Leslie Guelker-Cone, DMA

Professor, Emeritus

About

After working with public school and university students in California and Hawaii, Dr. Guelker-Cone found her home in the Pacific Northwest and came to Western Washington University, Bellingham in 1995, where she served as Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities. At WWU, she conducted the Concert Choir and the Western Voices chamber ensemble and taught graduate and undergraduate courses in choral conducting and choral music education. Under her direction, the choir performed at numerous national and divisional conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the National Association for Music Education (NAFME). International performance tours took the Concert Choir to Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, Argentina, and Uruguay.  Former students hold choral conducting positions in schools and universities throughout the country.

Dr. Guelker-Cone received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder in choral conducting and literature with Dr. Lynn Whitten and her Master of Arts degree in Music from San Jose State University with Dr. Charlene Archibeque.  She has served on national and regional boards for ACDA and NAFME and is a past president of Washington ACDA. She is in frequent demand as a choral clinician and honor choir conductor throughout the United States and Canada; recent international conducting projects have taken her to Thailand and Ecuador.

Ongoing research includes study of the incorporation of the movement theories of Dalcroze and Laban into the teaching of choral conducting, as well as the use of collaborative, student-inspired teaching techniques in the choral rehearsal. She is the author of the instructional video The Collaborative Choral Rehearsal: Inspiring Creative Musicianship, featuring the WWU Concert Choir. Dr. Guelker-Cone is a recipient of WWU’s highest teaching honor, the Excellence in Teaching Award. She also received the Washington ACDA Leadership and Service Award, the University of Colorado Distinguished Alumni Award, and was inducted into the Washington Music Educators (WMEA) Hall of Fame.

Dr. Guelker-Cone retired from full-time teaching in June 2019 and was named Professor emerita at WWU; she continues to work with choral students of all ages both in person and online. Retirement interests include traveling with husband Michael, enjoying granddaughter Evie, taking harp lessons, reading, catching up on films, attending jazz concerts, hiking, boating, and keeping in touch with friends and former students.

 

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WWU Concert Choir lined up in front of the large, fancy organ in the Concert Hall

 

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A big group of people in coats smiling and waving outside in front of a multistory stone wall full of arches with blue sky behind