Strong Female Conductors/Educators

Lynda Hasseler

D.M.A., Professor of Music, Director of Choral Activities

Capital University

Lynda R. Hasseler, D.M.A., assumed the directorship of the renowned Capital University Chapel Choir in July, 1990, making her the first woman to head a choral program at a Lutheran college or university. As Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities in the Conservatory of Music, Dr. Hasseler has nurtured Capital University’s rich choral legacy. The choirs under her direction have received numerous invitations to perform for multiple music regional and national conferences and festivals, have been awarded gold medals in world choral competitions and have toured nationally and internationally. Passionate about dynamic programming, she creates narrative, theme-based concerts that “tell a story.” She is co-editor of the Capital University Choral Series published by Beckenhorst Press. Dr. Hasseler made her Carnegie Hall conducting debut in performances of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and ─Æriks Ešenvalds’ Trinity Te Deum. 

As a clinician, presenter and guest conductor, she performs regionally, nationally and internationally. She, along with the Chapel Choir and Choral Union, and composer Jake Runestad, was awarded the 2017-18 American Prize, Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music. She had the honor of conducting the Chapel Choir in the premiere performance of the Brock Commission A Silence Haunts Me by Jake Runestad at the 2019 ACDA National Conference in Kansas City. She recently shared the podium with guest conductor and composer Eric Whitacre on Mees Hall stage in a 2019 Gala celebration of 100 Years of Music at Capital University. In June, 2019, she conducted the Chapel Choir in festival concerts in the Netherlands and Belgium. In March, 2020, she returned to Carnegie Hall stage to conduct the Chapel Choir in performance of A Silence Haunts Me and  she conducted a 280-voice festival chorus with orchestra performing Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Catherine Rand

D.M.A., Director of Bands, Associate Professor of Music

University of Southern Mississippi

Catherine Rand is the Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music at The University of Southern Mississippi where she conducts the Wind Ensemble, Chamber Winds, and teaches wind literature and graduate conducting.  



A native Floridian, Rand received her Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Tampa,  Master of Music degree in conducting from the University of South Florida, and Doctor of Musical Arts in wind conducting from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. Prior to her collegiate teaching career, Dr. Rand taught band and orchestra for 14 years in the Florida public school system.

Active in scholarly and creative endeavors, Dr. Rand has presented numerous workshops to music educators on festival preparation, FCAT Testing and rehearsal techniques.  She recently presented her research “Balancing Artistry and Education” in Austria, and conducted the Minnesota All-State Band, and the Florida All-State Honor Band. Dr. Rand has been a member of the Creative Music Project, held for the past two years in the Cayman Islands, promoting student-based musical creativity by providing improvisation and composition activities accompanied by technology-based, multi-disciplinary methodology.  She and the FIU Marching Band were invited to the Bahamas to perform in their independence celebration.  She is published in volume 5 of “A Composer’s Insight: Thoughts, Analysis and Commentary on Contemporary Masterpieces for Wind Band.”

Dr. Rand maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and guest lecturer throughout the United States and abroad.  Her professional affiliations include the College Band Director’s National Association, College Music Society, Women Band Director’s Association and the Music Educators National Conference.

Bridget Sweet

PhD, Associate Professor of Music Education

University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign

Bridget Sweet is Associate Professor of Music Education at University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. After completing her Bachelors Degree in Music Education at Western Michigan University, Dr. Sweet enjoyed a successful tenure as a middle school choir teacher for nearly ten years. Her interests in adolescent music education intensified during her Masters and Doctoral programs in Music Education at Michigan State University, which contributed to her research focused on characteristics of effective and exemplary music teachers. Prior to her work at the University of Illinois, Dr. Sweet was Assistant Professor of Music at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA, where she taught music education courses and coordinated the music student teaching program. At the University of Illinois, Dr. Sweet teaches music education pedagogy, including choral methods and literature, middle-level general music methods, graduate courses in music education, as well as a course focused on the development of healthy practices for all musicians.

Dr. Sweet has worked extensively with adolescent singers as a teacher, clinician, and conductor. She wrote the books "Growing Musicians: Teaching Music in Middle School and Beyond" (2016, Oxford University Press) and "Thinking Outside the Voice Box: Adolescent Voice Change in Music Education" (2019, Oxford University Press). Her research interests include choral music education, female and male adolescent voice change, empowering adolescent music students and their teachers, and intersections of diversity and the music classroom. Dr. Sweet's research has appeared in publications of Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Choral Journal, International Journal of Music Education: Research, Journal of Research in Music Education, and Update: Applications of Research in Music Education. She was invited to author the chapter “Qualitative Choral Music Research” in The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research in American Music Education (2014).