Staff and Board

Dr. Futrell’s experience, enthusiasm, and guidance was instrumental in founding and developing Elon’s Bachelor of Science degree in Music Production & Recording Arts—a very popular program that now boasts its own record label, tech lab, and digital recording studios. It was his background and curricular research that facilitated the establishment of the program’s emphasis on creative process, critical listening, and both live and studio performance and recording techniques.

With the Baton Rouge Symphony, as former Chorus Master and Staff Conductor, Dr. Futrell conducted annual Messiah concerts, Christmas Pops concerts, as well as their summer concert series. He made his European conducting debut in June 2002, appearing with the Sinfonia Dell’Arte di Arezzo at the Teatro Petraca, Arezzo, Italy. Then in 2006, he served as conductor for the National Youth Choir at Carnegie Hall, as a guest conductor at New York’s Lincoln Center, as well as appearing as Associate Conductor/Chorus Master for the Aegean Verdi Festival on the island of Lesvos, Greece. Among Futrell’s publications, his most significant are his modern performance editions of three Classical motets by Anna Amalia von Sachsen (1739-1807), published and available through Fred Bock Music Publishers.

As a recording artist, and former music producer for DreamWorks Animation SKG International, with more than three decades of experience, Dr. Futrell has performed in live and studio settings as a vocalist, trumpeter, writer, arranger, and producer throughout the metropolitan areas of Kansas City, Chicago, Orlando, Nashville and the Gulf Coast region.

His clinics and presentations on conducting, rehearsal techniques, and all-things-jazz have been at state, divisional and national levels for ACDA and NafME. His 2017 performance as guest artist and vocal jazz clinician for the University of Colorado—and Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado—was standing room only. As a guest conductor for district and state honor choirs, he has conducted in 15 states, as well as solo and ensemble adjudication both in the United States and abroad. Dr. Futrell is former Jazz Repertoire and Standards Chair for ACDA Southern Division, and is currently Jazz Repertoire and Standards Chair for North Carolina ACDA.

Futrell is recognized as a proponent of the solo voice and emphasizes the use of vocal science as the foundation of his approach to artistic ensemble singing. He currently serves as adjudicator for CS Music (<a href=”https://csmusic.net/”>https://csmusic.net/</a>) which sponsors national vocal scholarship competitions and offers on-line vocal coaching.

Stephen Futrell’s artistry as a conductor has been influenced by his doctoral studies with Eph Ehly and Gary Hill. His Bachelor and Master degrees in Music Education from Louisiana State University, where he worked with Frank Wickes, James Yestadt, Victor Klimash, and Kenneth Fulton, have also been influential.

She has participated in the Upbeat International Music Seminar in Hokkaido since 2008, where she worked with Cellist and UNT Professor Nikola Ruzevic. In Texas, she played for numerous vocal and instrumental student lessons and recitals, on and off campus, studio classes, and diction classes. She also worked as rehearsal pianist for the Musical Theater of Denton (MTD) and at Texas Woman’s University. She was the organist at First Presbyterian Church in Gainesville, TX from 2015-2017. With her husband, Robert Buxton, she plays concerts and piano duos in the US and Japan; they were a top prize winner at the Salzburg– Mozart International Chamber Music Competition in Tokyo in 2015. In 2016, they performed at the Yamaha Ginza Hall in Tokyo, and had a radio appearance in Kyoto.

Dr. Abe moved to North Carolina in June 2017. Since then, she has accompanied Voices (2017-2022), Cantari (2017-2022), and the UNC choirs (Glee Clubs: 2017-2022, Chamber Singers and Carolina Choir: 2018-2019), and served as the Director of Music / organist at Hawfields Presbyterian Church in Mebane, NC from 2017-2022. Dr. Abe was a Teaching Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano at East Carolina University 2022-2023 academic year. She now lives in Mebane and serves as the music director at Mebane United Methodist Church, and has returned to Voices.