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Anna Hamre, Professor Emerita and former Director of Choral Activities at Fresno State, serves as Artistic Director of Fresno Community Chorus, Inc. She has received numerous awards in choral conducting and music education.
Dr. Hamre took over the Fresno Community Chorus in 2002. Dedicated to its motto “Giving Voice to the Central Valley,” it sponsors five ensembles: Fresno Master Chorale, Coro Piccolo, Coro Solare, Quintus and Altissima. The ensembles comprise a diverse group of volunteer singers from Fresno and many surrounding communities. Membership includes physicians, lawyers, teachers, students, retirees, and homemakers, as well as professional musicians and music educators. In addition to its regular concert season, the Fresno Master Chorale under Artistic Director Anna Hamre tours regularly in Europe and Asia and has performed multiple times at Carnegie Hall.
Dr. Hamre is the author of The High School/University Sign-Singer (Masterworks Press), a music literacy method in use in every state plus the District of Columbia, Guam, British Columbia, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. The Weekly Sight-Singer: An Abbreviated and Accelerated Method was released in 2011.
Dr. Hamre has accumulated an extensive list of guest engagements as a conductor, adjudicator, clinician, and presenter, including two Carnegie Hall appearances conducting on the Mid America series. She has conducted her groups in Mexico, China, Italy, Austria, England, Greece, France, Poland, and Spain. She has presented various choral-conducting and music-education sessionsat the local, state, and national levels and is Past President of the American Choral Directors Association.
Dr. Hamre holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in vocal and instrumental music education from Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD, where she was inducted into their Performing and Visual Arts Hall of Fame in 2017. She also holds a Master’s degree in choral music from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral literature and performance from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
You can learn more about Anne’s work and connect with her through Facebook.