Dr. von Rueden has experience in artistic and arts administrative roles.

 

As Director of the Choral Program at Hampden-Sydney College (HS-C), Dr. von Rueden has grown a successful and well-respected chorus, organizing tours, providing collaborative opportunities, and working with singers of all levels to promote inclusive group singing. Recent projects for the Chorus have included tours to Boston, New Orleans, New York, and Puerto Rico, a collaboration with the Richmond Symphony, and collaborative performances with Longwood University. In Spring 2024, Dr. von Rueden introduced an experimental workplace choir for the college, the Tuesday Singers, to promote musical activity and community building among staff, faculty, and students at the college.

 

Dr. von Rueden also serves as the Director of the Hampden-Sydney Music Series, bringing renown artists to perform at the college. Additionally, she co-founded the Private Music Lesson Program at Hampden-Sydney, hiring faculty, overseeing budget and schedule, and recruiting student participants.

 

In 2016, Dr. von Rueden founded The Piedmont Singers of Central VA, a professional vocal ensemble. For seven years, the group performed at venues through the central Virginia area.

 

Dr. von Rueden has worked with Capitol Opera Richmond, Chorus America as a Choral-Orchestral Fellow with coaches David Hayes and Jorge Mester and in the ADEI Learning Lab with Dr. Antonio Cuyler. At the University of California, Santa Barbara, Dr. von Rueden studied under Professor Michel Marc Gervais, and received a Doctor of Musical Arts in choral conducting. She was awarded a 2012 Central Fellowship for her dissertation work on the the use of figurative language to influence musical expressivity, vocal technique, and group collaboration.  She conducted the UCSB Women’s Chorus, an undergraduate ensemble of non-voice and voice majors, for four years.  She is a past conductor the UCSB Men’s Chorus, the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum Chamber Singers in Cambridge, MA, and the choir at First Congregational Church in Santa Barbara. Previous training included an Apprenticeship at Berkshire Choral Festival with Grant Gershon, Anton Armstrong, Vance George, and Heinz Ferlesch, and a Fellowship to conduct at the Norfolk Music Festival’s Choral Conducting Workshop with Simon Carrington.  As an undergraduate at Harvard University, Dr. von Rueden studied choral conducting with Jameson Marvin and Kevin Leong.