Kevin Meidl

Kevin Meidl is conductor and Artistic Director with the Appleton Boychoir, now celebrating its 39th season. He is founder and principal conductor of the Badger State Girl Choir. In addition, he is music department chair and director of choirs at Appleton West High School and a founding director of the Renaissance School for the Arts. He is past president of the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association, and past president of the North Central American Choral Directors Association where he was responsible for the professional development of choral directors across the upper Midwest. He has studied conducting with Constantina Tsolainu, Kate Tamarkin, Robert Harris and John Paynter. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, a master’s degree from Northwestern University and a doctor of musical arts degree from Boston University.

Choirs under his direction have performed for fourteen state and regional conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, MENC: The National Association for Music Education, the American Guild of Organists, the Organization of American Kodaly Educators, the Intercollegiate Men’s Choruses, the Wisconsin Music Teachers Association, with the Milwaukee Symphony, the Fox Valley Symphony, and the Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra. The Badger State Girl Choir presented a solo concert in New York’s famed Carnegie Hall in April of 2014 for a nearly full house. His choirs have recorded a dozen albums including five with Delta Records and one produced and directed by Gunther Schuller featuring the music of Alec Wilder. They have performed in over thirty countries around the world; for the 50th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France and for Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.

Kevin Meidl has conducted all-state choirs and regional honor choirs throughout the country and is in demand as a guest clinician and adjudicator. Most recently, he conducted Minnesota All-State Boychoir, the 1,000 voice South Dakota All-State Chorus and the Wisconsin All-State Children’s Choir. As a speaker he has presented on a variety of subjects on national conventions programs for NAfME and ACDA and has delivered keynote addresses at professional music gatherings across the midwest. NextDirection: the national conference for high school students considering careers in choral music and the International Youth Symposium on Choral Music (Altötting, Germany) are among his professional initiatives. Meidl has written dozens of articles for professional journals and newsletters and is a contributing author on the newly released book “Brothers Sing On! Conducting the Tenor-Bass Choir.” Currently he is an international festival coordinator and conductor working primarily in Europe. In that regard, his 2017-2018 conducting schedule includes performances in Iceland, Peru, Italy, Estonia, and Ireland. His research on scheduling and performance-based music classes have been presented in every state across the country and for the NAfME national conference in Phoenix (1998). Currently Meidl is researching the impact of WCDA on Wisconsin’s choral music as seen through the eyes of its presidents.

Meidl is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, the International Federation for Choral Music, NAfME: The National Association for Music Education, the Voice Care Network, the Intercollegiate Men’s Choruses, the Organization of American Kodaly Educators, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and Pi Kappa Lambda. He was selected as secondary educator of the year for the Appleton Public Schools in 1995 and received the Helble Outstanding Teacher Award in 2008. His biography is listed in recent publications of Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, Who’s Who in American Education and several other honorary publications.