Amanda Quist

Biography

Dr. Amanda Quist is Professor and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Notre Dame and Music Director of the Spoleto Festival USA Chorus. Previously, she served as Director of Choral Activities at Western Michigan University and the University of Miami, and as Chair of Conducting, Organ, and Sacred Music at Westminster Choir College, where she received the Distinguished Teaching Award and the Mazzotti Award for Women’s Leadership.

Quist has prepared choruses for major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Dresden Staatskapelle, and has appeared as guest conductor with the GRAMMY-nominated ensemble Seraphic Fire. The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and New York Classical Review have described her work as “transformative,” “beautifully prepared,” “gripping,” and “leaving the audience breathless.”

Under her direction, Westminster Kantorei won the 2019 American Prize in Collegiate Choral Performance and released its first commercial recording, Lumina, on the Naxos label. Her choirs have also received invitations to perform at American Choral Directors Association conferences, the Boston Early Music Festival, Interkultur, and international festivals in France, the Czech Republic, and South Korea. She also led the Frost Chorale in a recording featured on producer Tainy’s GRAMMY-nominated album DATA.

Dr. Quist’s writing, compositions, and editions are published by Walton Music, Gentry Publications, GIA Publications, and The Choral Journal. She directs the Choral Conducting Institute at Interlochen, previously served the American Choral Directors Association as National Repertoire and Resources Coordinator for Collegiate Activities, and currently serves on the Board of the National Collegiate Choral Organization.