Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt is Professor Emerita of Choral Studies at the University of Toronto where she held the Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting. In 2013, she received the Inaugural Teaching Excellence Award from the Faculty of Music. While in Toronto, she was artistic director of Exultate Chamber Singers, a semi-professional ensemble, from 2013 – 2018.
A native Canadian who was raised in Nova Scotia, Hilary Apfelstadt has taught both in Canada and the U.S., working with public school, community, worship and university groups. She has conducted her university choirs in performances at national and regional conferences of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), and at Podium, the national professional conference of Choral Canada. She has guest conducted numerous honors choruses and festivals through the U.S. and Canada, including more than 35 all-state high school choirs. She directed the 2014 National Youth Choir of Canada, and has conducted choral festivals internationally, in the UK, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and Cuba. She has conducted the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in live broadcast, and appeared at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. She is a frequent adjudicator, clinician, and masterclass conductor.
A former national president of ACDA, she also served on the Editorial Board for the ACDA Choral Journal. She is a prolific author, having written numerous articles on choral pedagogy, leadership, and repertoire, as well as chapters in several books. She is co-editor of Teaching Music through Performance in Choir, v.5, published by GIA (2019), and a contributing author to Volume 4 of the same series. Her book on the life and work of Canadian composer Ruth Watson Henderson, I Didn’t Want It To be Boring (Toronto: Prism Publishers) won Choral Canada’s award for Outstanding Choral Publication in 2018.
