Duane Cottrell

Biography

Duane Cottrell is Associate Professor of Choral Music at the University of Delaware. Ensembles under his direction have included the University Singers, the UD Jazz Singers, the Concert Choir, Schola Cantorum, and the UD Chorale. He also teaches conducting and choral methods courses and supervises student teachers. Prior to his appointment at UD, he was the Interim Director of Choral Activities at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, where he conducted the Chamber Choir, the University Choir and the Symphonic Chorus. Dr. Cottrell also served as Doctoral Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas, where he directed the 120-voice UNT Men's Chorus.

Under his direction, the UD University Singers has appeared at the 2013 NAfME Eastern Conference in Hartford, CT, ACDA Eastern Conferences in 2014 (Baltimore), and 2018 (Pittsburgh), and were recently invited to perform for a third time at ACDA Eastern in Providence in 2024. In 2018, the University Singers were invited to perform at a special event for then Vice President Joe Biden in Wilmington, DE.

Dr. Cottrell is also the Founder and Director of the Delaware Cambridge Choral Exchange, an international exchange program that fosters collaboration between choral singers from the University of Delaware and Cambridge University. He has personally led collaborations with Jesus College Chapel Choir and College Choir, and Selwyn College Chapel Choir.

Dr. Cottrell has appeared as a guest conductor at Jesus College, Cambridge University, as well as in Oregon, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. His conducting students have been accepted to some of the most prestigious Masters and Doctoral conducting programs in the U.S. and Canada, including Westminster Choir College, Temple University, Michigan State University, the University of Oregon, and McGill University. 

Dr. Cottrell completed D.M.A. and M.M. degrees at the University of North Texas, where he studied choral conducting with Jerry McCoy; voice science and pedagogy with Stephen Austin; and music education with Warren Henry. Dr. Cottrell received a B.M.E. from Louisiana State University where he studied under Kenneth Fulton. He has pursued further conducting study with Craig-Hella Johnson, Sandra Snow, and Jerry Blackstone.

Dr. Cottrell’s primary research interest is the science of the singing voice and its application to choral music, on which he has had articles published in the Choral Journal and The Choral Scholar, and has authored a chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Choral Pedagogy.  He has also presented lectures on voice science for choral conductors at the Texas Music Educators Association convention, the 4th International Conference on the Physiology and Acoustics of Singing, as well as national and regional conventions of the ACDA. He was the editor of the “On the Voice” column for ACDA’s Choral Journal from 2017-2022.