Dr. Ryan Sullivan

Director of Choral Activities

Coordinator of Vocal Studies

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Education

• D.M.A, University of North Texas, Choral Conducting
• M.M., Texas Tech University, Choral Conducting
• B.M.E., University of Missouri - Kansas City, Choral Music Education
• B.M., University of Missouri - Kansas City, Voice Performance

Teaching Specialties

• Choral Ensembles
• Conducting
• Historical Performance
• Secondary Methods

Research Interests

• Conducting Pedagogy
• Pre-Service Teacher Education
• Historical Performance Practice
• Editing Manuscripts and Early Prints

Affiliations

• American Choral Directors Association
• Conductors Guild
• Early Music America
• Society for Research in Music Education
• National Association for Music Education

Curriculum Vitae

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Biography

Ryan W. Sullivan is the Director of Choral Activities, Coordinator of Vocal Studies, and an Associate Professor of Music at Arkansas State University. He conducts the flagship ensemble Concert Choir, Jonesboro Chorale, and Singing Statesmen. He teaches coursework in conducting and music education, and serves as an advisor to students in all four of the university’s undergraduate music degrees.
Prior to his time at A-State, Sullivan was the Associate Conductor for the Dallas Symphony Chorus for regular performances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and on tour with the Swedish Radio Orchestra, Tallinn Filharmoonie, and Lahti Symphony Orchestra. During his doctorate, he conducted the Collegium Singers and Baroque Orchestra, the University of North Texas’ period ensembles. He has also conducted North American premieres of operas by Vít Zouhar and Lucille Grétry, and world choral premieres by Nell Cohen Shaw, James Eakin III, Derek Jenkins, Douglas Helvering, and Robert Beaser. His live performances have been featured on Radio Suisse, WFIU’s Harmonia Uncut, and KJNB FOX/CBS.

Sullivan is an active conductor and performer nationally and internationally. He has recently been a festival clinician and adjudicator in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Texas, and has conducted Region choirs throughout Arkansas. In 2023, the A-State Concert Choir opened the Lisbon International Music Festival with acclaimed concerts throughout Portugal in Lisbon, Batalha, and Porto. In 2026, Sullivan will return to Germany to lead a series of concerts and cultural exchanges in Baden-Würtemburg and Bavaria. His credits as a baritone soloist and in professional choral ensembles include the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, San Antonio Chamber Choir, The Cecilia Ensemble (GA), Spire Chamber Ensemble, Boston Early Music Festival, Austin Baroque Orchestra, and Kammerchor der Künste Berlin.

In addition to conducting, Dr. Sullivan is also a researcher and lecturer with particular interests in performing arts health and performance practice. His articles and music editions have been published in the Choral Journal, International Journal for Research in Choral Singing, and the Web Library for Seventeenth-Century Music. He is currently working on two historical research endeavors related to agency and gender in 17th century Venetian music, and the social messaging in Bavarian court music during the Thirty Years War. As a Fellow for the ACDA International Conductor Exchange in Germany in 2023, he was an instructor and lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart and the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik in Rottenburg.


Sullivan served the Southwestern Region of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) as President and member of the National Board from 2020 – 2022. He was the 2014 Prelude Award winner from Missouri ACDA and the 2018 recipient of the Adams-Nordstrom Award for early music studies at the University of North Texas. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of North Texas, a Master of Music from Texas Tech University, and undergraduate degrees in Music Education and Vocal Performance from the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory of Music. His primary teachers have been Allen Hightower, Richard Bjella, Joshua Habermann (conducting), Vinson Cole and William Joyner (voice), and Brad Bennight (continuo harpsichord). In addition to his work at A-State, Sullivan is a consultant for Carus-Verlag, a music publisher based in Stuttgart, Germany.