Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt

Biography

Hilary Apfelstadt is Professor Emerita of Choral Studies at the University of Toronto, where she held the Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting. From 2013 to 2018, she served as the artistic director for the Exultate Chamber Singers, a semi-professional ensemble in Toronto. After retiring from the University of Toronto, she was the Interim Executive Director for the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). Apfelstadt has had significant conducting residencies at McGill University in Montreal and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has held full-time university teaching appointments in the U.S. at Ohio State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A native Canadian, she has led university choirs and performances at ACDA conferences and the national professional conference for Choral Canada. Apfelstadt has guest conducted numerous honors choruses and festivals in North America and internationally, directing forty all-state choirs in the U.S. She conducted the 2014 National Youth Choir of Canada. Her teaching experiences span public schools, community ensembles, and church choirs. Apfelstadt holds various leadership awards from Choirs Ontario, NC-ACDA, and the Ohio Choral Directors Association. Throughout her career, she has mentored conductors and advised multiple graduate conducting majors who now hold significant positions in the profession. Additionally, she has published numerous articles and book chapters on leadership, choral pedagogy, and Canadian choral music, winning Choral Canada’s award for Outstanding Choral Publication in 2018 for her book on Canadian composer Ruth Watson Henderson. Currently, she is editing a book on female choral composers, which will be published by GIA Publications in 2025. Apfelstadt also serves on the Editorial Board of Anacrusis Choral Canada and is a writing mentor for the National Collegiate Conducting Organization (NCCO).

Research Interests