Marion van der Loo, Music Director

Marion van der Loo’s work as a choral/orchestral conductor is well known to audiences on the east coast and in the midwest. Her choral experience developed over some 25 years as a professional soloist and choral musician with consistently favorably reviews. For the past 20, Ms. van der Loo has conducted choruses and orchestras in professional settings at home and abroad. For 10 years as Director of Music of the historic First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Illinois, and for 12 years as Director of the Illinois Symphony Chorus. On any number of occasions during her tenure with the ISC, Ms van der Loo conducted both the Illinois Symphony and Illinois Chamber Orchestra and Chorus. She has led the Chorus on concert tours through Great Britain and Europe, always to enthusiastic audiences. In June 2008, she conducted the Choral Society in concerts in Madrid, Barcelona, Toledo and Mojorca.

Her knowledge of the choral repertoire, of the voice, and of language has created her reputation for her ability to encourage musicians to bring out the nuance of music and of text. Ms. van der Loo earned the B.Mus. degree in Opera Performance, magna cum laude, and the M. Mus. degree in Choral/Orchestral Conducting, with honors, from the Esther Boyer Conservatory at Philadelphia’s Temple University. She completed her doctoral residency in Choral Conducting at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Now in her third season as Music Director of the Choral Society, Ms van der Loo is also the founding Artistic Director and Conductor of Prairieland Voices, an a cappella Renaissance chamber chorus. In addition to her conducting responsibilities, she is also an Associate Professor of Voice on the adjunct faculty at Millikin University in Decatur, IL.