Professor of Choral Music and conducting, Concert Choir
On Faculty since 1981
Office: Pierce 202
Phone: (630)752-5841
Email: Paul.Wiens@Wheaton.edu
Education
DMA, University of Iowa
About Paul Wiens
Paul Wiens directs the Concert Choir and teaches conducting in the Conservatory of Music. His most important musical influences have been his Mennonite heritage of a cappella singing: Walter Jost, conductor of the Bethel College (KS) Choir: Robert Shaw, conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Chamber Choir: Don Moses, graduate mentor at the University of Iowa: Robert Fountain, distinguished professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He has served as Chorus Master for five Wheaton College Artist Series performances conducted by maestro John Nelson (Mendelssohn Elijah, Britten War Requiem, Handel Messiah, Berlioz Requiem and Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem). He conducted the West Suburban Choral Union from 1984-2006.
As the director of the Concert Choir, Wiens has established the choir’s national reputation through numerous concert appearances at divisional and national conventions of the American Choral Director’s Association including the national conventions in 1989 and 2007.
Wiens is compelled to serve his students with compassion, urgency and far-sightedness. Under his direction, the choir learns new music and perfects intonation with solfeggio (rather than with piano support) and thus the members are encouraged to develop high levels of notational reading. His wide-ranging choice of repertoire for the Concert Choir features premiers of new works and performances of established masterworks, many of which demand a high degree of musical discipline and develop mature musical thinking. He is dedicated to the development of conducting pedagogy and has published Expressive Conducting, software and books, which are used at Wheaton and internationally to train conductors.