Lori Hetzel

Dr. Lori Hetzel is the Associate Director and Director of Alumni Relations in the School of Music, Associate Director of Choral Activities, and Professor of Choral Music Education at the University of Kentucky where she conducts the University of Kentucky Treble Choir and serves as advisor to the a cappella group “Paws and Listen”. In addition to her conducting duties, Dr. Hetzel supervises student teachers and teaches undergraduate choral methods and conducting courses. She has pioneered a partnership with area schools and fostered an active choral music education curriculum that facilitates ‘hands-on’ real world experiences for undergraduate students from their earliest days of study through to graduation. A highly recognized and valued leader within the field, she is frequently sought after for clinics and professional education. Through her years of service at the University of Kentucky, she has mentored a generation of successful choral music educators both in Kentucky and across the nation. 

 

Hetzel is a contributing author to the textbook Conducting Women’s Choirs: Strategies for Success and the new publication, Choral Repertoire by Women Composers. Among her many academic accomplishments, she was the recipient of the University of Kentucky “Great Teacher of the Year” award in 2000, a finalist for the Provost Awards for Outstanding Teaching in both 2009 and 2010, and the winner of the Kentucky Choral Director’s Association Robert K. Baar Choral Award in 2011 “given to one choral director in the state who exhibits outstanding leadership in choral music and promotes music education in the state of Kentucky.” 

 

Dr. Hetzel serves as Founder and Artistic Director Laureate of the Lexington Singers Children’s Choir (LSCC) and conducted the LSCC Chamber Choir for twenty years. She founded the LSCC, now four choirs strong, to provide specialized choral opportunities for the children of central Kentucky (grades K-12). The organization performs both in the greater Lexington area and throughout the United States. In 2014 the Chamber Choir was invited to perform at the American Choral Directors Association Southern Region Convention in Jacksonville, FL where they premiered the Raymond W. Brock Memorial Commissioned piece by Alice Parker. In 2020 they appeared again as guests on the President’s concert at ACDA Southern Region conference in Mobile, AL.