Margaret Winchell

Margaret Winchell is the Director of Choral Activities at SMU Meadows School of the Arts, where she conducts the Chamber Singers and Concordia. She also teaches graduate courses in choral conducting and literature.

Winchell is in the post-residential phase of the D.M.A. in Choral Conducting at the Yale School of Music, where she sang with several acclaimed choirs including Yale Camerata and Schola Cantorum. During her time at Yale, she mentored young conductors in the Yale Undergraduate Chamber Choir and served as the first student conductor of the Schola Cantorum, preparing the choir for performances under David Hill and Masaaki Suzuki. She received the Robert Shaw Prize for excellence in choral conducting and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music’s Faculty Prize.

Winchell’s background reflects her interdisciplinary interests. As a music director, vocal coach, and pianist, she has relished opportunities to work in the theater through Wheaton Shakespeare in the Park and several mainstage productions at Wheaton College Arena Theater. She spent several summers as a teaching artist at the Goodman Theatre, working alongside colleagues in dance, acting, and writing to develop transformative experiences for adolescent artists. Drawing on this work and her classroom teaching experience, Winchell has presented at state and regional conferences on topics related to rehearsal pedagogy, poetic texts and choral ensemble culture.