Ryan A. Keeling

Dr. Ryan Keeling is active as a teacher, singer, and conductor in the Pittsburgh area.  Ryan is the Director of Choral Activities at Westminster College where he conducts the Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, and Treble Choir and teaches classes in diction and choral conducting and is the Artistic Director of the Pittsburgh Girls Choir, where he conducts Concentio and Chamber Choir while overseeing the comprehensive, five choir choral training organization.  Ryan also serves as the Artistic Director of Voces Solis, a premier chamber choir. Under Ryan’s leadership, Voces Solis has been selected by blind jury to perform at region and state ACDA conferences. Recent conducting performances include Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered with the Voces Solis and Kassia Ensemble, John Corigliano’s Fern Hill with Voces Solis and the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, the east coast premiere of ODC|Dance’s production of Path of Miracles by Joby Talbot, choreographed by KT Nelson with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh Professional Core, Andrea Bocelli International Tour with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd with Hilltop Opera, Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass, and Howard Goodall’s “Eternal Light” with Voces Solis. Ryan currently serves as Artist in Residence at Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park. Ryan is in demand as conductor of honor choirs having conducted elementary, middle, and high school honor choirs in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. As Chorus Master, Ryan has prepared choirs for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and artists Andrea Bocelli, Mandy Gonzalez, and The Chieftains. 

Ryan was previously Director of Choral Activities at West Liberty University, the Assistant Director of Music and Worship Life and Director of Choirs at Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park where he conducted five choirs, Director of Choral Music at Mt. Lebanon United Methodist Church, Assistant and Associate Conductor, and interim Music Director of The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, and the Director of the Pappert Men’s Chorale at Duquesne University. As Music Director and Principal Conductor of OvreArts, Dr. Keeling conducted the OvreArts Sinfonia and was the founding conductor of the OvreArts Chamber Singers. 

Ryan has been heard as tenor soloist in performances with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale, and at the National Pastoral Musicians National Conference.  In 2012 he made his New York City debut performing Bach’s cantata BWV 4 Christ Lag in Todesbandenand Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.  As a professional choral singer, Ryan is an original member of the professional Archipelago Ensemble and was a member of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh Professional Core.

Ryan holds the D.M.A. degree in Conducting from West Virginia University where he studied with Dr. Kym Scott and Dr. Jeffery Redding, the M.M. degree in Choral Conducting from East Carolina University, where he studied with Dr. Daniel Bara, and the B.A. degree in Music Education from West Liberty State College, where he studied conducting with Dr. Alfred de Jaager and voice with Dr. Linda Cowan.  He has worked with such preeminent conductors as Dale Warland, Simon Carrington, Manfred Honeck, and Osmo Vänskä.