Symphony Appoints Interim Chorus Master

The Phoenix Symphony Association has appointed Dr. Thomas Bookhout as its interim Chorus Master. Dr. Bookhout’s appointment is for the 2012-2013 season.

“We are very excited to have someone with Thomas’s diverse background leading our chorus this season. Our full-time professional volunteer choir, which donates more than 12,000 hours of service to the symphony each year, will reach new heights of musical excellence under the direction of Dr. Bookhout,” says Jim Ward, the symphony’s president and CEO.

Bookhout has vast experience in the choral art, including symphony, opera, university, community, school and church choruses. In addition to the Phoenix Symphony Chorus, he is the director of performing arts at Scottsdale Christian Academy and the sanctuary choir director at Camelback Bible Church, which performed a featured concert this summer at the Arizona conference of the American Choral Directors Association and toured Poland in 2010. He is on the executive board of the Arizona American Choral Directors Association and is a member of numerous professional organizations.

Bookhout draws on his experience as a conductor, educator and administrator to produce choral ensembles that perform a wide-ranging repertoire. Before moving to Phoenix nine years ago, he served as music director of the Taghkanic Chorale (succeeding internationally known conductors Johannes Somary and Dennis Keene in that position), director of choral activities at the University of Charleston, W. Va., director of the women’s chorus and assistant conductor of the concert choir for Arizona State University, director of music at the Stony Brook School, Long Island, NY, and headmaster of a private school in upstate New York.

Submitted by The Phoenix Symphony