NORMAN MACKENZIE, Director of Choruses
The Frannie and Bill Graves Chair

Norman Mackenzie's abilities as musical collaborator, conductor and concert organist have brought him national recognition. Recently appointed the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's Conductor of Choruses, he prepares the ASO Chorus and Chamber Chorus for performance. Also Director of Music and Fine Arts for Atlanta's Trinity Presbyterian Church, he oversees a comprehensive program including seven singing and ringing choirs and two concert series. In addition, he pursues an active recital and guest-conducting schedule each year.

For fourteen years Mr. Mackenzie worked closely with the late Robert Shaw, first as keyboardist for the ASO, then also as principal accompanist for the ASO Choruses, and finally as Assistant Conductor. He also served as musical assistant and accompanist for the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers, the annual Shaw/Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshops, and the Robert Shaw Institute Summer Choral Festivals in France and in the United States.

In 1996 Mr. Mackenzie made his New York City conducting debut in a concert sponsored by Carnegie Hall, substituting for Mr. Shaw on short notice to lead the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers in a critically acclaimed performance of the Rachmaninov Vespers at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Last January, he was chosen by the ailing Mr. Shaw to prepare his Carnegie Hall Festival Chorus for a program of Verdi, Poulenc, and Szymanowski conducted by Charles Dutoit. At the 2000 Carnegie Hall Choral Workshop, he prepared the Mozart Requiem and the Zemlinsky Psalms for James Conlon, music director of the Paris Opera.

In addition to his New York appearances, Mr. Mackenzie conducted the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Robert Shaw Institute Singers, and the Morehouse College Glee Club in the memorial concert, Robert Shaw: A Celebration, following the maestro's death in January 1999, and he was chosen to conduct the ASO and Chorus in Haydn's oratorio The Seasons the following March, performances that Mr. Shaw had been scheduled to conduct. That December, he led the Orchestra and Chorus with an audience full of enthusiastic singers in a sing-along performance of Handel's Messiah, an event so successful it will be repeated in December 2000.

A native of suburban Philadelphia, Mr. Mackenzie began his musical training with concert pianist Marion Filar and made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age twelve. He became the youngest finalist, at age sixteen, in the prestigious National Young Artist Competition of the American Guild of Organists,. Four years later he made his symphonic organ debut, once again with the Philadelphians, and his New York recital debut at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. He holds degrees from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and Westminster Choir College of Princeton, New Jersey.

Mr. Mackenzie was harpsichordist for the 250th-anniversary performance of Handel's Messiah at Carnegie Hall, played the world premiere of the Stephen Paulus Organ Concerto which he helped commission, has been a featured soloist and clinician at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, and serves on the Guild's national New Music Committee. He can be heard on the Telarc label as organ soloist for the Shaw/Atlanta Symphony release of the Janácek Glagolitic Mass and as pianist for recordings of the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes and an album of Schubert Songs for Male Chorus with the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers.