Adam Potter
Conductor Adam Potter is Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at Roberts Wesleyan College. At RWC, he conducts the Roberts Chorale, administers the college choral program, mentors choral music education majors, and teaches coursework in conducting and aural skills. He earned a PhD in Choral Conducting and Music Education from the Florida State University College of Music and Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Music Education and Choral Conducting, respectively, from the Greatbatch School of Music, Houghton College, where he was a Presser and Presidential Scholar. His choral music mentors include Judy Bowers, Kevin Fenton, Brandon Johnson, and André Thomas.
Prior to his appointment at Roberts, Dr. Potter enjoyed positions as Director of Choral Activities at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi and Director of Vocal Music at Dansville High School (N.Y.), overseeing thriving and growing vocal music curricula. He is also an active church musician, having previously served Presbyterian congregations in Florida and Mississippi. During the summers, he conducts choirs and teaches voice at the Csehy Summer School of Music. He has also taught at the Interlochen Arts Camp and Houghton College.
Dr. Potter is a sought-after guest conductor and clinician for honor choirs, choral-orchestral performances, and high schools and colleges, as well as an active adjudicator of choral performance festivals. He has guest-conducted and presented on program building for new teachers, group vocal technique, teaching holistic music literacy in the choral setting, and the joys and challenges of teaching music in rural school communities at colleges, community chorus retreats, and music education conferences in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. He has also been a guest lecturer at the Kenya Conservatoire of Music and a guest artist with the Nairobi Chamber Chorus in conjunction with the “AVoice4Peace” worldwide peace awareness project. His research interests include sight-singing pedagogy and applications of the servant-leadership model to conducting music ensembles.
His students have pursued graduate study at leading institutions across the country, including the Boston University School of Music, Eastern Michigan University, the Eastman School of Music, and Florida State University. They are serving throughout the United States as conductors of school, church, and community choirs and as music teachers at public and private schools in several states.
Dr. Potter is an active member of the American Choral Directors Association, having served as a repertoire and resources chair at the state level in Mississippi and New York, and maintains memberships in Chorus America, the College Music Society, the National Association for Music Education, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the New York State School Music Association. He is also a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society and Pi Kappa Lambda, the American honor society for musicians. In 2010, he was named a Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction, and he was honored to be the ΣΑΕ fraternity’s “professor of the month” in October, 2015. Learn more about Dr. Potter and his work at .
Rachel Cornacchio
Dr. Rachel Cornacchio is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Music Education. As a public school educator, she has taught in New York, New Jersey, and Florida in grades K-12. Dr. Cornacchio served as an elementary general music specialist in Peekskill, NY and Director of Choral Activities at Newburgh Free Academy in Newburgh, NY. While in Newburgh, choirs and soloists under Dr. Cornacchio's direction received top honors at solo and ensemble festivals. Community organizations with which she has worked include the Newburgh Symphonic Chorale and the Oregon Young Women's Choir. Before coming to 91制片厂 University, Dr. Cornacchio acted as Visiting Instructor at the University of Oregon where she directed the University Concert Choir and taught courses in Choral Music Education.
Her professional affiliations include the Music Educators National Conference, Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, American Choral Directors Association, and Pi Kappa Lambda. She currently serves as Repertoire & Standards Chair for Women’s Choirs for the American Choral Directors Association – PA. Dr. Cornacchio is active as a certified Music Together instructor, an early childhood music program.
Joy Mead
Dr. Joy Elizabeth Meade is the Director of Choral Activities and an Assistant Professor of Music at 91制片厂 College, where she conducts Concert Choir, Chamber Singers and Choral Arts Society. These choirs tour nationally and internationally and perform regularly on campus, in the community and collaborate with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Meade also teaches undergraduate and graduate choral conducting at 91制片厂, as well as applied voice. Prior to her recent appointment at 91制片厂 College, Dr. Meade was the Associate Director of Choirs at Georgia State University in Atlanta. There, she was the recipient of the 2018 Center for International and Collaborative Arts grant and also started a permanent collaboration and graduate assistant opportunity between Georgia State's choral department and the Atlanta Homeward Choir. Prior to earning her doctorate in conducting at the University of Georgia with Dr. Daniel Bara, Dr. Meade worked as a public school educator in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District, teaching choir and orchestra. She earned her masters of music in choral conducting from Westminster Choir College, where she had the opportunity to sing under the batons of the finest maestros in the world. She continues to perform regularly as a professional choral singer and soloist, as well as serve as a clinician and adjudicator at high schools, universities and festivals on the East Coast.