A Cappella Choir | Summer 2025 Tour

Greetings from the College of Music at the University of North Texas on the occasion of our 2025 A Cappella Choir tour of Austria, Czech Republic and Germany.

I feel certain you will be inspired by our amazing students under the direction of their gifted leader, Allen Hightower, Professor and Director of Choral Studies. In addition to Hightower, the choral faculty at the University of North Texas includes Marques L. A. Garrett (Associate Professor of Choral Studies), Jessica Nápoles (Professor of Choral Music Education and President-Elect Designate of the American Choral Directors Association), Jamey Kelley (Associate Professor of Choral Music Education) and Joshua Habermann (Instructor of Choral Literature). Warren Henry (Professor & Sr. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs) and I also have our artistic and academic roots in choral music education.

We are deeply grateful to the Czech Educational Foundation of Texas (CEFT), which advanced the creation of the University of North Texas Czech Music Initiative, thereby making this tour possible. The long-running Initiative is coordinated by Benjamin Graf, UNT Principal Lecturer of Music Theory. The Czech Republic portion of this tour is under the auspices of the Czech Music Initiative. The choir closes its visit to Europe with concerts in Germany and where they compete in the invitation-only International Chamber Choir Competition in Marktoberdorf, Bavaria. 

Our collaboration with CEFT promotes the performance of Czech folk music connecting students and the public to Czech music and culture, inspiring creative and artistic endeavors and continues to create unique life-changing opportunities for UNT students, faculty and staff. Our ties to the Czech people are deep. The Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno and the Palacký University in Olomouc are two of the seven UNT Music Global Partnerships. Our ties to Germany include music global partnership with Hochschule für Musik Würzburg.

The UNT College of Music continues to lean into its mission, “…to serve our diverse musical culture with excellence, integrity and imagination.” Please see our most recent award-winning promotional video, This is Where You Belong.

John W. Richmond, Ph.D.
Professor and Dean
College of Music
University of North Texas
Denton

The University of North Texas A Cappella Choir is the premier ensemble of the UNT Choral Studies program comprised of nine choirs. Since its founding more than 85 years ago, the A Cappella Choir has had a distinguished history of conductors that include Wilfred Bain, Frank McKinley, Hal Gibbons, Mel Ivey, Jerry McCoy and Allen Hightower. The A Cappella Choir frequently performs at regional, national and international conferences including engagements at the American Choral Directors Association national conference in Los Angeles, California in 2005; Dallas, Texas in 2013, 2022 and 2025 and in Chicago, Illinois in 1999. They have performed as well at the clinic/convention of the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) in 2020. TMEA is the largest music education convention in the United States with nearly 30,000 attendees. They've also performed at the National Collegiate Choral Organization convention in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2008 and at international choral festivals in 2012 in Daejeon, South Korea and in 2009 in Taipei. In 1966, the choir participated in a three-month tour of Europe under the sponsorship of the United States Department of State. The Czech Republic portion of this 2025 tour is under the auspices of the Czech Music Initiative of the University of North Texas funded by the Czech Educational Foundation of Texas. The choir closes its visit to Europe with concerts in Germany and where they compete in the invitation only International Chamber Choir Competition in Marktoberdorf, Bavaria.

Allen Hightower is a seventh generation Texan and resides in McKinney, with his wife Dr. Kristin Hightower and their two daughters Caroline and Julianne. As the director of choral studies, Allen leads the master’s and doctoral programs in choral conducting and oversees a comprehensive choral program of nine ensembles. Allen serves as the conductor of the A Cappella Choir and the Grand Chorus, which collaborates annually with the UNT Symphony Orchestra in performances of major choral-orchestral works. 

As a member of UNT’s Early Music faculty, he leads the vocal ensemble Vox Aquilae, an artistic partner of the UNT Baroque Orchestra. Since arriving in 2016, the A Cappella Choir has performed at the 2020 Texas Music Educators Conference, the 2021 National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association and the 2022 Southwest Regional Conference of ACDA. Vox Aquilae and the Baroque Orchestra were featured at the 2022 conference of the National Collegiate Choral Organization.

