Dr. Hugh Ferguson Floyd

Professor of Music at Furman University, Coordinator of Choral Ensembles and Director of the renowned Furman Singers. Over its 50-plus year history, the Furman Singers has achieved a national and international reputation for choral excellence. Floyd is the first recipient of the Bingham L. Vick, Jr. and Judy S. Vick Professorship of Music. He has been a guest lecturer at the Eastman School of Music and Yale University. This season his concerts included programs in West Virginia, Florida, Washington, D.C. and Michigan. In the fall, he will guest conduct the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine, perform as a narrator-soloist with the Greenville Symphony, conduct at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and prepare the Furman Singers for a tour of England and Ireland.

In 2012 he made his conducting debut at Carnegie Hall in New York City, taught conducting and music history in Arezzo, Italy, toured Austria, and the Czech Republic with the Furman Singers, and was the guest speaker for the graduation convocation at the University of Delaware. Prior to his appointment at Furman, Dr. Floyd served as the Director of Choral Studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College. At Oberlin, Dr. Floyd conducted the Oberlin College Choir, the Oberlin College Singers, the Oberlin Musical Union, and, in rotation, the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra. The Oberlin College Choir performed regularly with the Cleveland Orchestra, sang for an American Choral Directors Association Convention and with the renowned Kronos Quartet. Dr. Floyd was also chorus master for the Oberlin Opera Theater. Dr. Floyd frequently serves as a guest conductor and clinician and has conducted All-State choirs in Maryland, New Jersey, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina, as well as regional honors choirs around the country. He has been a choral clinician for Festival Disney at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida since its inception in 2005. He served as Director of Choral Activities and voice instructor at the famed Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan and taught at the Interlochen Arts Academy. In 2010, he was named Artistic Director for the New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Choral Studies. At home with orchestral conducting, he was chorus master for the Akron Symphony, conducting Messiah, Christmas Pops, and Carmina Burana. He was conducting assistant with the Charlotte (North Carolina) Symphony and director of the Oratorio Singers of Charlotte, chorus master for the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Symphony, and chorus master and conductor in residence at the Brevard Music Center. He has prepared choirs for such eminent conductors as Robert Shaw, Margaret Hillis, Robert Page, Franz Welser Möst, and Robert Spano.