Karen Kenaston-French is the newly appointed associate professor and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Texas Arlington beginning in August 2009. She comes to UTA with 25 years experience conducting and teaching in higher education and sacred institutions. Most recently, she served for six years as Director of Choral Activities at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, where she conducted two choral ensembles and taught conducting, choral literature, and choral techniques. Under her direction, the APSU Choir specialized in the performance of major works such as the Fauré Requiem, the Poulenc Gloria, and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. She led the Austin Peay Chamber Singers on seven performance tours, in two appearances at the Tennessee Music Education Association state conference, and in master classes with Chanticleer, Cantus, and Libby Larsen. Prior to her work at Austin Peay, Kenaston-French taught conducting at Southern Methodist University and the University of North Texas, where she held a doctoral fellowship, directed the 80-voice women’s chorus, and conducted performances of the 120-voice Grand Chorus and the 24-voice Canticum Novum. Her broad range of experience also includes twelve years as director of music ministries at Plymouth Park United Methodist Church in Irving, Texas, where she built a program that included ten ensembles and more than 250 participants.

Kenaston-French has appeared at numerous state and regional events across Tennessee and the mid-south as a guest conductor and adjudicator. She has given frequent clinics on performance practice, choral/vocal technique, and rehearsal strategies for choral music educators. Her article “The Teachings of Jean-Antoine Bérard” is slated for publication in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Journal of Singing in November 2009. Kenaston-French’s vocal studies include post-graduate work with Lynn Eustis, Stephen Austin, and Linda Baer, and an undergraduate vocal performance degree with Carolyn Dees. She sang for ten years in the Dallas Symphony Chorus, and was selected to sing in the first Robert Shaw Festival Chorus at Carnegie Hall through a national competition in 1991. Kenaston-French holds a B.A. degree from West Virginia Wesleyan College, M.M. and M.S.M. degrees in choral conducting from Southern Methodist University, and a D.M.A. in choral conducting from the University of North Texas, where she was named outstanding graduate student in conducting and ensembles and the Pi Kappa Lambda outstanding doctoral student, 1999-2000.