Dr. Sarah Frook Gallo
Director of Choral Activities
Dr. Sarah Frook Gallo is the new Director of Choral Activities at Lehigh University, where she leads the Lehigh Choral Arts, conducts three curricular choirs, University Choir, Choral Union, and Glee Club, as well as teaching courses in the music department. She is a frequent guest clinician, presenter, and adjudicator, and enjoys working with honor choruses and workshops with choirs of all ages.
Prior to her appointment at Lehigh, she taught at the University of Georgia, where she conducted four curricular ensembles and taught courses in conducting and music education. She has also held teaching positions at William & Mary, Christopher Newport University, and the University of Richmond. Dr. Frook Gallo also served as the Artistic Director of the Virginia Choral Society, a 100-member community choir in Newport News, VA.
Dr. Frook Gallo is a vibrant and versatile conductor, teacher, and singer, and aims to foster intentional musical communities in all aspects of her work. Her research interests include the music of a 19th century Mexico City girls’ school, incorporating Dalcroze Eurhythmics into the conducting classroom, and incorporating vocal pedagogy into the choral rehearsal and teacher training. Her choirs have commissioned and premiered works by Tawnie Olson, Lori Laitman, and Ysaÿe Barnwell.
In her time as a doctoral student at the University of Georgia, she was awarded the prestigious Presidential Fellowship, and was selected for several masterclasses and conducting programs, including the National Collegiate Choral Organization Graduate Fellowship, Baylor International Choral Conducting Masterclass, the Wintergreen Music Academy Conductor’s Summit, and as a conductor in the 2020 ACDA Southern Graduate Conducting Masterclass.
Dr. Frook Gallo earned her DMA in Choral Conducting at the University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music, her MM in Choral Conducting from the Eastman School of Music, and her undergraduate degree from the College of William & Mary with a concentration in piano, voice, and harpsichord.
Dr. Liz Olson
Associate Director
Liz Olson is a conductor, educator, and vocalist from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She is currently the Associate Director of Choral Activities at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, where she conducts the Dolce Treble Choir and First-Year Lab Choir, assists the University Choir and Choral Union, and teaches Aural Skills and Music History. She is finishing her Doctoral Studies in Choral Conducting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where her research focuses on vocal science techniques for the collective choral setting and the choral music of composer Melissa Dunphy. At UW-Madison, Olson worked with the Advanced Treble Choir and University Chorus, and was awarded the prestigious University Fellowship. In 2023, she founded and became the Artistic Director of a community choir in Wisconsin called “Cheers, Madison!” LLC, which has grown to serve over 160 singers for each concert cycle in the greater Madison area. She is a current finalist for both the 2024 American Prize Dale Warland Award in Choral Conducting, and is a finalist for the 2024 American Prize Ernst Bacon Award. Olson is also engaged in research regarding the gender bias in choral higher education, and presented this research on a panel during the National American Choral Director's Association Conference in the spring of 2023. She has earned degrees from the University of South Carolina (BM Music Theory) and the University of Colorado Boulder (MM Choral Conducting). While in Boulder, she was the Music Director at Niwot United Methodist Church and the Director of the chorus at the University of Colorado Anschutz. She was a finalist in the Southwestern ACDA Graduate Conducting Competition in 2018. Upon graduation from the University of Colorado Boulder, Olson returned to South Carolina, teaching various levels of high school Chorus and International Baccalaureate Music in Hartsville, South Carolina.