BU Alumnus Wins Illustrious Julius Herford Prize

Michael Driscoll (DMA Choral Conducting 2016), has received the illustrious Julius Herford Prize from the American Choral Director’s Association. His dissertation was entitled “Jan Dismas Zelenka’s ‘Dixit Dominus’ Settings Within the Context of the Dresden Hofkapelle,” and comments from the prize selection committee included ‘well-documented and to-be-applauded reasoning” and “a model of outstanding research and presentation.”

Each year, the Julius Herford Prize Subcommittee accepts nominations for outstanding doctoral terminal research projects in choral music. Projects are eligible if they comprise the principal research component of the degree requirements, and eligibility is limited to doctoral recipients whose degrees were conferred during the calendar year prior to the year of nomination. Founded in 1959, the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) is a nonprofit music-education organization whose expressed purposes outline the association’s dedication to the advancement of choral music. The mission of ACDA is to inspire excellence in choral music through education, performance, composition, and advocacy.

Michael Driscoll is Director of Choirs at Brookline High School, a position he has held since September 2003. At Brookline High School, Dr. Driscoll directs three choirs, advises three student-run a cappella ensembles, teaches Advanced Placement music theory and class piano. In the fall of 2013, he was appointed Music Director of the Andover Choral Society, based in Andover, Massachusetts. He is the Lead Musicianship Teacher for the Handel & Haydn Society’s Vocal Arts Program for children and high school students. With H&H he develops and oversees the musicianship curriculum and trains and supervises the musicianship faculty.

Michael joins previous Boston University School of Music winners of the Herford Prize:
1995 – Betty Karol Fairchilds Wilson “Choral Pedagogy: Crossroads of Theory and Practice in Sixteenth-Century Germany.” (Boston University)

2008 – Kevin Leong “The Hymn Settings of Ludwig Senfl’s Liber vesperarum festorum solennium, D-Mbs Mus. Ms. 52.” (Boston University)

2010 – Michael McGaghie “Macaronic Things: Thornton Wilder and the Late Choral Music of Dominick Argento.” (Boston University)

2014 – Cory D. Wikan for “Robert Shaw and the Brahms Requiem, op 45: A Conductor’s Approach to Performing a Masterpiece.” (Boston University)

www.michaeldriscollconductor.com