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James Maroney, Conductor/Artistic Director, founded the Pocono Concert Chorale in 2016. Notable performances by choirs under his direction include at the White House, the Pennsylvania conference of the American Choral Directors Association, and tours to Europe, China, Toronto, Boston, and Washington, DC. In addition to repertoire spanning over five centuries in a dozen languages, his ensembles have performed major works such as Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’ Requiem and Liebeslieder Waltzes, Poulenc’s Gloria, Rutter’s Requiem and Gloria, Schubert’s Mass in G and Magnificat, Thompson’s Frostiana, Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, Mozart’s Requiem, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Fauré’s Requiem, J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, and the world premiere of When You are Dead and Gone by David Lantz. In 2012 Dr. Maroney assumed the position of Conductor of the Pocono Summer Chorus, and has been guest conductor for the Arcadia Chorale based in Scranton. He has conducted several High School County Festival Choruses, and is past President of the Pennsylvania Collegiate Choral Association. Prior to his arrival in the Poconos, he was Assistant Director of Choral Activities at Western Carolina University and founder of the Connecticut-based choir Harmonia as well as a music reviewer for Choral Journal. |
For many years Dr. Maroney was active as a tenor soloist, having performed over 30 operatic roles, approximately two dozen full-length solo recitals, and in numerous oratorios. He is past President of the Lehigh Valley chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and one of the foremost authorities on music for voice and classical guitar, having authored a book on the subject, Music for Voice and Classical Guitar, 1945-1996 and an article in Journal of Singing. He was awarded a grant through the Pennsylvania Faculty Professional Development Council to perform concerts of that genre at various colleges in Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
Dr. Maroney has engaged in a number of other diverse scholarly activities in vocal music. As a grant recipient of the President’s Research Fund at East Stroudsburg University, Dr. Maroney gave several lecture-recital performances in northeast PA of Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Copland’s Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson. While on the faculty at Western Carolina University, he received a grant to give several lecture-recital performances in the Southeast U.S. of Schubert's song cycle Die schöne Müllerin. He published an article in the jazz magazine The Note that featured a biography and interview with Jamie Fagan, one of the most widely recorded and successful “jingles” vocalists of the 1960s, and was granted a sabbatical leave and award through the Pennsylvania Faculty Professional Development Council to conduct research for an article and public lecture-recital about the opera arias of George Frideric Handel written specifically for the tenor John Beard during the composer’s years at Covent Garden.
Dr. Maroney holds degrees from Teachers College at Columbia University, Hartt School (University of Hartford), Ithaca College, and Western Connecticut State University, and is on the music faculties of Muhlenberg College and East Stroudsburg University.
