Amherst, MA
Director: Anita Cooper
“As Vesta Was” by Thomas Weelkes
About Director Anita Cooper
Watch a video clip from this ensemble’s director.Anita Anderson Cooper received a Bachelor of Music Education Degree from Westminster College and her Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance at Boston University. She taught Music Theory at Manhattan School of Music in New York City for twelve years and also worked as a professional musician and conductor. She made her Carnegie Hall solo debut in 1995 and has sung with several orchestras throughout the United States. She has performed leading roles with various opera, Broadway and regional theater companies. She is a frequent soloist for Smith College and the Hampshire Choral Society as well as being a guest conductor for district festivals, most recently for the Green Mountain District in Vermont. She has premiered many new compositions including local composer, Willis Bridegam’s Robert Frost cycle and six Emily Dickinson settings which she performed for the 2004 re-dedication of the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst. In 2006, she was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant and studied Mozart’s music in Vienna, Austria. At Amherst Regional High School, she currently teaches three choral ensembles (Chorale, Concert Choir, and the Hurricane Singers) and AP Music Theory. This April, her women’s ensemble (Hurricane Singers) won the WGBY “Together In Song” competition in Springfield MA. Both judges and audience voters chose them as the best of all the groups that competed. The rest of her time is spent with her 10-year old son, Patrik, and a new puppy named Joey.
