Dr. Lisa Billingham

Dr. Lisa Billingham is the newly appointed Director of Choral Activities at George Mason University, effective Fall 2021. She will be directing the University Chorale and the University Singers, and will teach choral conducting and related classes. She continues as an active member of the University Faculty Senate.

She has served as the advisor for the GMU student chapter of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). She is the Past-President for the Virginia State Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association and is a planning committee member and campus liaison for the Annual Voices United Conference hosted by VA, MD-DC, and DE chapters of ACDA. In addition, Dr. Billingham was the National Chair for Communication and Education for ACDA.

Members of the George Mason University Chorale toured Nairobi, Kenya in March 2019 and performed with Dr. Billingham for her Carnegie Hall Debut in May 2019. Under Dr. Billingham’s direction, the University Chorale was honored to accept an invitation in Fall 2009 to perform for the Virginia Music Educators Conference. The University Chorale has often performed with the Mason Symphony Orchestra and the University Singers.

Dr. Billingham’s research interests include the incorporation of Laban Movement Theory in conducting pedagogy and the choral rehearsal. She is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst from the Integrated Movement Studies Program at the University of Utah and incorporates that theory with her private conducting students. Dr. Billingham is active as a clinician for conferences and choirs throughout the United States and Europe. She has presented for ACDA, VMEA, three Regional ACDA conferences and at the International Society for Music Education (ISME) Conference in Bologna, Italy and Porto Alegre Brazil. Her text The Complete Conductors Guide to Laban Movement Theory is available from GIA Publications.

Dr. Billingham holds a DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Arizona, an MM in Choral Conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and a BME in Choral Music Education from Indiana University (Bloomington). Her conducting mentors include Bruce Chamberlain, Eph Ehly, James Jordan, Maurice Skones, and Volker Hempfling.

Professor of Music:

• Director, University Chorale
• Director, University Singers
• Choral Conducting (Graduate & Undergraduate)
• Psychology of Teaching Music

Degrees

• B.M.E., Choral Music Education Indiana University
• M.M., Choral Conducting University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music
• D.M.A.,  Choral Conducting University of Arizona
• Certified Laban Movement Analyst