Dr. Eric Posada

Dr. Eric Posada is a vibrant and diverse conductor, choral educator and mentor with 17 years of experience at the elementary, middle, high school, collegiate, university, community, church and professional levels. He was recently appointed director of choral activities at Angelo State University. Previously, Posada served as visiting professor of choral music at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, director of choral music at Tyler Junior Colleg and associate director of choral activities at Texas A&M University. A native of McAllen, Texas, Posada founded the Rio Grande Valley’s first professional chorus, Pasión, and serves as the ensemble’s artistic director.

In 2020-2021, Posada presented interest sessions for the Louisiana Choral Directors Association, the state Music Educators Associations of Oregon, Alabama, Utah, Ohio, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Maine, and the College Music Society. This year, Posada has professional engagements scheduled with the National Collegiate Choral Organization, Southwestern American Choral Directors Association, Pennsylvania Choral Directors Association and the state Music Educators Associations of New Hampshire, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Mexico, Florida, Texas and Indiana. In addition to his work in academia, Posada has served 15 years as a director of music in liturgical settings, the highlight of which was a performance at Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral. Additionally, Posada has held conducting posts with community choruses such as the East Texas Symphony Chorus, Brazos Valley Chorale and Lubbock Chorale. A champion of philanthropic work, Posada’s non-profit organization, Pasión, provides the highest artistic product and administers to counties in southern Texas. The professional chorus recently won third place in the American Prize for two categories, Choral Performance and the Performance of American Music, and was selected as Performing Choir for the 2021 Texas Choral Directors Association Summer Conference.

Throughout his career, Posada has had the distinct honor and privilege of collaborating with esteemed colleagues and ensembles across the world. Forthcoming for Posada are two major international projects with Vox Anima London: The Music of Mari Esabel Valverde in June 2024 and Come and Sing Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace during October 2022. Recently, Posada and Pasión worked directly with composers Dominick DiOrio, Dan Forrest, Kyle Pederson and Mari Esabel Valverde to offer the program “Light Shines in the Darkness” to the Texas Choral Directors Association. In 2017, the ensemble performed the concert world premiere of and recorded composer Michael John Trotta’s Light Shines in the Darkness. The album was released on iTunes in 2018 and reached No. 11 on the classical music charts. At Angelo State, Posada has fostered the engagement of guest artists and scholars to enrich the learning of his developing musicians through composer roundtables with Kyle Pederson and James Knox and presented the world premiere of Knox’s Personent Hodie. While at UNCC, the choral department hosted sessions with composers Stacey V. Gibbs, Tim Sarsany and Craig Courtney. In 2019, Posada’s students from Tyler Junior College had the opportunity to perform under the direction of two-time GRAMMY award winner Craig Hella Johnson. During his tenure at Texas A&M University, Posada’s choruses performed at Carnegie Hall and toured across Germany and Canada. Noteworthy partnerships during this time included projects with the internationally acclaimed Nordic Choir and composers Ola Gjeilo and Shawn Kirchner, as well as the world premiere of Michael John Trotta’s Tu Sola Remedio.

Postdoctoral work for Posada has included studies with GRAMMY award winners Jerry Blackstone and Dan Bara. Moreover, in 2017 Chorus America honored Posada with a conducting fellowship to attend their summer conducting academy at California State University, Fullerton. Posada earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral conducting from Texas Tech University and served as a graduate assistant under the tutelage of Richard Bjella. Prior to his doctoral studies, Posada was a graduate assistant of Allen Hightower and completed his Master of Music degree in choral conducting at Sam Houston State University. In 2003, Posada received his Bachelor of Music degree with a concentration in teacher preparation, also from Texas Tech, at which his conducting teachers were John Dickson, Pamela Elrod and Gary Lewis.