Director of Choral Activities, Associate Professor of Music
Professor Bryce Thompson has served as the Director of Choral Activities at Columbia International University since 2019. Mr. Thompson is committed to music making at the highest level while developing a culture in which his students value the process of rehearsal, value the music they make, and value each other. Mr. Thompson’s students strive for musical excellence by applying attention to detail and by internalizing the music they perform in order to create heartfelt performances.
Choirs under his direction have sung at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, the Wilten Basilica in Innsbruck, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. John the Divine in NYC, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC, the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Orlando, FL and the Basilica of St. Louis in St. Louis, MO. His choirs have also performed on stage with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, at both MLB and NBA games, and with Grammy winning artist, Eric Church. His choirs have also been featured at ACDA and MSVMA music conferences.
An engaging clinician, Mr. Thompson specializes in improving personal musicianship, dynamic singing, expansion of tonal color, and vocal energy when working with choirs of all ages. He also enjoys enhancing teaching in sightreading, conducting, vowel formation and phonetics. In addition to teaching at the university level, he has taught high school choir, elementary general music, middle school choir and secondary band. Mr. Thompson has studied choral conducting with Dr. Todd Guy at Indiana Wesleyan University, Dr. David Rayl and Dr. Jonathan Reed at Michigan State University as well as Dr. Jerry Blackstone, Dr. Mary Hopper, Dr. Eugene Rogers, and Dr. Julie Skadsem at The University of Michigan.
His wife, Jenna, and six young children, Micah, Liam, Elijah, Theodore, Eleanor, and Lindi inspire him to be the best man possible while bringing him immeasurable joy.
Education
- Master of Arts in Choral Conducting, Michigan State University
- Bachelor of Science in Music Education, Indiana Wesleyan University