ensemble, Theater Latté Da and the James Sewell Ballet. The ensemble is heard frequently on both classical public radio nationwide and on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. 2024 will see a collaboration with international brass quintet, Canadian Brass.
Integral to the Cantus mission is its commitment to preserve and deepen music education in the schools. Cantus works with more than 5,000 students each year in masterclass and workshop settings across the country and has visited 31 Minnesota high schools throughout the 14-year history of its award-winning High School Residency program. Cantus also presents a Young and Emerging Composers’ Competition, to encourage the creation of new repertoire through cash prizes, a performance, recording and potential publication of winning compositions.
About our Festival
Festival Choir
This choir takes more than 200 students from zero to performance in just over 28 hours. Through top tier teaching, support from our Millikin students, and pure musical excitement, the students are brought to a musical mountain top. Students return home ready to take on the new school year!
Vocal Coaching
Students can select to sign up for 10-minute 1-on-1 vocal coaching with our distinguished voice faculty.
Solo Competition
This solo competition grows out of the vocal coaching sessions. A cash awards will be given to the top 3 singers who also have the honor of performing that evening on the Festival Finale Concert!
Directors Events
Directors will be provided with opportunities to reconnect with colleagues, and earn professional development credit by attending sessions from our distinguished faculty, rehearsal observation, and singing in the Director’s Chorus.
All-State Band & Orchestra Workshop
Millikin University School of Music