Joel Schut
Music Director
Grand Rapids Youth Symphony
Email: conductor@grys.org
Joel Schut is Music Director of the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony and Director of Orchestras at Grand Valley State University where he teaches courses in conducting, orchestral performance, and music education. He previously served on faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder, the Crane School of Music SUNY-Potsdam, and in the Michigan public schools. He is an active clinician for all-state, regional, and honor orchestras, and a passionate advocate for school music programs throughout the country.
As a conductor, he has appeared with the Crane Symphony Orchestra, GVSU Symphony Orchestra, Michigan State Opera Theatre, Michigan State Symphony Orchestra, and the University of Colorado Boulder Symphony, Philharmonia, and Chamber Orchestras. He served as Music Director of the Livingston Symphony Orchestra, founding director of the Detroit Medical Orchestra, conductor of the Denver Young Artists Conservatory Orchestra, conductor of the St. Cecilia Music Center Philharmonic Orchestra, and organizer of the Michigan Teachers Orchestra. He has collaborated with a range of professional artists including Andrés Cárdenas and Ralph Votapek and commissioned works for string and full orchestra.
Passionate about inspiring the next generation of performers and teachers, he has conducted and performed with students in the US, China, Germany, Honduras, Tunisia, Mexico, Myanmar, and Afghanistan. A graduate of the YOA Orchestra of the Americas Global Leaders Program, he served as a program mentor connecting innovators in youth orchestra education throughout the Americas. He has presented at the Midwest Clinic, American String Teachers Association National Conference, the Modern Conducting Academy, and at state conferences including Texas TMEA, Colorado CMEA, and Michigan MMC. He is past editor of the American String Teacher Journal and his publications have been featured in Teaching Music Through Performance in Orchestra (GIA), Teaching Instrumental Music (Oxford), Southwestern Musician Magazine, and the American String Teacher Journal. He received his Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from Michigan State University, Masters in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Colorado-Boulder and Bachelors in Violin Performance and Music Education from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance where he was awarded the Albert A. Stanley Medal, the school’s highest honor.
Kristen Shoup
Conductor
Classical Orchestra
Email: assistantconductor@grys.org
Kristen Shoup joined the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony organization in 2001, sharing Classical Orchestra conducting duties with Conductor John Varineau. She also conducts for the West Michigan Homeschool Fine Arts Association and has previously been an orchestra director for Grand Rapids Christian Schools and Calvin Christian Schools.
Shoup earned a B.A. in music education from Western Michigan University and a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music. She has been a member of the viola section of the Grand Rapids Symphony since 1992.
Jaclyn Swartz
Manager
Email: manager@grys.org