Gregory Gentry has taught and mentored more than 100 graduate (masters and doctoral) students through conducting, performance and research degrees at three R1 institutions: Arizona State University, University of Colorado, and University of Alabama. Through his work—from all-state choirs, to festival choirs, high school leadership choirs, church choirs, and university choirs—he has positively influenced thousands of high schoolers and undergraduates as well. Gentry is the author and compiler of In Search of Inspiration: Interviews with Notable Choral Conductors (GIA, 2021), which spotlights the global vision, classroom and podium strengths and experiences of a diverse group of legendary choral conductors.
Dr. Gentry’s university choirs have performed for the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO), American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), National Association for Music Education (NAfME), Colorado Music Educators Association (CMEA), Society for American Music (SAM), and College Music Society (CMS). His edition of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Cor meum et caro mea” (Fred Bock Music Publishers) was premiered at the ACDA National Conference by the National High School Honor Choir. The Gregory Gentry Choral Series (Fred Bock, distributed by Hal Leonard) includes forgotten choral gems such as “Prairie Sunset” by Cecil Effinger, “Sing Unto the Lord” by George Lynn, Hall Johnson’s stirring arrangement of “The Star Spangled Banner,” and Wray Lundquist’s epic “Johnny’s Gone Marching.”
In both professional and academic settings, Gregory Gentry has prepared and performed great choral masterworks. From his Phoenix Symphony conducting debut to sold-out audiences with Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, to his conducting more than 300 instrumentalists and singers in both William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast and Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, Gentry has shown his artistic expertise, management skills, and sincere versatility. He has prepared more than 30 world and regional premiere works—including Ozymandias: to Sell a Planet (2022) by Drew Hemenger (with the Boulder Philharmonic), Reflections on a Mexican Garden (2018) by Kevin Padworski (with the New England Symphony), Tito’s Say (2010) by Arizona composer James DeMars (where Dr. Gentry was honored by the Mexican Consulate at Tempe’s Gammage Auditorium), as well as works by John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov, Arvo Pärt, and Mark Grey’s Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio [Naxos 2009] with an English/Navajo libretto by Laura Tohe (with the Phoenix Symphony).
Under Gentry’s leadership “the Phoenix Symphony Chorus has become one of the gems of Phoenix’s cultural scene.”
—Richard Nilsen, The Arizona Republic
Gentry has welcomed and worked with touring choirs, such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers under the direction of Dr. Paul Kwami (through a grant from the NAACP), Voces8, ASTER Women’s Chamber Choir, as well as his collaborative work with the Boulder Bach Festival. He has guest conducted throughout the United States, and Europe, including St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City and Basiliica dei Santi XII Apostoli, Rome, as well as Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary and St. Boniface, Plymouth, UK.
Gentry’s former graduate students are teaching and conducting at universities across the country, including the State University of New York, William & Mary, San Jose State University, Virginia State University, Waldorf University, Morehead State University, Scottsdale Community College, University of Virginia, as well as conducting or singing in ensembles worldwide such as Conspirare, Phoenix Chorale, True Concord Voices, Graindelavoix (Belgium), Gimhae City Choir (South Korea) and Anúna (Ireland).
With a strong public music teacher background, Dr. Gentry is an excellent and collaborative educator. He is a proponent of the solo voice and emphasizes the use of vocal science as the foundation for his approach to artistic ensemble singing. He is past president of the Arizona state chapter of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA, 2010-2012), during which time he introduced the electronic format for the state newsletter and the use of QR codes for performance programs. He is also the founder of Southwest Liederkranz, an annual international symposium for select choral professionals, where Kirke Mechem, Morten Lauridsen, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Vance George, Dale Warland, Dennis Keene, Maria Guinand, Eph Ehly, Duain Wolfe, Joan Catoni Conlon, Joshua Habermann, André Thomas and others have, to date, been invited to share their knowledge, wisdom, inspirations, and sense of humor!