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T. Andrew Trautman recently joined the Holmes Community College family as director of choral and vocal music on the Goodman Campus. He has reached ABD status in the pursuit of the Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting at the University of Southern Mississippi. As a graduate assistant at USM, he held a variety of teaching positions, including teacher of beginner and advanced aural skills, chorus master for the Southern Opera and Musical Theatre Company and instructor for a 200-student music appreciation class. He assisted most of the choirs at USM and led several of them in public performances.
Trautman holds two degrees from Coastal Carolina University, a Bachelor of Arts in Music with concentrations in voice and percussion, and a Master of Arts in Teaching with a concentration in music. While he was pursuing his master’s degree, Trautman was selected as the sole graduate assistant for the Department of Music at Coastal Carolina University.
He has studied conducting under Gregory Fuller, Jonathan Kilgore, Timothy Koch, Frances T. Sinclair, James Tully, Richard Johnson, David Rayl and Daniel Bara. Trautman is also in demand as a performer, having worked as a tenor soloist, chorus member and percussionist. In addition, he has held positions in church music programs since 2007, including six years as the director of a church choir comprised entirely of paid musicians.
Before his collegiate postings, Trautman was a department head and taught choir, band and general music at Waccamaw Middle School in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. At the same time, he held the position of associate conductor for the Carolina Master Chorale, a symphonic chorus, under the direction of Dr. Tim Koch. Additionally, he is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, National Association for Music Education, National Collegiate Choral Organization, College Music Society, Conductors Guild, Royal School of Church Music (America), Percussive Arts Society and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.
Not long after Trautman came to Holmes, he took the Concert Chorale to the 2022 State Community College Choral Festival. The event is split into two parts; a clinic and exhibition. The clinic experience is where all of the gathered choirs get together to sing the same music under the same conductor. The conductors are chosen in a rotation from the various four-year schools of music in Mississippi. As for the exhibitions, they are interspersed throughout the two days of rehearsal. There are several breaks during which each participating community college choir gets to perform for an audience of their peers throughout the state.
“While it isn’t a competition, the Concert Chorale represented themselves and Holmes Community College very well,” Trautman said. “I got several compliments from other choir directors around the state. Upon our return to Goodman, many students mentioned that singing with so many people from so many places was a highlight.”
To learn more about the Holmes Concert Chorale and other opportunities for choral/vocal majors, contact Trautman at dtrautman@holmescc.edu.
