Karen Keating, Artistic Director, joined ACW in her current position in the fall of 2020 and was a Professor of Music at Shenandoah Conservatory for over 30 years. She served as Director of Shenandoah Chorus and Cantus Singers, and Music Director/Conductor for the innovative Opera Up Close series and was a teacher of conducting and musical theatre accompaniment.

Karen earned a Bachelor of Music degree from James Madison University and has diplomas in organ performance and choral conducting from the University of Salzburg “Mozarteum.” She has a Doctoral degree in performance from Shenandoah University and studied with Grammy award-winner Robert Shafer. While in Austria, Karen studied with several renowned conductors including Herbert von Karajan, Kurt Prestel, Walter Hagen-Groll and Nicholas Harnoncourt. She served as the director of the Robert Schollum Chor Hallein, and as the accompanist and assistant director of the Salzburger Liedertafel.

Throughout her career, Karen has worked with many distinguished artists: singers Julianne Baird, Werner Hollweg, Christopher Merritt and Barbara Bonney; organist Elisabeth Bigenzahn-Ullmann; conductors Vaclav Neumann, Hans Graf and Leopold Hager; and opera directors Lauren Flanigan, Edwin Cahill, Nic Muni, Michael Ehrman, and Neil Shicoff. Her choirs have performed for Alice Parker, Chanticleer, Anonymous 4 and at ACDA regional conventions. She travelled with her choir to Tokyo, Japan, to record Melillo’s piece with the Central Band of the Japan National Air Self Defense Force. Her two-piano arrangement of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms was performed by the choir of Trinity Wall Street under the baton of Julian Wachner and by Da Camera with Houston Chamber Choir under the direction of Robert Simpson. 

Karen has been a music director and conductor for Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre since 1995 and is also in demand as a clinician and adjudicator for choral festivals throughout Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Karen has acted as interim director of The Loudoun Chorale (fall 2015) and The Arts Chorale of Winchester (fall 2016).

Sue Marston Boyd, Accompanist, was a member of the keyboard faculty at Shenandoah University for 37 years and was awarded the title of professor emerita of piano at her retirement.  Performance experiences have included numerous concerts as accompanist and chamber musician.  Some of these concerts appearances have been at the Terrace Theatre of the John F. Kennedy Center; the German Embassy; and with the Shenandoah Conservatory Trio on a concert tour in Western Germany.  During the summer of 1991, Dr. Sue Boyd was on the faculty of the Southeastern Music Festival in Columbus, Georgia where she was pianist for the faculty chamber music concerts.

Awards she has received from Shenandoah University include the 1988 Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, in 1996 Distinguished Alumni Award for Service to the University, 1998 University’s Exemplary Teacher of the Year Award, and the Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.

Dr. Boyd holds the Doctor of Musical Arts from Catholic University of America, Master of Music from the University of Cincinnati, and the Bachelor of Music Education from Shenandoah Conservatory of Music.  She was the former pianist for Winchester Musica Viva and is currently pianist for the Arts Chorale of Winchester.

In her retirement, Dr. Boyd continues to actively perform chamber music recitals on the University campus and in the area.