Stephen P. Zork

1955 - 

Stephen Zork is Director of Choral Studies at Andrews University, a position he has held since 1991. In addition to his responsibilities with the university choirs, he teaches voice and conducting and maintains an active schedule doing choral clinics and festivals throughout the United States.

Zork's choirs, noted for their performance and interpretation of an eclectic and diverse repertoire, sing ethnic music, as well as traditional 20th Century choral works and music of the Western European heritage. He maintains a busy schedule with the university choirs, traveling throughout the United States and internationally with the select choir, the AU Singers.

The Singer's tour in 1996 to Iceland and Norway received enthusiastic reviews from audiences and press alike. And a tour to Zimbabwe in 2001, which included humanitarian outreach activities and an appearance on that country's national TV morning show, had enthusiastic capacity crowds at the 14 concerts they gave. The group has recorded a number of CD's. In addition to the AU campus choirs, he conducts the 100 voice Christian Arts Chorale, an auditioned chorus of musicians from South West Michigan and Northern Indiana.

Zork, a baritone, is an active performer in both recital and opera venues. He has sung in the Robert Shaw Choral Institute and, since coming to AU, has played the role of the Good Samaritan in Britten's Misericordium; Noah in Britten's Noye's Fludde; Phillip in Hines' I Am The Way, and the psychiatrist in Menotti's opera, The Singing Child.

An active composer and arranger, his most recent composition, Anniversary Overture, was commissioned by AU's WAUS-FM for its 25th Anniversary and performed by the South Western Michigan Symphony Orchestra and South Bend Symphony in January 1997. Previous works include Sonata for Oboe and a tone poem for orchestra, Matopos. In 1984, he wrote and arranged music for an album released by Chapel Records which featured his wife, Susan, an accomplished singer, accompanied by a string orchestra.

Zork was born in Cape Town, South Africa, the son of Warren Ralph and Shirley Ann Davis Zork, missionaries in that country, and spent his first 18 years in Zimbabwe and Zambia. While in Africa, he studied theory and piano at the Royal Academy of Music at Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, from 1963 to 1968. He completed a B.Mus. in theory and composition at Atlantic Union College in 1977, and an M.Mus. in choral conducting at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, in 1988.

He began his teaching career at Maplewood Academy in Minnesota in 1977. He would subsequently teach at Auburn Adventist Academy in Auburn, Washington, Shenandoah Valley Academy in New Market, Virginia, and at Walla Walla College, now university. An adept musician, Zork also plays piano and cello. He received a Faculty Excellence Award at AU in the 2000-2001 school year.

 

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