Wendy K. Moy

Biography

Wendy K. Moy is an associate professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the School of Education at Syracuse University. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in music education, conducting, rehearsal techniques, and choral literature and directs the Oratorio Society in the Setnor School of Music.

Prior to joining Syracuse University, Moy served as associate professor of music at Connecticut College (2013–2020), where she was the director of choral activities and head of the music education program. She also held teaching and conducting positions at Tacoma Community College, the University of Washington and Seattle Pacific University. She taught orchestra, choir and jazz choir in the Edmonds School District (1999–2010). Her ensembles have performed at the Northwest Music Educators and Washington Music Educators Association Conferences.

Moy is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Chorosynthesis Singers, a professional chamber ensemble. Their Centaur Records release, Empowering Silenced Voices, is a two-CD collection of socially conscious new music. She also helped establish the Empowering Silenced Voices Database for Socially Conscious Choral Music. A passionate advocate for collaboration and new music, Moy has conducted, commissioned, and premiered numerous works and performs as a soprano with Chorosynthesis Singers and 21V. She has also served as director of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus and artistic director of the Hartford Gay Men’s Chorus.

A violinist since age 4, Moy has worked with the Cascade Youth Symphony Organization as a violin coach and assistant conductor. She studied orchestral conducting with Eric Hanson and Kenneth Kiesler, making her debut with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. She is set to make her conducting debut with the Syracuse Orchestra and the SU Oratorio Society in December 2025.

Moy is a frequent clinician and guest conductor for ensembles of all levels. She has led honor choirs and orchestras across the country, including the Rhode Island All-State Senior High School Chorus, the Massachusetts All-State Choir and the New York Senior High Area All-State Treble Choir. As an American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) International Conducting Fellow, she made her international debut in João Pessoa, Brazil, and soon after conducted in Shenzhen, China. She has returned to Brazil as the headliner of the Festival Paraibano de Coros and the conductor of the orchestra at the International Festival of Music in Campina Grande.

Moy’s research examines the culture of singing communities, social capital in choral organizations and the concept of belonging through socially conscious music. She has presented at national conferences hosted by ACDA, Chorus America, the National Collegiate Choral Organization, College Music Society, GALA Choruses, National Association for Music Education, and internationally at the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research and the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition. Her work appears in the Choral Journal, and her ethnographic study on the Seattle Men’s Chorus was published by Oxford University Press in “Together in Music: Coordination, Expression, Participation.” Her book “Resurrecting Song: A Pathway Forward for the Choral Art in the Time of Pandemics” was released by Routledge.

Moy has received numerous honors, including the Paul and Veronica Abel Award for Choral Performance (Civic Morning Musicals) and the Champion of Diversity Award (YWCA of Syracuse and Onondaga County). She was selected to participate in prestigious programs, including the Westminster Chamber Choir, Tallis Scholar Summer School, National Endowment for the Arts’ Bach Institute in Germany, Carnegie Hall Choral Institute/Transient Glory Symposium as a conducting associate and the Yale/Norfolk Chamber Choir. She was named third place winner of The American Prize in Choral Conducting (professional division, 2017). Under her co-direction, Chorosynthesis Singers won The American Prize in Choral Performance (2024) and received a special citation for Extraordinary Commitment to New Music (2018).

Moy serves on the ACDA Standing Committee on International Activities, the Humanities Center Advisory Board at Syracuse University and the Choral Advisory Board for the Institute for Composer Diversity. She also evaluates grants for the National Endowment for the Arts and Chorus America. Moy holds a bachelor of arts in music education from Seattle Pacific University, a master of music education from Westminster Choir College, and a doctor of musical arts in choral conducting (music education cognate) from the University of Washington.

Education

• D.M.A., University of Washington
• M.M.E., Westminster Choir College
• B.A., Seattle Pacific University