Janet McGhee is one of the Capital District's most respected choral conductors.
Under her leadership, the choral program at Skidmore College has blossomed, almost
doubling in size within her first year. After a year long battle with breast cancer
in 2004, Ms. McGhee made her triumphant return to the Skidmore podium in May 2005.
Ms. McGhee is also Founding Artistic Director of the Battenkill Chorale, Washington
County's premiere choral ensemble.
Ms. McGhee has prepared choirs for Seiji Ozawa, Peter Schickele, Michael Tilson
Thomas, Gunther Schuller, Vladimir Vais (Bolshoi Theatre), Daniel Pinkham, the Boston
Symphony, Albany Symphony and Glens Falls Symphony Orchestras, and the Manchester
Music Festival. Her choirs have performed at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall in Boston,
Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, and numerous concert halls throughout the former Soviet
Union. In 2008, Ms. McGhee led the Battenkill Chorale on a Russian choral tour, singing
in five cities including Moscow and St. Petersburg.
In demand locally, Ms. McGhee has been guest conductor for the Burnt Hills Oratorio
Society, the Schenectady and Bennington County Choral Societies, the Eastern New York
American Guild of Organists Mozart ChoralFest and Pinkham Festival, and has been an
Adjunct Professor of Music at Bennington College.
Ms. McGhee comes to this area from Boston, where she was Associate Conductor of
Choruses at the New England Conservatory of Music, Director of Choral Activities at
both Clark University and Simmons College, instructor of choral technique at the Berklee
College of Music, Director of Music at the Commonwealth School, and Choirmaster for
the Boston Summer Opera Company. In addition, she was Director of a Boston-based
community chorus which made four concert tours to the former Soviet Union and has
subsequently appeared in Russia as a solo vocal recitalist.
Ms. McGhee is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music with a Bachelor
of Music in piano and a Master of Music in choral conducting, both with honors.