Musical Direction

DR. Matthew Abernathy

Director

Known for his refined musicianship, impassioned performances, and collaborative leadership, Matthew Abernathy is making his mark as one of America’s most promising young conductors. He is the Associate Director of Choirs at the University of Michigan where he leads the internationally acclaimed Michigan Men’s Glee Club and teaches in the School of Music, Theater, and Dance.

In 2024, Abernathy was named the Grand Prize winner of the MidAmerica International Choral Conducting Competition and will make his Carnegie Hall debut in June 2026. Additionally, he distinguished himself as a semifinalist and the only American admitted to the 2022 Fosco Corti International Competition for Choral Conductors in Turin, Italy, selected from over 60 international applicants.

Prior to his appointment at the University of Michigan, Abernathy served as Artistic Director of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay (Principal Chorus for The Florida Orchestra) where he led a 140-voice symphonic chorus that performed major choral-orchestral works. Under his direction, the chorus continued its legacy of supporting living composers, commissioning works by Jerod Tate, Nico Gutierrrez, Natalie Draper, Joan Szymko, and others. He further oversaw a comprehensive community engagement program reaching all ages throughout Tampa Bay.

Dr. Abernathy is a devoted pedagogue and champion for music education and art-making at all ages. He was the Director of Choral Studies at the University of Tampa where he conducted Chamber Singers, Camerata, and taught the undergraduate Aural Skills sequence. He has also held faculty positions at the University of St. Thomas and the University of Minnesota. His academic research focuses on aural skills and musicianship (particularly as it pertains to training conductors), and leadership for conductors; a topic on which he has presented at the ACDA Southern Conference. 

From 2016-2022, Abernathy was on staff at Minnesota Opera where he has served as Music Director of their youth opera program Project Opera, Children’s Chorus Director, and Guest Chorus Master. Prior engagements also include work as the Chorus Master for the Lakes Area Music Festival and regular work as an Assistant Conductor/Section Leader with the Minnesota Chorale, including for their recording of Mahler Symphony No. 8 (BIS Records) with Minnesota Orchestra.

Other notable conducting appearances include The Florida Orchestra, St. Pete Baroque, Wintergreen Music Festival, Bach Society of Minnesota, Dakota Valley Symphony Chorus, Oratorio Society of Minnesota, Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, The Summer Singers, Opera MODO, Arbor Opera Theater, 113 Composer Collective, and the Norfolk Chamber Choir. He has prepared choruses for conductors including Michael Francis, Chelsea Gallo, Steven Mercurio, Michael Christie, Christian Reif, Osmo Vänskä, Jonathan Brandani, Nicholas Kraemer, and many others.

Dr. Abernathy has furthered his studies at the Medomak Conductors Retreat, Chorus America Conducting Academy, and Norfolk Chamber Choir Workshop. He has been lucky to work with many amazing musicians who have greatly influenced him, and counts among his mentors Kathy Saltzman Romey, Jerry Blackstone, Duain Wolfe, Matthew Mehaffey, Eugene Rogers, Erin Freeman, and Kenneth Kiesler. He holds degrees from the University of Minnesota, University of Michigan, Crane School of Music (SUNY Potsdam), and Onondaga Community College.

KENNETH SIELOFF

Assistant Conductor

A conductor, educator, and tenor whose work spans the classroom, the concert hall, and the church, Kenneth Sieloff brings a singer's sensibility and a teacher's heart to every ensemble he leads. He is in the final year of the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting at the University of Michigan, where he studies with Eugene Rogers. He serves as Assistant Director of the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club, working alongside director Matthew Abernathy, and as Assistant Conductor of the UMS Choral Union, alongside Scott Hanoian. His time at Michigan has taken him across a wide cross-section of the choral program: he has conducted the Arts Chorale and the Michigan Youth Chamber Singers, served as assistant conductor of the Chamber Choir, University Choir, and Women's Glee Club and associate conductor of the Orpheus Singers, and taught undergraduate conducting.

For Sieloff, the Glee Club is a homecoming. He sang in the ensemble as an undergraduate while earning the Bachelor of Music Education degree at Michigan. It was there that he began his formal conducting studies, with Paul Rardin, Rodney Dorsey, Eugene Rogers, and Jerry Blackstone, and in 2011 he won first place in the American Choral Directors Association National Student Conducting Competition. He went on to earn the Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from the University of North Texas in 2024, studying with Allen Hightower, Marques L. A. Garrett, and Kristina MacMullen. At UNT he conducted the UNT Chorale and held conducting roles with the A Cappella Choir, Vox Aquilae, and University Singers.

Sieloff returned to graduate study after nearly a decade in the high school choral classroom in Texas, including seven years at Permian High School in Odessa. Under his leadership, the Permian choral program earned consistent state and regional distinction, along with national recognition from the Foundation for Music Education's Mark of Excellence and The American Prize in Choral Performance. The Texas Choral Directors Association named him a Young Director of Distinction in 2017. He conducted the Arkansas All-State Tenor-Bass Choir in 2023 and continues to work as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator.

Alongside his teaching, Sieloff served from 2015 to 2020 as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Allegro Chorale in Midland–Odessa. There he built a collegiate scholarship program that strengthened the ensemble while giving emerging musicians a place to grow, and he led the chorale in a broad range of choral and choral-orchestral repertoire. He has also guest conducted the University of Texas Permian Basin Symphony Orchestra, the Midland–Odessa Symphony Orchestra & Chorale, and Odessa College's production of Sweeney Todd, featuring Metropolitan Opera baritone Gary Simpson.

Sieloff remains active as a singer and has studied voice with Martha Sheil, Molly Fillmore, and Stanford Olsen. During the 2025–26 season, he appeared as tenor soloist in Verdi's Requiem with the University Symphony Orchestra and combined University of Michigan choirs.

Outside the university, Sieloff directs the Chancel Choir at First United Methodist Church of Ann Arbor, where he conducts weekly worship and special musical projects and is helping lead the congregation's musical life as it approaches its bicentennial year. Beyond music, he enjoys gardening, spending time outdoors, and gathering with friends and family. His greatest joy is life with his wife, Annie, and their daughters, Charlotte and Elizabeth, and they look forward to welcoming another little one into their family in February of 2027.