Ryan Tibbetts is a third-year doctoral student in the Choral Conducting program at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. At IU, Mr. Tibbetts has served as chorus master for the IU Opera Theater productions of The Merry Wives of Windsor and The Most Happy Fella, and assistant chorus master for Susannah, in addition to teaching undergraduate conducting and assisting the University Singers and University Chorale. This season, he will serve as chorus master for IU's production of Roméo et Juliette, assistant chorus master for La Rondine, and will conduct the University Singers in a performance of Vaughn Williams' Flos Campi and Britten's Cantata Misericordium. He received his BA in Music from Princeton University, where he was an assistant conductor of the Glee Club and associate conductor of the Sinfonia, and received his MM in Choral Conducting from the University of Delaware, where his conducting activities included performances with the Chamber Choir, Concert Choir, Collegium Musicum, and UD Symphony Orchestra. While at UD, he also served as an assistant conductor for the Chorale and Schola Cantorum, and helped to prepare performances of Mendelssohn's Lobgesang, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Handel's Coronation Anthem The King Shall Rejoice, and the Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music. In addition, he prepared the chorus for the IU Opera Workshop production of Kurt Weill's Street Scene and assisted in chorus preparation for Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. He also served for two years as Director of Liturgical Music at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Middletown, Delaware, and currently directs the Meadowood Singers in Bloomington. Last summer, he served on the theater staff of the Bay View Music Festival, conducting three performances of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. He has studied conducting with William Jon Gray, Paul Head, Brian Stone, Richard Tang Yuk, Carmen Téllez, and Gary Wedow, and has participated in shorter class sessions and masterclasses with conductors such as Charles Bruffy, Vance George, Robert Porco and Dale Warland. He is a native of Wilmington, Delaware.
In addition to his work as a conductor, Mr. Tibbetts is also an accomplished singer, and has performed extensively as both a chorus member and a soloist. Oratorio credits include Bach's B Minor Mass, Christmas Oratorio, Cantatas 4, 78, and 131, Carissimi's Jephte, Mozart's Requiem, and the Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music and Fantasia on Christmas Carols. He has also sung professionally as a section leader in the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic Chorus, and as a chorus member the Princeton Festival's production of Carmen. He has studied voice with Daniel Cole, Elem Eley, and Vince Treadway, and is currently a student of Mary Ann Hart.