James Turner, Music Director

James Turner, Music Director and Conductor, is also Associate Professor of Music and Director of Vocal and Choral Activities a Kalamazoo College, where he conducts the 60-member College Singers and the select Chamber Singers. Mr. Turner comes to Kalamazoo from Marygrove College, where he received the Outstanding Teacher of the Year award. He studied at Mars Hill College, Louisiana State University, and Indiana University. With extensive experience in musical theatre, he has been music director for such shows as Brian Zocher’s Joe Hill and Stephen Sondheim's Company (Kalamazoo College Festival Playhouse), Sondheim’s Into the Woods (Hope College Summer Repertory Theatre), and many more. Highly acclaimed as a choral director and vocal teacher, he has trained first-place winners in state and regional auditions of the national Association of Teachers of Singing and in the Metropolitan Opera Competition, Detroit District. He is a native of Florence, South Carolina.