Gary
Packwood is the recipient of the 2007-2008 Distinguished Teacher Award
for the College of Fine Arts at the University of Montevallo. In his 6th
year at Montevallo, he is currently the Associate Director of Choral
Activities, where he conducts both the Chamber Singers and the University
Chorus, and leads the undergraduate music education program. Ensembles under
his direction have appeared at state and national conventions of MENC, and
toured throughout the United States and Europe. An active guest conductor,
adjudicator, and lecturer, Dr. Packwood currently holds Artist-in-Residence
positions with the Department of Music at the University of West Florida
(since 2005), the Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Performing and
Visual Arts (since 2005), and Timber Creek High School Music Department. In
2006 he served as guest conductor and lecturer, for the Festival
Internacional de Musica da UFPI in Brazil; the first American choral
conductor to be invited, and in 2007 he returned to Brazil as
Artist-in-Residence with the Conservatory of Music at the University of
Uberlandia. He has conducted honors choirs in 17 states and will lead the
Louisiana All-State Choir in November 2008. Dr. Packwood has studied
conducting with Kenneth Fulton, Sara Lynn Baird, Patricia Fletias and
Timothy Mount. He has served in numerous leadership roles with the American
Choral Directors Association including membership on four consecutive
divisional convention-planning committees (2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) and is
currently the R&S Chair for Ethnic & Multicultural Perspectives for the
Southern Division. Dr. Packwood is the Founding Artistic Director for the
Montevallo Chorale, a small community based choir, and is the Music Director
for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham. He is a member of
Golden Key International Honour Society, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and Pi Kappa
Lambda.