Marvin Curtis, Featured Performer at Benefit Concert
Marvin V. Curtis, a native of Chicago, Illinois, assumed the Deanship of the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts at Indiana University-South Bend on August 1, 2008. He was the former Assistant Dean and Choral Director at Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He previously served on the faculties of California State University, Stanislaus, Virginia Union University, Lane College, and The Virginia Governor’s School for the Humanities and the Performing at the University of Richmond.
Dr. Marvin Curtis, featured performer
He earned the Bachelor of Music Degree from North Park College in Chicago; his Master of Arts from The Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia; and the Doctor of Education from The University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. He did additional studies at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey and The Juilliard School of Music in New York. He was a 1993 Ford Foundation Fellow to the National Council for Black Studies Conference in Accra, Ghana, where he studied at the University of Ghana at Lagon.
Dr. Curtis is the first African-American composer commissioned to write a choral work for a Presidential Inauguration. His work, The City on the Hill was premiered at President Clinton’s 1993 Inauguration performed by The Philander Smith Collegiate Choir of Little Rock, Arkansas and The United States Marine Band. This choral work is housed in the Smithsonian Institute’s National African American Project Archives and the Clinton Library. Other musical commissions have come from schools and churches and his orchestral works have been performed by The Richmond Symphony, The Minnesota Orchestra, The Stanislaus Orchestra, The Petersburg Symphony, and The Greensboro Symphony. He is published by The Mark Foster Music Company (now affiliated with Shawnee Press), Music 70/80, Coronet Press, International Opus, and GIA publications.
He has led numerous workshops in African-American music and Multi-Cultural Education and been guest conductor for numerous choral festivals around the country. He is published in scholarly journals and continues to serve as guest conductor at numerous choral festivals. He conducted several community choirs including The Riverside Community Chorale, The Richmond Festival Chorus, and The Stanislaus Choral Society. He served as Guest Conductor/Artistic Director for the In-Harmony Series sponsored by the Richmond Symphony.
Prior to his appointment at The Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts, Curtis served as Artistic and Musical Director for the FSU Summer Opera Series leading the productions of The Magic Flute, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Marriage of Figaro. As the FSU choral conductor, his choirs took two European tours and performed with the Vancouver Symphony. He hosted The Classical Sampler radio program on WFSS-FM 91.9 radio in Fayetteville for 12 years, served as President of the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors, Trustee of the Fayetteville/Cumberland County Arts
Council, and as a member of the North Carolina Humanities Council. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching and was vocal coach to Miss North Carolina 2002, Rebekah Chantay Revels.