Dallas Symphony Chorus

On May 23 2023, Dallas Symphony leadership announced that Anthony Blake Clark had been selected as the next Director of the Dallas Symphony Chorus. Clark assumed his official duties with the Chorus at the start of the 2023-24 season.

Anthony Blake Clark enjoys a reputation as one of the freshest young voices in classical music and is currently in his seventh season as Music Director of the nationally acclaimed and Emmy Award-winning Baltimore Choral Arts Society. In 2023 he was appointed as Artistic Director of the Bach Vespers Choir of Holy Trinity in New York City, is the Director of Choral Activities at The George Washington University in Washington DC, and had recently been named the Interim Chorus Director of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra.

Anthony Blake Clark is at home in front of orchestras and choirs alike and has worked with professional and amateur ensembles in the USA and Europe. During his tenure with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Anthony Blake Clark consistently received rave reviews, both for work on the podium in his subscription concerts and his preparation of choruses for performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic, and other area orchestral partners. Winner of the 2019-2020 American Prize in choral conducting, Clark’s leadership of Baltimore Choral Arts has also been acknowledged with another nomination for the American Prize for best choral performance, as well as the reception of the prestigious Chorus America/ASCAP Alice Parker Award. Recently, he led the ensemble on an enthusiastically received tour of the United Kingdom, culminating in a collaboration on Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He annually conducts and produces the celebrated “Christmas with Choral Arts,” televised on ABC2 which was recently nominated for an Emmy Award. The premiere choral organization in the Baltimore region, BCAS reaches more than 100,000 people each year and is an integral part of the fabric of Baltimore’s performing arts scene. His leadership of BCAS during the global Covid-19 pandemic was noted among his peers due to innovative digital concerts and a sizable output of online interactive content. In 2022 he made his Berlin conducting debut at the Philharmonie, then continued to Vienna where his choirs performed with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop.

Mr. Clark is passionate about teaching and is the Director of Choral Activities in The George Washington University’s Corcoran School of Art and Design, where he conducts the University Singers and Women’s Ensemble, and mentors student conductors. With his university choirs, he has led performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington National Cathedral and the Music Center at Strathmore. He is proud of the three-fold expansion of the program in the past few years. Recently he was Guest Conductor/Lecturer for the Westminster Choir College Symphonic Choir.

Anthony Blake Clark has also been named as the next Artistic Director of the Bach Vespers Choir in New York City. In residence at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in mid-town Manhattan, the Bach Choir and Players (on period instruments) are composed of some of the finest early music specialists in the nation. Their mission is to present the works of Bach as close as possible to how he and an 18th century Leipzig congregation would have heard them within the liturgical context of a Vespers service.

Appreciated for his scrupulous attention to detail, Anthony Blake Clark has prepared choruses for esteemed maestri such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Simon Halsey CBE, Marin Alsop, Fabio Luisi, and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla for concerts with internationally renowned ensembles, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (UK), Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and Rundfunk Chor Berlin. At New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, he was recently one of several conductors for David Lang’s 1,000-voice the public domain, working under his mentor Simon Halsey; he returned as chorusmaster for the 2018 premiere of John Luther Adams’ In the Name of the Earth. Clark is equally adept in the orchestral field and made his Baltimore Symphony debut in 2021. He has also appeared as cover conductor for the National Symphony Orchestra, assisting conductors such as Ton Koopman, Gianandrea Noseda, Christoph Eshenbach, and Manfred Honeck and has assisted Marin Alsop at the Baltimore Symphony.

In 2021 he began his graduate studies in Orchestral Conducting at the Peabody Institute where he is a student of Marin Alsop. Mr. Clark completed a Master’s Degree in Choral Conducting under three-time Grammy Award winner Simon Halsey CBE at the United Kingdom’s University of Birmingham. During his time in the UK, he entrenched himself in the choral life of the university and sang in the famed City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, singing under the batons of Sir Simon Rattle, Edward Gardiner, and Andris Nelsons as well as having opportunities to conduct the London Symphony Chorus and other area choirs. Other teachers include Simon Carrington (Yale Norfolk Summer Festival, Sarteano Conducting Workshop) and Lynne Gackle (Baylor University).

