All-State Chorus Conductor

Tim Sharp is Executive Director of the American Choral Directors Association. Dr. Sharp pursues an aggressive agenda of progressive initiatives to keep ACDA energized and relevant in the 21st century, inspiring ACDA’s membership to excellence in choral music performance, education, composition, and advocacy. Tim is also in his fifth season as Artistic Director of the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus, Tulsa, where critics characterize his performances as having “stunning power” and “great passion and precision”.

Before coming to ACDA, Sharp was Dean of Fine Arts at Rhodes College, Memphis, where he conducted the Rhodes Singers and MasterSingers Chorale. Earlier, he was Director of Choral Activities at Belmont University where he conducted the Belmont Chorale and Oratorio Chorus.

Sharp’s publications include Mentoring in the Ensemble Arts, Precision Conducting, Up Front! Becoming the Complete Choral Conductor, Achieving Choral Blend and Balance, Memphis Music Before the Blues, Nashville Music Before Country, Jubilate! Amen!, Collaborative Creativity, and a variety of articles, essays, and CD liner notes. His most recent publication is the historical-critical edition Johannes Herbst: Hymns to be Sung at the Pianoforte. Published compositions and arrangements exhibit his interest in conceptual programming as seen in the collections Salvation is Created, An Early American Service of Lessons and Carols, the young voices series including Christmas Messiah for Young Voices, his own choral series through Gentry Publications, and A High Lonesome Bluegrass Mass, in which he regularly performs as a guest banjo player.

Jan Corrothers is a Collaborative Pianist and Organist based in the Greater Cincinnati region where she is a member of the Xavier University music faculty as Choral Staff Accompanist and Instructor of Music, as well as Principal Accompanist of the award-winning Cincinnati Children’s Choir, under the direction of Robyn Lana, in residence at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music.

In demand as a collaborative pianist, Jan performs regularly as accompanist for many choral conventions, workshops and reading sessions across the United States, including the 2014 ACDA Southern Division Director’s Chorus, the 2013 National ACDA Community Youth/Boy Choir Honor Choir in Dallas, TX, the 2012 Southern Division ACDA Children’s Honor Choir, MENC All State Choruses in KY and WV, and the Fellowship of American Baptist Musician’s (FABM) national conference among others. She regularly collaborates with the Festival Singers of Florida, under the direction of Dr. Kevin Fenton, and Cincinnati’s Vocal Arts Ensemble (VAE), under the direction of Craig Hella Johnson.

Jan has presented workshops on the art of choral collaboration for organizations including Chorus America and the West Virginia Baptist Convention.  She currently serves as national Board President of the Fellowship of American Baptist Musicians.  

Previously, Jan held positions as Staff Accompanist and Adjunct Lecturer of Music at Northern KY University, Alderson Broaddus University and Marietta College. She also served as Director of Music and organist at the First Baptist Church of Parkersburg, WV.

Jan received the Master of Music degree in Organ Performance from Shenandoah University Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Organ Performance and Church Music from Alderson Broaddus University. In 2008, Jan was the recipient of the Alderson Broaddus University Outstanding Young Alumni Award.

Born in Pittsburgh, Leo Ficks holds a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Indiana University and Masters of Music in conducting from Youngstown State University. His violin teachers have included Josef Gingold, David Cerone, Christian Ferras, Andres Cardenes and Aaron Rosand. He has attended the Tanglewood, National Repertory Orchestra and Internationale Academie d’Ete in Nice France music festivals. Currently Ficks is the Orchestra Director at New Canaan High School where he also teaches Music Technology. He has also held teaching positions at Slippery Rock University in PA, University of Bridgeport CT, West Liberty State University in WV, and Trumbull CT Public Schools. His conducting credits include the Pittsburgh Opera, Ovations Youth Orchestra, and the Bridgeport Youth Symphony Orchestra. Leo and his family lived in Wheeling WV from 1992-95 as he was the concertmaster of the Wheeling Symphony and Music Director of the Ovations Youth Orchestra. Ficks was a violinist in the Honolulu HI Symphony from 1985-91. Mr. Ficks has been privileged to perform with Leonard Bernstein, Seji Ozawa, Dizzy Gillespie, Page/Plant, and Frank Sinatra among others.

Dr. Geraldi appears regularly as a guest conductor and he maintains an active schedule as a clinician and adjudicator throughout the country. He has presented clinics at the North Carolina and South Carolina Music Educators Association Conferences, and at National and Southern Division CBDNA Conventions. With UNCG ensembles, he has performed in the Music Center at Strathmore, at the national CBDNA conventions in Austin, TX, and Greensboro, NC, at the American Bandmasters Association convention in Norfolk, VA, twice at the NCMEA conference, and recorded several commercially available compact discs. A proponent of contemporary music and chamber music, he has commissioned and premiered numerous compositions and published articles in leading journals and other publications. His compact disc leading the Minerva Chamber Ensemble, featuring works by Johannes Brahms and Louise Farrenc, is available on the Centaur Records label.