From 2000-2010, he served as professor of music and director of choral studies at Sam Houston State University. During his tenure, the SHSU Chorale toured Europe, performed for the 2007 National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association, the 2010 Southwestern ACDA, and the 2003, 2006, and 2010 conventions of the Texas Music Educators Association. His public school teaching career included tenures at Klein High School in Spring, Texas and at Odessa Permian High School, where he led the PHS Kantorei and Satin Strings in performance at the 1996 TMEA convention.

As a teacher and conductor, he has visited 30 states, Asia and Europe. His students hold positions of leadership as choral conductors in public schools, colleges and universities, churches and community choirs throughout the United States.

Prior to his appointment at UNT, Dr. Hightower held the Weston Noble Endowed Chair in Music at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where he served as conductor of the Nordic Choir and artistic director of Christmas at Luther. As Luther’s director of choral activities, he gave leadership to a choral program that included four conductors, six choirs and more than 530 singers. Under his direction, the Nordic Choir performed at the 2014 North Central ACDA, recorded six compact discs, made annual concert tours throughout the United States and toured Europe on two occasions.

Outside of his work in the academic setting, he has served as director of the Houston Symphony Chorus and as artistic director of the Houston Masterworks Chorus and Orchestra, leading an annual concert series of choral-orchestral masterworks. As a church musician, he has served Baptist, Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian churches in Texas, California and Minnesota. He currently serves on the music and worship staff of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, and is a past church music vice-president of the Texas Choral Directors Association. Dr. Hightower has served as an adjunct professor of conducting at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

As a conducting student of the Texas choral legend Bev Henson, Allen earned his undergraduate degree in music education and piano from Sam Houston State University. He went on to earn a master’s degree in choral conducting from the Eastman School of Music where he was a student of Baroque scholar Alfred Mann, and a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from Baylor University, where he served as assistant conductor to Stephen Heyde and pianist to Donald Bailey and the Baylor Chamber Singers. 

Allen earned his doctorate in conducting from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he served as assistant conductor to Donald Neuen. He pursued additional orchestral conducting studies with Jung-Ho Pak at the University of Southern California, additional choral conducting studies with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College, and choral-orchestral conducting with Helmuth Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival.  After winning first prize in the graduate division of the American Choral Directors Association’s Conducting and Competition in 1997, Allen served as assistant to Paul Salamunovich, conductor of the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

The University of North Texas College of Music is the largest public university music program in the United States and one of the most globally respected. Faculty and staff include internationally acclaimed artists and scholars in composition, conducting, ethnomusicology, jazz studies, music education, music business, music history, music theory, commercial music and performance. The college presents more than 700 music events annually. Students perform in more than 70 ensembles in eight campus venues and can be viewed worldwide via free superior quality live streaming. UNT music alumni can be found around the world in impressive, award-winning careers across a wide range of music professions. Our current faculty members include Guggenheim Fellows, Fulbright Fellows, an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, a Charles Ives Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Gold Medalist, Emmy, Grammy, Latin Grammy, Oscar and Tony nominees and Grammy and Latin Grammy Award winners. Our students come from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and more than 40 countries.

The mission of the UNT College of Music is to serve our diverse musical culture with excellence, integrity and imagination. The vision of the UNT College of Music is to provide leadership, artistry and expertise to every facet of the music profession.

Ranked a Tier One research institution by the Carnegie Classification, UNT is one of the largest public research universities in the United States with more than 46,000 students who push creative boundaries and graduate with credentials of value so they can become tomorrow’s leaders. UNT is recognized as a Minority-Serving and Hispanic-Serving Institution, reflecting the population of Texas. UNT students earned nearly 13,000 degrees last year in 240 degree programs, many nationally and internationally recognized. With a focus on academic excellence and graduating career-ready students, UNT has served as a catalyst for creativity since its founding in 1890, continually fueling progress, entrepreneurship and innovation for the North Texas region, the state — and beyond.

The UNT community is guided by five shared values — Courageous Integrity, Be Curious, We Care, Better Together and Show Your Fire.