Mark Nabholz Leads Choral Music Activities at Mississippi College

Mark Nabholz

Mark Nabholz led a tour of the Erskine College Choraleers to Italy for a series of splendid concerts in Rome, Florence and Venice.

That trip to Europe came in January 2014. But soon the award-winning music leader at the South Carolina school will journey to Mississippi College as the university’s new director of choral activities.

An award-winning music professor and director of choral activities at Presbyterian-affiliated Erskine College since 2011, Nabholz comes to the Clinton campus with sterling credentials.

He will serve as the conductor of the Mississippi College Singers. The talented student group performed in South Africa, Europe and New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall under the direction of MC graduate Jamie Meaders in recent years.

The founding director of the Augusta Youth Chorale and director of music at Christ Church, Presbyterian in Evans, Georgia, Nabholz comes highly recommended to the Magnolia State.

“Dr. Nabholz brings a wealth of experience at the university level as well as a strong background in church service,” says Angela Willoughby, who chairs the Department of Music. “He is innovative and engaging with the understanding of the role of a Christian college like MC.”

The Minnesota native will teach studio voice, undergraduate and graduate conducting courses, and conduct both choirs at the Baptist-affiliated university.

The Augusta, Georgia resident says he’s thrilled to join the faculty and lead the MC Singers starting in late August.

“I look forward to the challenge of maintaining the exceptional musicality that has established the MC Singers’ national reputation, and then building on that.”

The opportunity to further develop the master’s program in choral conducting is another initiative he wants to tackle.

“To be able to offer a graduate degree in the context of a distinctively Christian university is something special, and my desire is to see that program of study grow and have a strong impact on churches and schools in Mississippi and beyond,” Nabholz said.

Nabholz earned his bachelor’s in music at Houghton College in New York in 1984. He received his master’s at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in New York in 1987 in choral conducting. He received his doctor of musical arts in choral conducting at the University of South Carolina in 2011. His father served as a Wesleyan pastor for more than 40 years with travels taking the family to states like Iowa and as far away as the Philippines.

Mark’s first introduction to the Mississippi College Singers came in 2014 when he saw the group perform under the direction of Meaders at a Southern conference of choral conductors in Jacksonville, Florida. “Later in the fall when I saw the search announcement, my memory of that outstanding concert was a major motivator in submitting my application materials.”

The former MC Music Department chairman, Meaders left his alma mater to accept a prominent post in the music world in New York City. Mississippi native Milburn Price, former dean of the School of Performing Arts at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, stepped in to succeed Meaders on a one-year appointment.

MC’s newest music professor remains active in American Choral Directors Association events, National Association of Teachers of Singing auditions and is widely published. Nabholz served as director of music at the First Presbyterian Church of Augusta from 1993 to 2004.

During his interview on the Clinton campus, the Erskine College music professor quickly figured out “this is a tight-knit community that values their relationships with one another and with Christ, and puts teaching as a top priority.”

Nabholz and his wife, Fran, have four children, two of whom will attend Clinton public schools this fall. Fran is a gifted singer and voice teacher. The couple has been married 30 years.

Said Willoughby: “We look forward to many years of inspired collaboration with Dr. Nabholz in the Music Department.”