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Currently in his fourth year as Conductor of University Singers, Area Coordinator of Graduate Choral Conducting, and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Dr. John Ratledge teaches graduate  conducting, literature, and pedagogy.

Professor Charles Snead, Director of the School of Music, states: “The University’s choral program surpasses anything realized in the past. Ratledge is an accomplished scholar and artist, a consummate professional in his approach to music making. His standards are high, his teaching techniques demanding, and the results he achieves are amazing. Dr. Ratledge continues to be active as a conductor and clinician on a national and international level, consistent with his reputation as one of the most well-established choral pedagogues in the discipline today. I look forward to the future with John on the podium.”

Ratledge made his European conducting debut in 1996 with the Filharmonia Sudecka of Walbryzychu, Poland, and since that time, he has conducted orchestras in France, Greece, Hungary, Romania, and Spain. Most recently, he made his Korean conducting debut in March 2008 when he conducted the Dangjin-gun Chorus, a professional choir in Dangjin, South Korea.  During his tenure at Shorter College of Rome, Georgia, the Shorter Chorale distinguished itself nationally and internationally by giving the premiere of the full orchestral version of the Duruflé Requiem in Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Greece, the organ version premiere of same in Bulgaria,  Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms premiere in Poland, and the St. Petersburg, Russia’s premiere of Handel’s Messiah. He has received invitations to conduct the Athens and Bulgarian State Orchestras.

Ratledge has conducted two solo choral concerts at Carnegie Hall and has sold-out Atlanta’s Spivey Hall nine times. University Singers made their Spivey Hall debut in 2006, and the ensemble gave its third Spivey Hall performance on 20 April 2008, Ratledge’s thirteenth performance at the prestigious venue.  Major works at The University include:  Brahms Requiem, Bach Johannespassion, Orff Carmina burana, and the Verdi Requiem. University Singers and Wind Ensemble premiered Enterprise, a commissioned work by Hollywood composer/orchestrator/arranger, Ira Hearshen, a work commissioned to honor the seven high school students who were killed in the tornado of 2007 in Enterprise, Alabama.  René Clausen, internationally known composer and conductor, has accepted a commission to compose a choral work for University Singers that will be premiered in April 2009.

Dr. Ratledge has conducted over 250 clinics throughout the United States, in addition to conducting All State and Region Choruses in Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. He will conduct the Delaware All-State in 2009. Ratledge has been a convention headliner at the Texas, Georgia, and Alabama Music Educators Association, as well as the Georgia and Tennessee American Choral Directors Association. Named to Who’s Who Among America’s Educators in 1996, 1998, and 2005-2006, Who’s Who in America in 2006-2008, Ratledge holds membership in the National Collegiate Choral Association, is a Life Member of American Choral Directors Association; Alabama Music Educators Association; Alabama Vocal Association; Texas Choral Directors Association; Music Educators National Conference; Pi Kappa Lambda, national music honor fraternity; Kappa Delta Pi, education honor society; Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, music fraternity; and has been named Outstanding Young Man of America in 1978, 1982, 1985, 1987-1990. Most recently, he was named Distinguished Alumnus at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee.

Ratledge’s compositions are published by Alliance Music, Southern Music, and Cambiata Press. Recent commissioned works include: I am the secret fire in all things, SSAA divisi and two soprano soli, a cappella; Blackberry Winter, SATB divisi, soprano solo which was premiered by the Midland Lee High School Chorale, Paula Edwards, Conductor, at the Texas Music Educators Association on February 13, 2004, and I Am (text by Rilke) SATB divisi, Mezzo-Soprano and Baritone solos, premiered on April 30, 2004 by the New Hampshire Master Chorale, Dr. Dan Perkins, Conductor. On 9 October 2006, The Lord’s Prayer was commissioned and premiered by the Concert Choir of Darlington Upper School (Rome, Georgia), Dan Bishop, Conductor.  Please visit Ratledge’s website at www.johnratledge.com