About the Director...
Joel Scraper is an Assistant Professor of Music and serves as the Director of Choral Activities at the University of South Carolina Aiken where he conducts the choral ensembles, teaches courses in music education and conducting, and supervises music education interns in the public schools. Dr. Scraper earned the D.M.A. from the University of Missouri - Kansas City, the M.M.E. from Wichita State University and the B.M.-Music Education from Friends University. He actively participates and holds memberships in professional choral and educational organizations and was selected to Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society.
Dr. Scraper has taught general, choral, and instrumental music in the public schools from kindergarten to high school. Choral ensembles under his direction have performed in concert halls and cathedrals in Europe and the United States. He has been a guest clinician and adjudicator for state and regional events and has worked extensively with groups of all ages. As a conductor and soloist, he is active in the performance of early music and choral chamber music, with a recent emphasis on the choral music of Josef Gabriel Rheinberger. Dr. Scraper is also an active church musician, having served as a music director and singer in churches in Kansas and Missouri. He currently serves at St. John United Methodist Church in Augusta, Georgia..