The Brainerd High School Choirs will present a guest conductor concert at 7 p.m. Monday at Tornstrom Auditorium in Brainerd.
Dwight Jilek, the new conductor at Bemidji State University, will conduct a few songs with each choir after rehearsing with the students the day of the concert.
Brian Stubbs, Brainerd choir director for grades 10-12, stated in a news release, "This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to learn how a different perspective can still be a right answer. Working with a guest makes students more sensitive as musicians, as they must make adjustments to their conducting and directions during rehearsal. It's also a master class for me and Marcus Aulie, the ninth-grade choir director. We get to learn from a colleague whom we respect."
Tickets are available at the door and are $6 for adults and $4 for students. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Jilek is the director of choral activities at Bemidji State University, and conducts the Bemidji Choir, Chamber Singers, Damenstimmen Women's Chorus and Musikanten Men's Chorus. He also teaches conducting, choral literature and choral arranging.
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Jilek recently completed his doctoral studies in choral conducting at the University of North Texas with a related field in vocal pedagogy. He conducted the University of North Texas concert choir and received the Outstanding Graduate Conductor award in 2016. Jilek attended Michigan State University where he earned a master's degree in choral conducting, was the assistant conductor to the Men's Glee Club and State Singers, the Chorus Master for the Opera Theatre Program and director of the Young Men's Chorus for the Community Music School. He holds a bachelor of music degree in vocal music education from Concordia College in Moorhead.
Jilek was the assistant conductor to the Dallas Symphony Chorus from 2013-2016, and was chorus master for the Christmas with the Dallas Symphony series. He worked with Director, Joshua Habermann, to prepare choruses for Jaap van Zweden, Jacques Lacombe, Simone Young, Nick Carter, Larry Loh and Tomáš Netopil.
Before pursuing his graduate degrees, Jilek was vocal music director for six years from 2005-2011 at Northfield High School in Minnesota where he oversaw five curricular and four extra-curricular choirs, along with the curricular vocal lesson program. Under his direction, the Northfield Concert Choir was accepted by audition to perform in the inaugural Minnesota American Choral Directors Association Choral Arts Finale in 2006, the Minnesota State ACDA Convention in 2007, the Minnesota Educator Association Convention in 2008 and was a featured choir at the Luther College Choral Invitational 2007 and St. Olaf Choral Festival in 2009.
Other BHS choir news
BHS choir students Theodore Knudson and Stefanie Maas performed Feb. 18 at Orchestra Hall in the Minnesota All State Choirs. This concert caps an experience that began last spring when they submitted audition recordings. There were 400 students selected out of more than 2,000 entries. The students participated in a week long camp last August at St. John's University.
