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Dr. Joshua Habermann

Lecturer in Music, Interim Director of Choral Activities

Dr. JOSHUA HABERMANN, is in his fourteenth season as Artistic Director of the
Santa Fe Desert Chorale, one of the nation’s premiere professional chamber
choirs. Since joining the ensemble, he has broadened its repertoire to include
choral-orchestral masterworks and unique concert experiences such as Dancing
the Mystery, a fusion of music and poetry created for the 2015 National
Conference of the American Choral Directors Association in Salt Lake City.

Habermann is a frequent clinician for state and national events, and has led honor
choirs and choral festivals in North and Latin America, Europe and Asia. As a
singer (tenor) he has performed with the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus (Eugene,
Oregon), and Conspirare (Austin, Texas). Recording credits include three projects
with Conspirare: Through the Green Fuse, Requiem, a Grammy nominee for best
choral recording in 2006, and Threshold of Night, a Grammy nominee for best
choral recording and best classical album in 2009.

From 2011-2022 Joshua Habermann was director of the Dallas Symphony Chorus,
where he prepared the 200-voice chorus for classical and pops concerts. Highlights
with the DSO include Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Verdi’s Requiem, Elgarʻs
Dream of Gerontius, Bernsteinʻs Kaddish Symphony, and Britten’s War Requiem,
which was performed for the ACDA national convention in 2013. International
collaborations include Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and Duruflé’s Requiem with
the Swedish Radio Orchestra, and choral/orchestral performances with the DSC in
Spain, France, Sweden, Estonia and Finland.

Prior to his Dallas appointment, Habermann was Director of Choral Studies at the
University of Miami Frost School of Music, where he led the graduate program in
conducting and collaborated with the New World Symphony and conductor
Michael Tilson Thomas in music of Ives, Schubert and Beethoven. During this
same period Habermann led the Masterchorale of South Florida in performances
of masterworks such as Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Mozart’s Requiem.

From 1996-2008 Habermann was assistant conductor of the San Francisco
Symphony Chorus, and professor of music at San Francisco State University,
where under his direction the SFSU Chamber Singers received international
engagements in Havana, Cuba, and undertook concert tours in Germany, Czech
Republic, and China. National invitations include the Waging Peace Festival in
Eugene, Oregon, multiple appearances at the California Music Educators
Convention, and a performance at the American Choral Directors’ Association
regional convention in 2008.

Since moving with his family to Honolulu, Joshua Habermann was named Artistic
Director of the Oʻahu Choral Society, and led the ensemble’s post-pandemic
return to singing in performances of Mozart and Sibelius works with the Hawaii
Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming concerts with the HSO include preparing Orff’s

Carmina Burana in November 2022, and leading Haydn’s Creation in April 2023.
A passionate advocate for music education, Joshua Habermann continues to teach
graduate choral literature classes at the University of North Texas, and in 2022-
2023, he will serve as Interim Director of Choral Activities for the University of
Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.