Grammy® Award-winning conductor and singer Frank Albinder is celebrating his 22nd year as conductor of the Virginia Glee Club. He recently retired as music director of the Washington Men’s Camerata after 25 years, and has joined two choirs where he doesn’t have to do anything but sing! A native of Hollywood, California, Mr. Albinder holds degrees from Pomona College and the New England Conservatory of Music.
Like most musicians, he has held a number of non-musical jobs, including counter man in a delicatessen, secret document destroyer for a major military contractor, tour guide at Universal Studios and problem-fixer for FedEx. He was Director of Choral Activities at Davidson College in the mid-1980s, and for 11 years, he was singer, associate conductor and, finally, acting director of Chanticleer, the world-renowned vocal ensemble. During his tenure with the group, Mr. Albinder performed in all 50 states and in 20 foreign countries. He appears on 21 of the ensemble’s recordings, including Wondrous Love, which was recorded under his direction, and the Grammy® Award-winning Colors of Love, for which he designed the concept and selected the repertoire.
Other performance credits include the Boston Camerata, the Robert Shaw Festival Singers, the Washington Bach Consort, and the Concord Ensemble. He completed two terms as the National Chair of Repertoire and Standards for Male Choirs for the American Choral Directors Association; he is currently President of IMC: The Tenor-Bass Choral Consortium, a member of the steering committee for ChoralNet, the internet’s principal portal for information and resources relating to the choral field, and was the DC
representative of the National Collegiate Choral Organization. He is retired from the professional music staff at St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square, the Church of the Presidents.
Contact: conductor@virginiagleeclub.org
