Don Krudop, DMA

Bio

Dr. Don Krudop (www.donkrudop.com) has been at the Chorale podium since 2009. He is a life-long music educator, having taught for 48 years with the Virginia Beach City Public Schools system and at Virginia Wesleyan & Regent Universities.

 

Don served for 25 years (2000-2025) as the Director of Music Ministries at Heritage United Methodist Church in Virginia Beach, was Director of the Commodore Chorus (Norfolk Chapter, Barbershop Harmony Society) and led them to both the Southern Division and Mid-Atlantic District Intermediate Chorus Championships, and sang tenor in the Southern Division champion and International quarter-finalist barbershop quartet, Old Dominion Line.

 

His choirs at Salem High School and the Visual & Performing Arts Academy were recognized as being among the finest in the southeastern United States. Salem HS and VPAA choirs sang at multiple state and regional music education conferences in Richmond, Norfolk, and Hot Springs, Va, Nashville, TN, and Louisville, KY. They also sang at the White House and National Cathedral in Washington, DC, and represented Virginia as "ambassadors of harmony" on a tour of England & Wales, with performances at Westminster Abbey in London, England, UK, Westminster Cathedral in London, England, UK, Yorkminster in York, England, UK,  the Bath Abbey in Bath, England, UK, and Whitcliffe United Methodist Church in Cardiff, Wales, UK.  

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Don was the guest conductor for a residency at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2024. having also conducted there in 1995 and 2011.  He has been honored to serve as guest conductor for All-Region, All-District, All-County, and All-City choirs throughout Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and New Jersey.

 

Don holds the

• Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Education,

• Master of Music in Conducting, and

• Bachelor of Music Education

degrees from the Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia, as well as the

• Master of Education in Administration degree

from Regent University.

 

While at Shenandoah, he studied conducting with Grammy-award-winning conductor Robert Shafer and Dr. David Stutzenberger, a past president of the American Choral Directors Association. He completed additional post-graduate studies at Westminster Choir College, George Washington University, and Old Dominion University, has sung under the direction of John Rutter, Aaron Copland, Weston Noble, and Eric Whitacre, and was a participant in the late Robert Shaw’s Carnegie Hall Choral Workshop.

 

Over the course of his career, Don:

• was named Virginia's "Music Educator of the Year" by the Virginia Music Educators Association (VMEA),

• was Salem High School’s "Teacher of the Year,”

• was listed in the 6th-1oth editions of Who's Who Among America's Teachers, 

• was recognized by Coastal Virginia magazine as one of Hampton Roads “Ten Top Educators," and

• was a national finalist for the Grammy Foundation's "Music Educator" award.

 

​He was the recipient of the Shenandoah University Alumni Association's "Distinguished Alumni Award" for both

• Outstanding Career Achievement (2000) and for

• Lifetime Achievement (2023),

as well as the​ "Algernon Sydney Sullivan" award, presented annually to the outstanding graduate at educational institutions throughout the southern United States.

 

He:

• is the Virginia American Choral Directors Association Regional Coordinator for Southeastern Virginia,

• is a Past President of the Virginia Choral Directors Association (VCDA),

• served as the Virginia ACDA Repertoire and Standards chair for community choirs,

• was a member of the National Advisory Board of Music Educators Journal, and

• was a national chorus mentor for the National Association for Music Education (NAfME).

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Don is a VMEA/VCDA-certified choral adjudicator and serves as a choral clinician and adjudicator for "Music in the Parks," "Festivals of Music", the Lion's Club "James Bland Music Competition," and CCIS Travel..​ He is well-known as a conductor, adjudicator, and clinician throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. He was a featured clinician at the 2025 Eastern Division Conference of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) in Hartford, CT, and the 2024 New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA) conference, where he presented his session "Sing from the Heart - Building the Emotionally Expressive Choir."​