An active composer and arranger, Clark has had his music performed in the Washington, DC area, London, Oxford, Texas, and at Prague’s Dvorák National Museum Concert Hall. Most recently, his music has been premiered by the National Philharmonic Chamber Singers and the Baltimore Choral Arts Society. In 2022 his new performance edition of Mozart’s Requiem was performed and recorded by the Baltimore Choral Arts Society under Acis Records.

Kathryn Davidson, a Dallas native, is a conductor, educator, singer, and flutist dedicated to creating community through the choral arts. Kathryn is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of North Texas. Along with serving as a Teaching Assistant at UNT, she is the Chorus Master for Opera Arlington in Arlington, Texas.
 
Kathryn earned the Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. While at Jacobs, she directed the All-Campus Chorus, served as Assistant Chorus Master for various operas, and was Assistant Conductor of the GRAMMY-nominated Singing Hoosiers. During her time in Bloomington, IN, Kathryn was also the Choir Director at St. Thomas Lutheran Church. Davidson holds a Bachelors of Music Education and Bachelors of Music in Flute Performance from the University of North Texas.
 
As a singer, Kathryn has performed both nationally and internationally as a soloist and professional choral singer. Recent engagements include the Junges Stuttgart Bach Ensemble in Stuttgart, Germany and multiple solo performances with the Bloomington Bach Cantata Project. Kathryn has sung in professional and semi-professional ensembles in Texas, North Carolina, Indiana, Washington, Tuscany, Italy, and Stuttgart, Germany.
 
Prior to her graduate studies, Kathryn was the music teacher at Great Hearts Academy in Irving, Texas where she taught choir, music theory, and music history. A strong advocate for music education, Kathryn believes that musical experiences should be a societal priority and accessible for all people. The Dallas Symphony Chorus exemplifies this philosophy, and Kathryn is thrilled to join the vibrant DFW music community.

Michael Lysinger currently serves as Chorus Administrator for the Dallas Symphony Chorus and as Artist Liaison for the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. Prior to these positions, he taught choral music in Texas public schools for 30 years. For 14 years, he was Head Choral Director at Richardson (TX) J.J. Pearce High School, and for five years directed the Youth Choir at First United Methodist Church - Richardson, Texas. Michael also taught at Plano East Senior High School, Jersey Village High School (Houston), North Shore High School (Houston) and Bradley Middle School (San Antonio). For six seasons, he was the Artistic Director of the Houston Boychoir.

Choirs under Michael's direction have appeared at the 2008 and 1996 Texas Music Educators Convention, the 2001 American Choral Directors Convention and at the 2010 Southwest Convention of the American Choral Directors. He has prepared his choruses for performances with the Houston Symphony, the University of Houston Choruses and the UH Opera. His choirs have toured throughout the USA and abroad to Austria, Hungary, France, The Netherlands, Italy and Mexico. In competition, Michael’s choirs earn consistently high ratings and awards for their performances. As a member of TMEA, he has served as Region Chair, Area Chair, Region Choir Organizer and as a section leader for the All-State Choir.

In 2012, Michael was selected as STARS Teacher of the Year for Richardson (TX) Pearce High School. He received his Bachelor of Music Education from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, and is a member of ACDA, TMEA, TCDA and TMAA. Michael has two children, Abby and Zach.

Melanie Gilmore has been a volunteer member of the Dallas Symphony Chorus since 1995 and took on the part-time role of choral librarian for the Dallas Symphony in 2007. She is a graduate of Baylor University where she was a member of the Golden Wave marching band and concert bands playing French horn. She has also directed and performed in numerous handbell ensembles and served as music librarian for several groups. 

Melanie's career was spent mostly in the corporate world in marketing and event planning. She is married to Norbert and loves working part-time so she can spend time as a community volunteer, and with her family – husband, Norbert, and son, Ryan.