Liz Olson

Biography

Liz Olson is a conductor, educator, and vocalist from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  She is currently the Associate Director of Choral Activities at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, where she conducts the Dolce Treble Choir and Glee Club, assists Choral Union, is a Music Director for Into the Woods, and teaches Aural Skills and Music History. She recently completed her Doctoral Studies in Choral Conducting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where her research focuses on vocal science techniques for the collective choral setting and the choral music of composer Melissa Dunphy. At UW-Madison, Olson worked with the Advanced Treble Choir and University Chorus, and was awarded the prestigious University Fellowship. In 2023, she founded and became the Artistic Director of a community choir in Wisconsin called “Cheers, Madison!” LLC, which has grown to serve over 200 singers for each concert cycle in the greater Madison area. She was awarded second place in the 2024 American Prize Dale Warland Award in Choral Conducting, and was a finalist for the 2024 American Prize Ernst Bacon Award. Olson is also engaged in research regarding the gender bias in choral higher education, and presented this research on a panel during the National American Choral Director's Association Conference in the spring of 2023. She has also earned degrees from the University of South Carolina (BM Music Theory) and the University of Colorado Boulder (MM Choral Conducting).  While in Boulder, she was the Music Director at Niwot United Methodist Church and the Director of the chorus at the University of Colorado Anschutz. She was a finalist in the Southwestern ACDA Graduate Conducting Competition in 2018. Upon graduation from the University of Colorado Boulder, Olson returned to South Carolina, teaching various levels of high school Chorus and International Baccalaureate Music in Hartsville, South Carolina.