William Plummer
William Plummer is Associate Professor and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he conducts the UL Lafayette Chamber Singers, the Ragin' Cajun Soprano/Alto Choir, and the UL Lafayette Tenor/Bass Chorale. He also teaches advanced choral conducting, choral literature, and graduate level courses for the choral conducting degree.
Dr. Plummer received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Piano from Berea College, the Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Louisville, and the Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from Louisiana State University. His primary conducting teachers include Dr. Kenneth Fulton, Dr. Kent Hatteberg, and Dr. Stephen Bolster. Additional study was taken with Péter Erdei at the Kodály Institute in Kecskemét, Hungary.
Prior to coming to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Dr. Plummer was a graduate teaching assistant at Louisiana State University. He was also an instructor at the University of Louisville and Bellarmine University, where he taught courses ranging from studio lessons in piano and music history for majors to music appreciation and music theory. Dr. Plummer has also taught 20th-century music history and choral conducting in Salzburg, Austria.
While at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Dr. Plummer's commissions and world premieres have included new works by internationally acclaimed composers from Sweden (Fredrik Sixten), Portugal (Carlos Garcia), Iceland (Snorri Sigfús Birgisson), England (Colin Old), and the U.S. (Richard Burchard). The top vocal ensemble at the University, the UL Lafayette Chamber Singers, have risen to international prominence, winning the International Choral Festival Wales and attaining the Gold Award in 2021, and the "Youth and University Choirs" and "Sacred Music" categories in the Michelangelo International Music Festival and the Grand Prix prize as the best choir across all categories in 2022. The Chamber Singers were semifinalists in the 2022 Petrichor International Music Competition, competing against professional orchestras, bands, jazz ensembles, and other choirs from 51 countries. The Chamber Singers were national finalists for the American Prize in Virtual Performance in 2023, for a concert filmed during the pandemic. Winning Recordings by the UL Lafayette Chamber Singers have received air play in the United Kingdom on Outreach Radio, and the ensemble was invited to perform for the Belgian parliament in Namur in 2022. Previously, UL Lafayette was selected as the site to host the International Alliance of Women in Music's Composer's Concert in 2016, and the Chamber Singers premiered new prizewinning choral works by women. The Chamber Singers have also received frequent invitations to perform at the Louisiana conference of the American Choral Director's Association. Dr. Plummer was a national finalist for the Dale Warland Award in Choral Conducting in 2023. He is active as an adjudicator and honor choir clinician throughout the region.
Email: choir@louisiana.edu