About Wendy

Dr. Wendy K. Moy is a conductor, soprano, educator, and nonprofit founder. She was recently named the third-place winner of The American Prize in Choral Conducting, professional division. Dr. Moy is an Assistant Professor of Music Education in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the School of Education at Syracuse University and Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director of Chorosynthesis Singers. She teaches undergraduate and graduate coursework in music education, conducting, rehearsal techniques, choral literature, and directs the Concert Choir in the Setnor School of Music. Prior to joining Syracuse University, Dr. Moy was an Associate Professor of Music at Connecticut College from 2013-2020, where she was the Director of Choral Activities and Head of Music Education. From 2012-2013, she was an instructor at Tacoma Community College, serving as the Director of Choral Activities and teaching courses in music education. Before moving to the East Coast, Moy conducted the University of Washington Women’s Chorus and the Seattle Pacific University Chamber Singers. She also taught orchestra, choir, and jazz choir at the secondary level in the Edmonds School District from 1999-2010. Her ensembles were invited to perform at the Northwest Music Educator and Washington Music Educator Association Conferences.

Dr. Moy is the co-founder and co-artistic director of the chamber ensemble, Chorosynthesis Singers. Under her co-direction, Chorosynthesis Singers was named the 2024 winner of The American Prize in Choral Performance, professional division with a special citation for Extraordinary Commitment to New Music in 2018. They released on the Centaur Records label Empowering Silenced Voices, a 2-CD collection of new music on themes of social consciousness and established the Empowering Silenced Voices Database for Socially Conscious Choral Music. Chorosynthesis Singers was selected to be in residence as Choral Scholars at Santa Monica College and as Dayton Artists-in-Residence at Connecticut College. A strong advocate for collaboration and new music, Moy has premiered/commissioned numerous new works by established and emerging composers. She also sings soprano in Chorosynthesis Singers and 21V. Dr. Moy has also served as the Artistic Director of the Hartford Gay Men’s Chorus and the Director of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus.

Equally at home in the orchestral world, Dr. Moy started playing the violin at age four and received advanced training with Richard Skerlong (Seattle Symphony). Dr. Moy went on to study orchestral conducting with Eric Hanson and Nikolas Caoile with additional coaching by Kenneth Kiesler. She served as a violin coach, chamber music coordinator, and assistant conductor with the Cascade Youth Symphony Organization. Dr. Moy recently made her conducting debut with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

Dr. Moy is a frequent clinician and guest conductor with ensembles of all levels. Passionate about mentoring and inspiring young musicians, she has conducted the Rhode Island All-State Senior High School Chorus, Massachusetts All State Choir, New York Zone 2 Senior High Area All State Treble Choir, Connecticut Eastern Region High School Honor Choir, Heartland High School Honor Choir, Northshore Junior High Honor Orchestra, and Edmonds Elementary Honor Choir. Selected as an American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) International Conducting Fellow, Moy made her international conducting debut with the Coral da Universidade Federal da Gazzi de Sá at the Festival Paraibano de Coros in João Pessoa, Brazil. She soon followed this with her Asia conducting debut in Shenzhen, China. In 2024, Moy returned to João Pessoa, as the Festival Paraibano de Coros headliner. She is looking forward to her Carnegie Hall conducting debut in May 2025.

Dr. Moy was recently awarded the Paul and Veronica Abel Award for Choral Performance by Civic Morning Musicals and Champion of Diversity Award by the YWCA of Syracuse and Onondaga County. Additional honors include being selected to participate in the National Endowment for the Humanities Bach Institute in Germany, the Conductors Retreat (orchestral) at Medomak, the Westminster Chamber Choir, the Tallis Scholar Summer School, the Carnegie Hall Choral Institute/Transient Glory Symposium as a conducting associate, and the Yale/Norfolk Chamber Choir.

Dr. Moy's research focuses on the culture of singing communities and fostering belonging in the choral ensemble. Her dissertation was an ethnographic study of the Seattle Men's Chorus (SMC), the largest gay men's chorus in the world and the largest community chorus in North America. Oxford University Press published her study in Together in Music: Participation, Co-Ordination, and Creativity in Ensembles. Routledge recently published her book, Resurrecting Song: A Pathway for the Choral Art in the Time of Pandemics. She has also co-written several articles that were published in the Choral Journal.

Dr. Moy has presented her research at national conferences sponsored by the ACDA; Chorus America, National Collegiate Choral Organization Conference; College Music Society; GALA Choruses; National Association for Music Education (NAfME); and the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research. She recently presented at the Chorus America Conference as well as the National Collegiate Choral Organization Conference on fostering equity, diversity, and culture in the choral rehearsal and performance through the music of social consciousness. Dr. Moy has been interviewed for featured articles in The Choral Journal, The Voice of Chorus America, and Teaching Music Journal on the subjects of entrepreneurship and culture-building in the choral arts.

Dr. Moy is the Vice President/Co-founder of Chorosynthesis, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to transform the culture of American choral music through collaboration, sustainability, innovation, and excellence. She also serves on the ACDA Standing Committee on International Activities and reviews music grants for the National Endowment for the Arts and Chorus America. Dr. Moy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from Seattle Pacific University, a Master of Music Education with an emphasis in choral music from Westminster Choir College, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting (Music Education cognate) from the University of Washington.