Artistic Director and Conductor
Paul Laprade

Paul Laprade has taken over the baton for OPCC as of July 2024.  He is an award-winning conductor, lecturer, and teacher of choral music and music theory/composition. He is a graduate of Eastman School of Music and Westminster Choir College with degrees in music education, music performance, conducting and music theory/composition. He studied choral conducting under Joseph Flummerfelt, James Jordan, Donald Neuen, and Robert Shaw. 

Among accolades received are teaching awards from Eastman School of Music and Rock Valley College, and First Place winner for International Musicological Research. Paul’s research interests focus on the intersection between analysis, hearing, interpretation, and performance. His articles and reviews have appeared in several music journals.

Ensembles under his direction performed throughout North America and have performed at the White House for Presidents Clinton (1994), G.W. Bush (2001), and Obama (2010). In addition to his activities as an oft-sought clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor, he composes frequently for choral and orchestral ensembles as well as for solo voice.

Paul is also director of music, New England Congregational Church in Aurora; artistic director, Tutti Voce Collective in Joliet; president, Illinois American Choral Directors’ Association; and teaches choral literature at Vandercook School of Music in Chicago and has taught at Concordia University Chicago in River Forest. Paul lives in Rockford and is an adoring father to his sons, Nathaniel and Jonathan.