Dr. Chris Hansen Joins VCU Music Department

VCU Music is excited to announce that Dr. Chris Hansen has accepted a position as an Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education and will serve as the Assistant Director of Choral Activities beginning in the Fall 2022 semester.

This summer, Dr. Hansen will be a Guest Conductor in MidAmerica Productions’ 39th season at Carnegie Hall in the first concert series at Carnegie Hall since the onset of the pandemic. As Guest Conductor, Dr. Hansen will complete a 5-day residency collaborating with the New England Symphony Ensemble and a large national chorus. They will perform Ola Gjeilo’s Dark Night of the Soul and Luminous Night of the Soul, two compositions designed to be performed together as one larger work.

Dr. Hansen believes that all music serves an important role in the development and nutriment of the human condition: our need to belong, be loved, grow and learn, and have purpose.  He believes all music has value and utility by virtue of their existence—each genre and style contribute to the nourishment of all peoples across all time and places.  He believes himself to be a culturally responsive teacher and conductor who practices culturally relevant pedagogy by broadening and deepening his understanding of himself, singers in choirs he collaborates with, and the music they explore together.  

Dr. Hansen earned his Doctorate and Master degrees from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he studied music education research and choral conducting. He earned his Bachelor of Music from The University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Dr. Hansen has eighteen years of successful conducting and teaching experience at the secondary and post-secondary levels.

We are excited to welcome Dr. Hansen to VCU Music.