Darren Dailey, Artistic and Executive Director

Darren Dailey is celebrating his fourth season in Jacksonville, where he has been shaping The Jacksonville Children’s Chorus into a world-class organization. Under his artistic leadership the Chorus has grown to serve over 400 First Coast children annually with three core performance choirs, multiple satellite rehearsal locations, and outreach throughout the region. He has introduced Chorus singers and their audiences to innovative and renowned guest artists, and he has broadened the Chorus’s opportunities including performance tours in the Southeastern states, and to Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center.

A nationally-recognized clinician and conductor, Mr. Dailey has served as guest conductor in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center and at the ACDA Honor Choir in Seattle, and as Artistic Director of the 2011 Somerset International Choral Festival. He has presented workshops for the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, Organization of Kodály Educators, North Carolina and Florida chapters of American Choral Directors Association, Massachusetts and New Jersey chapters of the Music Educator's National Conference, and many universities. He serves as FL ACDA R&S Chair for Children's Choir/Boy Choirs. As the founding artistic director of the Boston Children's Chorus, Mr. Dailey and his chorus performed at the 2004 Democratic Convention, appeared as the host chorus on the television special, "Raising the Roof: A Celebration of the Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Song," broadcast nationally on WGN, and performed internationally in Japan. Dailey has produced two recordings: "Come and Rejoice" and "Sing!" His work can also be heard on "A Boston Christmas" (Back Bay Chorale), "Building Bridges" (Mystic Chorale), and "Amani Celebration," a limited-edition compact disc of holiday songs from 15 children's choirs to benefit African children who have been orphaned because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Mr. Dailey received a Bachelor of Music Education degree with a concentration in Voice from Westminster Choir College and a Master of Music Education in Choral Conducting from Appalachian State University's Hayes School of Music. Mr. Dailey is also trained in Kindermusik Early Childhood Beginnings.