Ryan Garrison 
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A native of Cheyenne, Wyoming, Dr. Ryan Garrison is a recently appointed Director of Choral and Vocal Music at the Denver School of the Arts. Garrison comes to Colorado by way of San Antonio, Texas, where he was the Artistic Director of the Children’s Chorus of San Antonio. Prior to his full-time artistic appointment, Dr. Garrison maintained an active 13-year schedule as a professional choral singer, conductor, and educator in Phoenix, Arizona. 
 
From 2005-2013, Garrison was a singing member of the GRAMMY-award winning professional choral ensemble, The Phoenix Chorale, under the artistic vision of renowned conductor, Charles Bruffy. With the ensemble, Garrison is credited on four albums garnering six GRAMMY nominations and two GRAMMY wins, including “Best Choral Performance” in 2016. 
 
In 2013, Garrison joined the choral artistic staff at Arizona School for the Arts (ASA) in central Phoenix, a school acknowledged as a national model for exemplary education gained through intense emphasis on studies in the performing arts. From 2014-2017, as the school’s lead director and contact for the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), Dr. Garrison had over 90 students selected for the Western Regional and National-level Honor Choirs, traveling to Salt Lake City, Utah (2015), Pasadena, California (2016), and Minneapolis, Minnesota (2017). He has worked as guest clinician and conductor, leading regional and state-level Honor Choirs and Orchestras in Texas, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming, and looks forward to conducting the
ACDA Wyoming All-State Children’s Choir in June 2020.
 
Dr. Garrison received both his Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting (DMA, 2013) and Masters of Music Education (MM, 2006) degrees from Arizona State University, and Bachelors of Music (BM, 2001) from the University of Wyoming.

Dr. Scott Buchanan

Dr. Scott Buchanan serves as Director of the School of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Indiana State University in Terre Haute. A native of New Jersey, Dr. Buchanan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Bradley University, a Master’s Degree in Music Education from the Florida State University, and an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Education & Music Education from the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. 

Recognized as the “2015 Collegiate Educator of the Year” by the Indiana Music Education Association, Dr. Buchanan is in frequent demand as a choral clinician, conductor, and adjudicator. Choirs under his direction have performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2001 and has made numerous appearances there, including conducting a solo performance with the Indiana State University Concert Choir in 2004. In May 2010, he served as the Artistic Director of the National Memorial Day Choral Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In November 2011, he conducted the High School Festival Chorus at the Asian Pacific Activities Conference in Daejeon, South Korea. In April 2014, he debuted at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. In April 2016, he debuted at Orchestra Hall in Chicago. In summer 2019, Dr. Buchanan served as Chorusmaster for the 44th Annual Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria. 

At ISU, Dr. Buchanan has conducted the select University Chorale and the Sycamore Singers. Additionally, he has taught conducting, choral methods, and literature at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. ISU choral ensembles have been selected to perform for the Central Division Conference of the American Choral Directors Association and the State Conference of the Indiana Music Education Association on several occasions. For the past decade, he has served as the State Director for the Melody Makers of Indiana. Additionally, he has previously served on the IMEA Board of Directors and is a past president of the Indiana Choral Directors Association. 

Dr. Corin Overland

Dr. Corin Overland is Associate Professor of Professional Practice at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, where he teaches courses in choral music education and choral conducting. He received his Ph.D. in music education from Temple University, and has over fifteen years of experience as a secondary vocal music teacher in public and private school settings. 

Overland is frequently in demand for his work with early adolescent choral ensembles, and has conducted All-State and festival choruses in Minnesota, Maryland, Kansas, Hawaii, Oregon, Delaware, South Carolina, and Florida. He is a regular clinician for Worldstrides Heritage Festivals of Music, and has choral compositions in print with Alliance and Santa Barbara Music Publishing. He is currently the Academic Editor of the Music Educators Journal. 

Overland’s research interests focus on economic and labor issues pertaining to arts education, teacher evaluation, and for-profit rock music schools. His research and scholarship on these and other topics appear in the Journal of Research in Historical Music Education, the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, College Music Symposium, Contributions to Music Education, and the Music Educators Journal. He has authored chapters appearing in Contemporary Research in Music Education: Learning Across the Lifespan (Routledge) and the 2016 International Yearbook on Research in Arts Education (Waxmann Verlag). He is a content consultant for the state of Florida’s Performing Fine Arts Assessment arts evaluation system.

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