Celebrated for her passionate leadership, rich imagination and expressive performance, Dr. Diane Retallack has served as Artistic Director for the Eugene Concert Choir since 1985. Under her leadership, the chamber choir Eugene Vocal Arts was founded in 1986, and the Eugene Concert Orchestra was founded in 2015 to complete the forces of performing ensembles. In 1997, the Eugene Concert Choir organization became a Resident Company of the Hult Center for the Performing Arts in Eugene, Oregon. Diane Retallack earned a Doctor of Music in Choral Conducting from Indiana University, where she studied conducting with Margaret Hillis, the Founder and Director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, and score analysis from renowned choral scholar Julius Herford. Further valued study includes conducting master classes with Helmuth Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival and the Bach Sommerakademie in Stuttgart, Germany, and participation as a singer in several performances with the Robert Shaw Festival Chorus at Carnegie Hall. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and a master’s from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Prior to her appointment as Artistic Director of the Eugene Concert Choir, Retallack was Director of Choral Activities at Seattle University. Learn more at EugeneConcertChoir.org