Grant Farmer has served as conductor and chorus master for a variety of scholastic and semi-professional choral ensembles across the country. As the Director of Choral Activities at The College of Idaho, Grant conducts both the Chamber Singers and Chorale as well as teaches courses in conducting, applied voice, music education, and choral pedagogy. His passion as an educator lies in guiding and inspiring our future music educators through meaningful classroom experiences with sound pedagogy.
Grant’s ensembles are repeatedly recognized for their brilliant sound and inspiring performances. His previous ensembles have been selected to perform at multiple state and regional conferences in the Southeast. Here in Idaho and Utah, Grant has served as both a clinician and adjudicator for high school and middle school choral ensembles.
Preparing choral ensembles for major works is one of Grant’s great passions. In the past, he has prepared works such as Britten’s War Requiem, Brahms’ Schicksalslied, Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion, Bernstein’s Mass, and Handel’s Messiah. Beyond the traditional Canon, Grant has also collaborated in preparing exciting new works like Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields and numerous debuts of smaller octavos by various young composers. In 2021, Grant was appointed the Interim Music Director of the Boise Philharmonic Master Chorale. With this ensemble, he is preparing major works such as Messiah, Boulanger’s Psalm 130, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.He continues to grow the program with an inviting professional atmosphere. Looking forward, he intends to continue building on the great tradition of the organization while also finding new ways to connect with the growing audience of Treasure Valley, Idaho.
Grant has performed under the baton of several major conductors such as Simon Rattle, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jane Glover, Alan Gilbert, Charles Dutoit, and Franz Welser-Möst. He studied conducting with Joe Miller, Amanda Quist, Betsy Burleigh, Dominick DiOrio, and Walter Huff. Grant is a doctoral candidate at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and holds a master’s degree in choral conducting from the Westminster Choir College.