In his role as Director of Choirs, Eric Schmidt leads the Chamber Singers and Vox Animae, as well as the Putnam County Festival Choir, a community ensemble he revived in 2019 after a hiatus of almost 20 years. In addition to the ensembles, he teaches such classes in the school’s 21CM Initiative as “Music and Healing,” “Music and Social Justice,” and “Concert Programming.”
Outside of DePauw, Eric has performed as chorus master for several conductors including Sir Donald Runnicles, Jun Märkl, Thierry Fischer, Markus Stenz, and Matthew Kraemer. During the 2022-23 season, he prepared choirs for the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Utah Symphony and the Grand Teton Music Festival, performing works such Charpentier’s Messe di minuit pour Noël, Bach’s Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Fidelio, and Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem. Over the past few years, he prepared numerous other masterworks including Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor and Requiem, Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium, and Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri. In 2016, he made his own debut with the Utah Symphony conducting Handel’s Messiah at Abravanell Hall in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In addition to his stage appearances, Eric has conducted several professional orchestra and choir recordings in California and Utah. He also frequently works as clinician and adjudicator for high school choirs in the Midwest and Mountain West.
Before coming to DePauw, Eric was the Associate Conductor of the Utah Chamber Artists, directed the Chancel Choir at First Presbyterian Church, and taught choirs and music classes at Westminster College and The Madeleine Choir School, all in Salt Lake City. Eric holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting degree from the University of Utah, and a Master of Education in Music and Mathematics from the University of Osnabrück in his native country Germany.
