Maurice Boyer

Boyer is music director of the American Kantorei (Saint Louis, MO) and was artistic director of Aestas Consort and Heritage Chorale. He has been guest conductor of the Peoria Bach Festival, and assistant chorus master then subsequently guest chorus master with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Most recently he served as guest chorus master for the San Diego Symphony’s performance of Maurice Ravel’s opera L’enfant et les sortilèges.

Although born in the United States, he began his musical training (piano, voice, and solfège) in Aix-en-Provence, France, where he lived until the age of eighteen. Boyer holds a doctor of musical arts degree in orchestral conducting from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a dissertation on the Seventh Symphony of Jean Sibelius. His master of music is in choral conducting and his bachelor of music in sacred music (with piano as his principal instrument). Both were earned at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey. His principal conducting teachers have been Joseph Flummerfelt, Kenneth Kiesler, and James Ross. He also studied theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Among his areas of sustained interest and research are the sacred choral works of J. S. Bach — historical performance practice and theology—and the symphonic music of Mozart, Mahler, and Sibelius.

Associate Conductor Maurice Boyer has always been very generous with his time and every summer he has led S/OP&RF in outdoor summer concerts. In the summer of 2020, during the pandemic, the Park District of Oak Park (PDOP) reached out and asked if we would like to run a virtual concert series with them! MUSIC BY THE NUMB3RS, a nine mini-concert series, was recorded in Cheney Mansion. We also performed a POP-UP Concert outdoors in the Fall of 2020 at Cheney Mansion. Soon, the PDOP reached out and asked if we would hold a winter virtual series! WINTER WARMTH, was a six mini-concert series recorded in Pleasant Home. In June of 2021, Maurice conducted a program at Oak Park’s Nineteenth Century Club, AUSTRIAN SERENADE. These performances utilized small groups and the utmost safety procedures. He programmed, coached and directed all the concerts for our COVID-affected 89th Season and we are extremely grateful to him! _{Photo credit Karsten Boyer}