Prior to his appointment as Director of Choral Studies at Mount Holyoke, Colin Britt served as Choir Director at Rutgers Preparatory School and as Music Director at Grace Church Van Vorst, both in New Jersey. He is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the West Village Chorale in New York City, and the founding director of Terpsichore Ensemble, a professional chamber choir dedicated to performing music from historically underrepresented communities.
Previous teaching experience includes appointments at SUNY New Paltz and Rutgers University, where he directed multiple choirs and taught undergraduate conducting and pedagogy classes, and on the choral faculty at the Hartt School. He has conducted the Hartford Chorale Chamber Singers, Amuse Singers in New York City, and North River Sing in Jersey City. In 2023, he served as one of the principal conductors for the premiere of Jonathan Dove’s “The Search for Spring” at Lincoln Center.
Also active in musical theater, Britt has directed music for regional productions of Cabaret, Chicago, Company, Fiddler on the Roof, Pippin, Sweeney Todd, and The Last Five Years.
Colin Britt’s compositions have been performed by ensembles by ensembles across the country and on four continents, including choirs in Spain, Germany, China, Singapore, and Australia. In April 2019, the Rutgers University Voorhees Choir premiered his work “Imagination” at Carnegie Hall. He was the commissioned composer for the Maine Bicentennial, the 100th anniversary of the Hartt School, and the 2020 ACDA Eastern Division Honor Choir, and his composition won first prize in the 2021 Missoula Community Chorus competition, "The Way Through." With three other composers, he collaborated on an international interfaith oratorio titled “The Same Word” that was premiered in Hamburg in February 2023. His orchestral arrangements have been featured on The Today Show and America’s Got Talent.
Areas of Expertise
New choral music for treble voices, music from historically underrepresented communities, Baroque performance practice, 20th and 21st century choral music, the incorporation of popular music genres into the concert hall, and choral pedagogy.
Education
- D.M.A., Rutgers University
- M.M., Yale School of Music
- B.Mus., The Hartt School, University of Hartford