Meet The Accompanist

Meet the Accompanist

RICHARD WOLF (Biography, 17 Sept 2006)

Richard Wolf has served as the accompanist for Grosse Pointe South High School Choirs since August 2004. Prior to Grosse Pointe South, he served for 9 years as the accompanist at Rochester High School. Prior to his work at Rochester, he also served for one year as accompanist at Adams High School in Rochester Hills. In previous years Richard has also served as accompanist for the Troy Community Chorus and the Symphonia Chorale.

Richard is a 1992 graduate of Ball State University, where he studied choral music and piano, and a 1988 graduate of Eisenhower High School in Shelby Township. In addition to his work as an accompanist, he has also maintained an active interest in musical theater. For four years he served as musical director for Pontiac Theatre IV, providing direction for 6 shows during his tenure. Additionally he has worked with Rochester Community Schools Summer Musical Theatre program for 9 years in various positions, as well as played for performances of Grosse Pointe Summer Stock. Richard also served as vocal director for 12 musical theatre productions at Stevenson High School in Sterling Heights. Two shows for which he provided direction at Stevenson were selected to perform at the International Thespian Society conventions, and two shows were selected to perform at the Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association One-Act Theatre Finals.

Richard also serves as a member of the Full Board of the Michigan School Vocal Music Association (MSVMA). From 1999 to 2003 he served MSVMA as District 16 Manager, where he supervised all District-level Solo & Ensemble Festivals and Choral Festivals for schools in Oakland, Macomb, St. Clair, and Wayne Counties (including Grosse Pointe). From 2003 to 2006 he served the organization as Region C and TTBB High School Honors Choir Supervisor, where he coordinated and supervised high school Honors Choir auditions for 7 counties in Southeast Michigan, as well as supervise the men's High School State Honors Choir each January. Richard has also served MSVMA as its resident sightreading composer from 1999-2005 - all students and choirs who sightread at Honors Choir auditions, District Choral Festivals, and State Solo & Ensemble Festivals have sung his sightreading exercises at those festivals. He has written the High School Honors Choir Supervisors' Manual and co-authored the District Managers' Manual for the organization. Currently Richard serves MSVMA as Awards Supervisor, co-editor of the MSVMA Handbook (the primary resource for MSVMA members on rules, policies, and expectations of schools and directors), as a member of the Technology and Website Development Committee, and on its standing Policy Committee.

Church music is another of Richard's active interests. He is currently the organist, cantor, and adult choir director at Trinity Lutheran Church in Richmond (where he has served since February 2004), where he leads music at all worship services (both contemporary and traditional worship), as well as re-building the Adult Choir after the choir's absence in the congregation for many years. Previously he served as Director of Music at Abiding Presence Lutheran Church in Rochester Hills for 7 years, and has also served Lutheran and Catholic congregations in Shelby Township and Troy. Richard has also served on the Worship Committee for the Southeast Michigan Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, where he assisted in the planning of Synod-wide worship events.

As a choral singer, Richard has served as tenor section leader for the international award-winning Detroit Concert Choir (where he has also served as an associate accompanist), and has sung with the traveling competition choir (most recently competing in Gorizia, Italy in July 2004). He has also sung for 3 seasons with the Meadowbrook Festival Chorus (the summer chorus for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra) and with the Gil Jackson Chorale. He has sung under the direction of such noted directors as Gordon Nelson, Thomas Sheets, Steve Zegree, Charlene Archibeque, and Neeme Jarvi.

Richard currently lives in Harper Woods, and maintains an active rooting interest since childhood in the Chicago Cubs.