Dr. R. Paul Crabb has served as the Director of Choral Activities for the University of Missouri School of Music since 2003, and in those twenty years, he has left an immeasurable mark on the program and students.  Under Dr. Crabb’s direction, MU’s University Singers have become a premier ensemble that has performed all over the US and beyond. The University Singers have been invited to perform at the Missouri Music Educators Association state conference multiple times, as well as at the national convention of the National Collegiate Choral Organization at Yale University, at the White House, and in Chicago and Kansas City, at the national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association. 

Dr. Crabb has led the University Singers in performance abroad multiple times, including some of the most prestigious venues in Milan, Bologna, Rome and Salerno, Italy in 2010. They also performed in Austria and Hungary in 2014, where they performed at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and with the Salzburg Cathedral choir, and in China in 2016, where they completed a performance tour at multiple universities.  Their most recent tour was in Sweden and Estonia in 2018. They had trips planned to Inner Mongolia and Cuba in 2020 and 2023, respectively, but these were both canceled.

Dr. Crabb has been recognized many times as an educator. While teaching at Truman State University, he received the prestigious Walker and Doris Allen Teaching Award. In 1998, he was named the Missouri Professor of the Year, and in 2012, he received the William T. Kemper Award for Teaching Excellence from the University of Missouri. He also has published research which has appeared in the MENC research journal, Update, and Choral Journal, and his choral music has been published by Alliance Publications, Inc. Outside of Mizzou, Dr. Crabb is also Artistic Director and conductor of the professional vocal chamber ensemble, Prometheus.

In the coming weeks, Dr. Crabb will be conducting his last concerts as the director of University Singers before his retirement. On Saturday, April 8th at 3 pm, the University Singers and alumni will perform a program called One Final Chorus, with a reception to follow. For a full schedule of events, see here.  On Thursday, April 20th, the final Choral Union concert under Dr. Crabb’s direction will take place at 7 pm.  Please join us in celebrating Dr. Crabb’s legacy and giving him a proper sendoff. 

HEAR THE UNIVERSITY SINGERS

You can listen to the University Singers in “Black Pierrot,” an album available on Spotify and Apple Music. 

In addition, you can watch several videos of the University Singers from their playlist on the School of Music YouTube channel.