ABOUT
Aaron Peisner is dedicated to making honest and thoughtful music through his work as a conductor, singer, and educator. He serves as Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he conducts the Chamber Singers and University Chorale and teaches courses in aural skills, choral methods, conducting, and voice. Dr. Peisner is the artistic director and conductor of the Cape Fear Chorale, an auditioned choir based in Wilmington, NC. Since 2022, Dr. Peisner has served as chorus master for Opera Wilmington, preparing choruses for Tosca (2024), La traviata (2023), and The Magic Flute (2022). Prior to working at UNCW, Dr. Peisner was Interim Director of Choirs at Goucher College in Towson, MD, and assistant conductor for the University Singers at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Dr. Peisner presents workshops and masterclasses in the Wilmington, NC region and is in demand as a clinician, adjudicator, presenter, and guest conductor. He has been invited to present at national, regional, and state ACDA conferences.
During his DMA coursework at the University of Maryland, Dr. Peisner served as assistant conductor of the University of Maryland Chamber Singers, preparing the ensemble for collaborations with major orchestras and conductors, including performances of the Mozart Requiem with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Jeannette Sorrell, and John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda. He also served as the conductor of the University of Maryland Chorale and the University of Maryland Summer Chorus, as well as the chorus master for the Maryland Opera Studio, preparing the chorus for their role in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites.
A professional bass-baritone, Dr. Peisner is a founding member and sometimes conductor of Wilmington Voices. He has sung with the Taylor Festival Choir, hexaCollective, the Washington Master Chorale, the choir at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the San Francisco Choral Artists, Polyhymnia (NYC), and Yale Schola Cantorum, appearing on four Yale Schola Cantorum albums released on Hyperion Records.
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Dr. Peisner has a wide array of research interests, including applying critical pedagogy to choral rehearsals, Spanish Renaissance polyphony, Kurt Weill's Das Berliner Requiem for men's chorus and wind band, and Georgian and Bulgarian vocal music.
Dr. Peisner holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in choral conducting from the University of Maryland, where he received the Daniel L. Pomeroy Prize for outstanding work in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music. He earned a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from the Yale School of Music and a Bachelor of Arts in music from Wesleyan University. Dr. Peisner has studied conducting with Edward Maclary, James Ross, Marguerite Brooks, Jeffrey Douma, David Hill, Masaaki Suzuki, Kenneth Kiesler, and Neely Bruce.
