Profile

Stephen Coker, D.M.A.
Assistant Professor of Music
Director of Choral Activities

Office: 321B LH
Phone: 503.725.3184
Fax: 503.725.8215
E-mail: cokers@pdx.edu


Stephen Coker is the newly appointed Director of Choral Activities at Portland State University where he conducts the Chamber Choir and University Choir and teaches undergraduate conducting as well graduate conducting and other coursework for PSU's Master of Music degree in Choral Music. Prior to his current appointment, Coker was on the choral faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) from 2000-2006 and was Director of Choral Activities at Oklahoma City University (OCU) for 25 years. At both CCM and OCU, Coker was awarded the Outstanding Teacher Award, and in 1995, he was given the "Director of Distinction Award" by theOklahoma Choral Directors Association.

A native of Oklahoma, Coker received his Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees from OCU and the Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Music from the University of Southern California, having studied with Rodney Eichenberger, James Vail, and David Wilson. He has held church music positions for most of his academic career and is currently the Interim Director of Music of Christ Church Episcopal Parish in Lake Oswego, OR.

An avid enthusiast of choral/orchestral performance, Coker has conducted much of that major repertoire including works of Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Dvorak, Vaughan Williams, Poulenc, Orff, and Bernstein, and has prepared choruses for James Levine, James Conlon, and Erich Kunzel. As a professional chorister, he has sung for conductors Helmuth Rilling (at the Oregon Bach Festival for a number of years) and the late Robert Shaw.

At Oklahoma City University, Dr. Coker conducted numerous stage works for their acclaimed Opera and Musical Theater Department, and at CCM, he served on the faculty of the Grandin Festival, a two-week vocal chamber music event. World music is of special interest to him; last February he shared a concert with Dale Warland, conducting the professional choir, the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, in a program of African and Hispanic music and works from the Pacific Basin.