The Glacier Symphony and Chorale announces that Micah Hunter of Kalispell will lead the 80-voice Glacier Chorale for its 2014-15 concert season. Hunter is only the third conductor for the 32-year-old symphony organization and he replaces James Stanard, who retired at the end of May. Stanard had been conducting the choir since 2006 when he took the reins from founding chorale director Shauneen Garner. 

At age 30, Hunter is the chorale’s youngest conductor.

His position with GSC will be part-time as the Glacier Chorale performs only three major choral concerts each year; a full chorale concert in November, a rendition of “Messiah” with a small orchestra in December and a combined full orchestra and chorale concert in March. In prior years the chorale has performed a widely varied repertoire ranging from light operas, such as “Pirates of Penzance,” to the monumental choral works of “Beethoven Symphony No. 9” and last season’s “Sea Symphony.” The Glacier Chorale also has a small chamber choir that Hunter will direct.

He will continue his full-time job as the chorale director of Kalispell’s Stillwater Christian School, a post for which he was hired in August 2006, immediately upon his graduation from Montana State University.  

Hunter, who grew up in Hot Springs, studied at Montana State University.

“I wasn’t really good enough to be a violin major and by that time I wanted to sing so I enrolled in Lowell Hickman’s voice studio for all four years,” he said. “I really didn’t receive any formal music education until college.”

A bass/baritone, Hunter sang with the college’s elite choir, The Montanans, for four years and also helped with the University Chorus, did opera scenes and sang with the Inter-Mountain Opera Chorus. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music Education degree in 2006 with highest honors and was lauded with awards for outstanding service to the university, receiving an Alumni Award for Excellence.

Since college he has been busy pursuing graduate degrees. 

“My graduate school experience has been very convoluted because I haven’t been willing to quit teaching to do it,” Hunter said. “So I combined online courses, residential summer work and weekends to build my first master’s degree.” 

He attended Boston University, Pensacola Theological Seminary, and Canyon College, where he earned the Master of Arts degree in music education in 2007.  He obtained a Doctorate of Sacred Music from the Theological Foundation, in Indiana. Currently he is working on a second degree, a Master of Church Music in Choral Conducting, from Pensacola Theological Seminary.