Headlining Choir Conductors

John Atorino is a professional music conductor from Ridgewood, NJ and is the Artistic Director of the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from University of Michigan and a Master’s Degree from New York University. He taught music in public and private schools for over 12 years before becoming a full-time conductor. John has conducted ensembles at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Apollo Theater, St John the Divine Cathedral, Hammerstein Ballroom, Madison Square Garden, Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, and Moda Center in Portland, OR. In television, John has led ensembles for many live performances with highlights including Good Morning America, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, This Week Tonight with John Oliver, and a commercial for RuPaul’s Drag Race. Most recently, John designed, produced, and conducted a day-long choral takeover of the Whitney Museum where choirs performed all over the museum day into night. Along with teaching and conducting, John has worked as a music copyist for Concord Theatricals and as a freelance arranger. John is also the host of a successful podcast about all things queer in pop culture. He believes community singing is a radical act of humanity.

As a conductor, pedagogue, and scholar, Sandra Snow is widely recognized for guiding singers of all ages and abilities to achieve artful performances through an understanding of music and its context in the world around them. Dr. Snow serves as the Director of Choral Programs and Area Chair of Conducting at the Michigan State University College of Music, where she oversees graduate programs in choral conducting and conducts the MSU University Chorale. Under her leadership, the MSU Mosaic ensemble, SSAA, has been a featured performer at American Choral Directors Association conventions at state, regional, and national levels. As a guest conductor, she travels extensively across North America and abroad. In 2017, Snow founded mirabai, a project-based professional treble chorus collective. Mirabai’s recording, Ecstatic Songs, won the American Prize in Choral Music in the professional choirs’ division in 2020. Their second recording, Home in Me, was released in the fall of 2022. The mission of mirabai includes outreach and education programs designed to support the work of women as educators, composers, poets, and conductors. Snow has received the Michigan State University William J. Beal Award for Outstanding Faculty, the MSU Teacher-Scholar Award, and the Dortha J. and John D. Withrow Award for Excellence in Teaching.

A conductor, composer, nonprofit strategist, and equity coach, Dr. Arreon A. Harley-Emerson is an Assistant Professor of Choral Music at the Pennsylvania State University, where he serves as director of Essence of Joy, an ensemble committed to music of the Black Diaspora and teaches courses in conducting, choral music, and music education. He also serves as the Artistic Director of Elevate Vocal Arts and President and CEO of Equity Sings, a consultancy that supports performing arts organizations with their inclusion. Harley-Emerson’s work includes longitudinal studies, strategic planning, board governance, resource and asset development, and board diversification. Dr. Harley-Emerson holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance (Voice) and Music Theory and Composition from Goucher College, a Master of Music in Choral Conducting and Vocal Performance from the University of Delaware School of Music, and a Ph.D. in Music Education with a cognate in Choral Conducting from the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University, where he also completed a graduate certificate in Diversity in Higher Education.