Caron Daley

Breakout Session Speaker - Online Event

Caron Daley is Director of Choral Activities at the Mary Pappert School of Music at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, where she conducts the Voices of Spirit and Pappert Chorale and teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting. Choirs under her direction have performed across the Northeast, including an invited performance at the 2019 National Collegiate Choral Organization Conference. A native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, she has held past conducting appointments with the University of Toronto, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, National Youth Choir of Canada, Salem Academy and College, and St. Michael's Choir School. 

Caron's research explores the application of embodied practices to choral and conductor pedagogy. She is published in Anacrusis, Canadian Music Educator, Research Memorandum Series of Chorus America, Teaching Music through Performance in Choir Vol. 4 and Vol. 5, Choral Journal, Journal of Singing, and The Choral Scholar. Her current research studies investigate (1) the impact of hand gestures on the learning and retention of non-native phonemes for singing and (2) injury prevention strategies and curricular implications in conducting. 

Caron holds a D.M.A. (Choral Conducting) from the University of Toronto, an M.M. (Choral Conducting) and M.A. (Vocal Pedagogy) from The Ohio State University, an Artist Diploma (Voice) and B.M. (Music Education) from Western University, and an A.R.C.T (Voice) from the Royal Conservatory of Canada. She currently serves as National Chair for Collegiate Repertoire and Resources for the American Choral Directors Association and Past-President of the American Choral Directors Association of Pennsylvania. 

Passionate about conductor education, Caron founded the Halifax Choral Conducting Institute in 2013, a summer training program that attracted participants and clinicians internationally. In 2019, the HCCI inaugurated a Women's Conducting Intensive, the first of its kind in Canada. In 2021, Caron leads a new conducting program at Duquesne, Choral Kaleidoscope, in collaboration with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh.