Heather Buchanan - Body Mapping
Australian born conductor Heather J. Buchanan is Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at Montclair State University (MSU), Upper Montclair, New Jersey (USA) where she conducts the 130-voice Chorale and 44-voice auditioned University Singers, and teaches Body Mapping and Choral Methods.
From 1998-2003 she was on the conducting faculty of Westminster Choir College of Rider University (USA) where she conducted Westminster Schola Cantorum, and taught Graduate and Undergraduate Choral Conducting. A certified Andover Educator, Ms. Buchanan specializes in the teaching of Body Mapping (www.bodymapping.net) and somatic pedagogy for musicians. She is also a Ph.D. Candidate with the University of New England (Australia) researching the impact of Body Mapping on student musicians. Ms. Buchanan earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music (Australia) and a Master of Music degree with distinction from Westminster with a double major in choral conducting and music education. Her publications include the Video-DVD Evoking Sound: Body Mapping & Gesture Fundamentals (GIA Publications: 2002) and she is also Co-editor and Compiler of the GIA choral series Teaching Music through Performance in Choir, Vol. I., (2005).
Ms. Buchanan’s guest conducting credits include The Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestra and the Princeton Society of Musical Amateurs, and preparing choirs for performances with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Bay Atlantic Symphony, and Pottstown Symphony. In December 2004 the Montclair State University Chorale gave the New York metropolitan area premiere performances of The Lord of the Rings Symphony with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and in October 2006 the MSU Chorale will open the NJSO’s 2006-07 season with three performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (Choral). In May 2005 the University Singers completed a ten-day tour of Central Europe, giving outstanding performances to audiences in Prague, Bratislava, Debrecen, and the Liszt Academy in Budapest. Ms. Buchanan is in demand as a guest conductor and clinician in the USA and her native Australia, and in July 2005 she will conduct the inaugural Australian National Seniors’ Choral Festival in Newcastle. She resides in Princeton Junction, New Jersey (USA) with her husband Peter and daughter Paige. http://www.bodymapping.net/
