Dr. Jerry McCoy is Director of Choral Studies and Professor of Music at the University of North Texas where he conducts the A Cappella Choir, the North Texas Chamber Choir and Grand Chorus, teaches graduate choral conducting and advanced choral techniques, and guides the choral studies program. He is also the founding Artistic Director/Conductor of Texas Choral Artists, President-Elect of the American Choral Directors Association, and is a member of the editorial board of the Choral Scholar, the on-line publication of the National Collegiate Choral Organization.

Dr. McCoy has been a guest conductor for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the New England Symphonic Ensemble (Mid-America Productions), the Texas Camerata, the renowned Santa Fe Desert Chorale, the Daegu (Korea) City Choir, the Wichita (Kansas) Chamber Chorale, and the Wichita Falls (Texas) Symphony Orchestra.  He has sung and recorded with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers in New York City and throughout southern France, and with the Banff (Canada) Festival Chamber Choir led by distinguished Swedish conductor Eric Ericson. 

He has served as guest clinician in Sweden for Musik I Vasternorland, the University of Luleå Musikhögskolan, and the Luleå Kammerkor, as well as The Association of British Choral Directors, Coro Dialecto Urbano (Caracas, Venezuela), Keim Yung University (Daegu, Korea), and the Korean Chorus Center (Seoul, Korea).  Dr. McCoy is one of America’s most well-respected guest clinicians, having conducted all-state, regional, and festival choirs and performance clinics in thirty-three states across the nation. Guest engagements for 2006-2007 include appearances in Korea, California, Oklahoma, Nebraska, New York, Tennessee and Texas. He has served as Artist in Residence for Portland State University, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the University of Delaware, Western Washington University, Southern Utah University, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Distinguished appearances by his choirs include refereed performances for the national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association in 2005 (Los Angeles), 1999 (Chicago) and 1997 (San Diego), the 2000 national convention of the Association of British Choral Directors (Chester, England) and the national MENC convention in 1992 (New Orleans).  McCoy’s choirs have toured Europe three times, giving concerts at the Salzburger Dom, St. Patrick’s Cathedral (Dublin), St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral (London), Chester Cathedral (Chester) and St. Nicolas Church (Prague).  His recordings include releases by Klavier Records (Carmina Burana with the UNT Grand Chorus and Wind Symphony, Eugene Corporon, conductor) and GIA Music Publications (a companion recording for Teaching Music Through Performance in Choir), as well as four compact discs produced and released through the UNT College of Music (peace I leave with you and Imaginings) and the OSU Department of Music (An OSU Christmas and Cantus Gloriosus).

Dr. McCoy's choirs have given premier performances of significant new choral works by Andrew Carter, Adolphus Hailstork, Karl Korte, Gian Carlo Menotti, George Walker and numerous emerging composers from across the United States and Europe.

He holds advanced degrees in choral conducting from The University of Texas at Austin and an undergraduate degree in Choral Music Education from the University of Texas at Arlington.  He has studied in conductor exchange programs in Venezuela, Sweden, and Germany and has attended master classes with Frieder Bernius and Eric Ericson. He is past national chairman of the College and University Repertoire and Standards Committee for the ACDA. His writings on choral music have been published in The Choral Journal, Common Times, and Sooner Style.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY

Texas Choral Artists and Texas Camerata
Matthew Erickson, Music Critic, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Collaboration on Bach's Mass is sublime
"...the most affecting moment was in the Crucifixus, which included leading the ensemble in a gorgeously shaped concluding crescendo. It brought tears to the eyes."

"The choristers sang with a beautifully rounded tone and an alert attention to detail that would become the performance's hallmarks." (September 2006)

University of North Texas A Cappella Choir
Stan Schmidt, Collegium Records USA
"…this listener is completely overwhelmed.  It is hard to come up with words to describe the sound of (McCoy’s) choir because one wants to use the best words to speak about the best." (January 2005)
    
Texas Choral Artists
Scott Cantrell, Music Critic, The Dallas Morning News
"…Jerry McCoy had his 23 voices singing with fine focus and expressive finesse…" (May 2005)

"…The (Texas Choral Artists) produced a solid, well-balanced, satin-finished sound.  … There was a good, wide dynamic range and considerable expressive sophistication.  It was an evening of quite accomplished choral singing." (May 2003)

Olin Chisolm, Music Critic, The Dallas Morning News
"…With heartening vocal purity and precision of tone –qualities in evidence throughout the evening --the Texas Choral Artists gave a haunting performance of  [Rachmaninnoff’s Blazhen muzh]." (February 2002)

"…(This) Chorus sings from the soul." (May 2004)       

Schola Cantorum of Texas
Wayne Lee Gay, Music Critic, Ft. Worth Star Telegram
"…McCoy opened by impressively focusing on unaccompanied music of the 20th century.  The whole first half presented the 61-voice ensemble not so much as a choir of voices but as a sort of virtuosic instrument, capable of a huge range of colors and effects." (May 2001)

Santa Fe Desert Chorale
Craig Smith, Music Critic, The Santa Fe New Mexican
"…The (Santa Fe) Desert Chorale's Songs of the Feminine ...proved to be effective, thoughtfully programmed, and nicely performed.  Under guest conductor Jerry McCoy, the Chorale continued to demonstrate the excellent blend and musicianship that are making this 15th anniversary season a pleasure." Performances of individual pieces were called "... powerful...vivid...wonderful...well-performed." (August 1997)

Norma Lynn and John Seagrave, Music Critics, Arts Alive and Well! 
"…This was a program rich in scope, given by a hard-working, disciplined chorus singing very juicy, substantive material, with much musical and vocal nuance.  Dr. McCoy and the (Santa Fe) Desert Chorale can be proud of a sensational program.  ...Stabat Mater Dolorosa, by Norwegian Trond Kverno...let out all the stops with rich, interesting harmonies, contrasts, exciting drama, and volume." (October 1997)

Tulsa Fest! Chorus
James Watts, Music Critic, Tulsa World
Fanshawe's African Sanctus was performed with "...energy and passion.  The chorus was honed into a fine, tight ensemble." (July 1997)

Tucson Symphony Orchestra
Daniel Buckley, Music Critic, Tucson Citizen
"…Dr. Jerry McCoy proved an able guest conductor in Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, lending nimble and lively snap to the opening movement's jazzy syncopations, a sense of spacious, pastoral beauty to its inner movement, and idiomatic dimension to the many cross-cultural references of its finale.  ...(The chorus) delivered a robust, well-blended and powerful sound." (April 1995)