the university singers
peter eklund, director

One of the most active and versatile conductors in America today, Peter Eklund possesses a unique ability to work effectively with musicians at all levels of performing capability and experience. His concertizing/clinician schedule averages 60 national and international concerts annually and includes a wide array of professional, liturgical, festival, collegiate, and student ensembles throughout North America and Europe. Trained as a classical pianist and organist in the finest traditions of Western historical music, he also is a strong advocate for ethnic and world music spanning all genres.

His choirs have performed on numerous American Choral Directors Association regional and national conventions where their frequency of performance set unprecedented national records. Eklund has conducted his choirs in many of the world's greatest performance venues including, Carnegie Hall, Washington DC's Kennedy Center, National Cathedral, and Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, Christ Church in Oxford, Mozart's Salzburg Cathedral (where he conducts yearly), Paris's Notre Dame (also conducting yearly), St. Stephen's in Vienna, St. John the Divine and Alice Tully Hall in NYC, and in other famous cathedrals and performance halls in New York, Chicago, London, Coventry, Canterbury, Chartres, Reims, Metz, Strasbourg, Paris, and Verona.

Dr. Eklund studied conducting and score-study with Don V. Moses, International Mahler Medal-winner James Dixon, and American Choral Directors Association past president (and University of Nebraska-Lincoln alumnus) William Hatcher. Current and recent engagements include conducting All-State choirs in Minnesota, Colorado, Indiana, South Dakota, Georgia, and Alabama, master classes and adjudicating/clinic work in Hawaii, California, Florida, Virginia, New York, Iowa, Arizona, Missouri, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Chicago, collaborating with NETV on a state-wide collegiate choral broadcast (nominated for regional Emmy), conducting a regional ACDA honor choir, and directing a summer youth honor choir trip to ten countries.

Eklund is the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he heads the Masters and Doctoral choral conducting programs, conducts the nationally recognized University Singers, and conducts the nationally renowned University of Nebraska Varsity Men's Chorus (both national MENC selected performance ensembles). However, his greatest role of all is that of husband to Teresa and father of their four sons: Ben, Bryant, Brady and Brantley.

The university singers

University Singers represent the finest choral singers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. They perform music from the 13th century to the present, including works written especially for them. They have sung repeatedly for state conventions of the Nebraska Choral Directors Association, the Nebraska Music Educators Association, the North Central Division Conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, and most recently, the regional and national Music Educators National Conference conventions in Illinois and Nashville and the regional ACDA convention.

In 2001, the choir was featured on a prestigious solo performance at Carnegie Hall. They have performed with numerous orchestras and have worked under such renowned composers, pedagogues and conductors as Dale Warland, Rene Clausen, Don Moses, Joshua Rifkin, Jeremy Jackman, Simon Carrington, Sir David Willcocks, William Hatcher, Malcolm Dalglish, Anton Armstrong, and the late Robert Shaw. Since 2001, repertoire has included the Durufle Requiem, Tallis' 40-part motet Spem in Alium, Mendelssohn's Psalm 42 (with orchestra), Honegger's King David, the Brahms Requiem, and Carmina Burana. While many of the singers are music majors, students from throughout the university and encouraged to audition. The choir owns a rich list of distinguished alumni who have gone on to lead choirs and music departments at major universities and schools of music across the country.