Dr. Joan Conlon

Joan Catoni Conlon is Professor and Director of Graduate Choral Research Emerita for the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she conducted the University Singers. She received her BA, MA and DMA degrees from the University of Washington where she was Professor of Choral Music and Conducting (1972–95). From 1971 to 1995 she was the conductor of the Northwest Chamber Chorus in Seattle, Washington, and was the chair of the Research and Publications Committee of the American Choral Directors Association. Her scholarship specializes in the choral music of Georg Philipp Teleman and Claudio Monteverdi. In 2001, Dr. Conlon published Performing Monteverdi: A Conductor’s Guide, which provides extensive analyses, performance suggestions and translations of Monteverdi’s choral works in the context of the performance practices of the renaissance. In 2002, The guide was selected as the second title for the prestigious American Choral Directors Association research and Publications Committee Composer series. She has also studied the Hindustani classical vocal music of India. In 2009 she edited and contributed to ‘Wisdom, Wit and Will: Women Choral Conductors On their Art’ – a collection of essays relating to conducting choral literature and professional development.

A founding member of the PMW Board of Directors, in 2020, Dr. Conlon retired from active PMW Board membership but has remained a guiding force as Board Member Emerita.