Scott Hochstetler
Professor of Music
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Faculty
Professor of Music
Dr. Hochstetler is a diverse conductor, having successfully led church, school, college, and community ensembles, and worked with singers from novice to professional. Under his direction, the Goshen College Men’s Chorus performed to acclaim at the ACDA regional convention in March 2012. Hochstetler is an active guest clinician, and has led groups on tours throughout the USA and Canada. He served as guest conductor for the 2024 and 2016 Mennonite Schools Council choral festivals and the 2020 District 2A Circle the State with Song middle school choir. He also guest-conducted the 2014 Southwestern Michigan College Choral Boot Camp and the MSVMA Men’s Choral Invitational in Berrien Springs, MI, and he has helped prepare local high school singers for the Indiana All-State Choir since 2009. Hochstetler is the founder and music director for the annual Goshen College Low Voice Festival. He has also prepared choruses for performances with the symphony orchestras of Elkhart, Ft. Wayne, Toledo, Lansing and Detroit, including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Elkhart County Symphony in 2023 and the Verdi Requiem with the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic in 2015. In 2023, Hochstetler guest-conducted the Elkhart County Symphony and Camerata Singers in Vivaldi’s Magnificat.
In May 2015, Hochstetler appeared with the Goshen College Chamber Choir on NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion. In 2015-16, Hochstetler and the Chamber Choir appeared in concert with Bobby McFerrin and famed Norwegian baritone Njål Sparbo. In 2010, Hochstetler was chosen as the second director in the 40-year history of Camerata Singers, the premier chamber choir in Northern Indiana. In 2023, Camerata Singers recorded “The Gift to Sing” on works by composer Lee Dengler, and they performed a concert of Dengler’s works, collaborating with three area high schools. In commemoration of Camerata’s 40th anniversary in 2014, Hochstetler led the Goshen College Chamber Choir and Camerata in a performance of Tallis’s 40-part Spem in Alium. In the 2016-17 season, Hochstetler conducted Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil with the GC Chamber Choir and Camerata with Grammy-winning basso profundo, Glenn Miller, and in 2016, he conducted the GC Orchestra and combined choirs in the US collegiate premiere of Larry Nickel’s Requiem for Peace. Hochstetler conducted the world premiere of Bruce Trinkley’s Mennonite Songs with poetry by Julia Kasdorf in fall 2017.
In the areas of opera and musical theater, Hochstetler has served as music director and/or conductor for numerous productions including Into the Woods, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Orfeo ed Euridice, The Pirates of Penzance, Godspell 2012, Le Nozze di Figaro, Dido and Aeneas, Old Maid and the Thief, Urinetown, Utopia Limited, Trial by Jury and The Music Man. Hochstetler served as music director of the Goshen College Musical Theatre Camp from 2015-2018, and 2021-22.
As a baritone, Dr. Hochstetler has performed opera and oratorio roles and given recitals in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Oregon. In 2023, he sang the baritone solo in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Elkhart County Symphony under the baton of Soo Han. He also performed as baritone soloist in Fauré’s Requiem with the Toledo Symphony and Goshen College choirs under the baton of Vance George in 2012. Hochstetler has also performed as soloist with the Elkhart and Lansing Symphonies, Michigan State University Chorale and the Goshen College Chamber Choir and has sung in choirs under major conductors including Vance George, Helmut Rilling, Nicholas Kramer, Robert King, Gustav Meier, Dennis Keene and Moses Hogan. In fall 2016, he performed as Melchior in Amahl and the Night Visitors and presented a recital of Dichterliebe and The Songs of Travel in spring 2017. In fall 2023, he presented La Bonne Chanson by Fauré. A passionate vocal pedagogue, Hochstetler’s voice students have consistently placed highly in vocal competitions, including winners of the 2019, 2016 and 2013 Indiana NATS competition and runners-up of the 2019, 2017 and 2014 competitions. Hochstetler’s former voice students have earned advanced degree in voice from schools such as Bowling Green State University, Ball State University and Yale University. Two of his former students, Josh Liechty and Caleb Liechty, together with their sister Bekah, won NBC’s The Voice in December 2021 as the folk trio Girl Named Tom.
As a scholar, Hochstetler’s interests are choral diction and peace-themed choral masterworks. The Choral Journal has published his work on Vaughan Williams and federalism, and he is also the co-author of Translations and Annotations of Choral Repertoire, Volume II: German Texts, IPA pronunciation guide, published by earthsongs, with a second book on French and Italian diction in process.
In addition to teaching in the music department, Hochstetler led three consecutive Study Service Terms in Peru during the 2018-19 school year. Together with his wife Rachel Hostetler and local coordinators, he helped administer a program serving 49 students. Along with studying culture and language and living with families in Lima for the first six weeks, the students performed voluntary service in the provinces for the final six weeks. Hochstetler helped place two students for the first time in service locations with Sinfonia por El Perú, a social change music program started by Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez in 2009 and modeled after Venezuela’s El Sistema.
Hochstetler holds a DMA in choral conducting from Michigan State University, a double MM in conducting and voice from the University of Michigan, an MAT in education from Western Oregon University, and a BA in music and biology from Goshen College. He has studied conducting with David Rayl, Sandra Snow, Jonathan Reed, Jerry Blackstone, Theodore Morrison and Kenneth Kiesler, and he has studied voice with Leslie Guinn, Stephen Lusmann, Doyle Preheim, Richard Fracker, and Anthony Frisell.
Dr. Hochstetler lives in Goshen, Indiana with his wife Rachel and two children, Leah and Aaron. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking Thai food and riding his bike on the Pumpkinvine Trail.
Education
Festivals/Workshops:
Masterclasses:
Active Memberships:
PERFORMANCE
Vocal (Baritone)
Opera Roles:
Partial Roles:
Oratorio and Concert Soloist Performances:
Conductor:
Choral/Opera/Musical Theatre (Major Works)
Selected Publications
“Dona Nobis Pacem: Vaughan Williams’s Federalist Manifesto.” The Choral Journal. 49.12 (2009), 42-52.
IPA Pronunciation Guide for Translations & Annotations of Choral Repertoire, Volume II: German Texts, with Brent Wells. Ed. by Gordon Paine. earthsongs, 2011. Pg. 124.
Forthcoming:
IPA Pronunciation Guide for Translations & Annotations of Choral Repertoire, Volume III: French and Italian Texts, with Brent Wells. Ed. by Gordon Paine. earthsongs.
2017 Mininger Grant for CCM (non-classical) Vocal Pedagogy Institute
2016 Mininger Grant for trip to National ACDA (Minneapolis)
2013 Mininger Grant for voice study in NYC, Goshen College
2012 Conductor of Goshen College Men’s Chorus, ACDA Central Div Conf
2016, 2013, 2011, 2008 Teacher of Vocal Competition Winner, Indiana NATS
2010, 2011 Mininger Grants for work towards two books, Goshen College
2007 Masterclass Conductor with Helmut Rilling, Toronto Bach Festival
2007 Dissertation Completion Award, Michigan State University
2002-04 Who’s Who Among American High School Teachers (3X)
2001 Emerging Conductor Scholarship, René Clausen Choral School
2000 Participating Conductor, Dennis Keene Choral Festival