Danya Tiller

DANYA TILLER has been performing, conducting and teaching in the Phoenix Valley for the past 20 years. Ms. Tiller has conducted and taught choirs of all age ranges and levels, working with numerous adult and children’s community and church choirs, coaching and conducting professional choral ensembles, and serving as conductor/clinician for workshops and honor choirs nationwide. Earning a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance with a minor in Vocal Performance and a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Alabama, she is A.B.D. for the Doctoral Degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Oklahoma.
 

For ten years, Ms. Tiller was the Artistic Director of the Phoenix Girls Chorus, a five choir non-profit organization for young women. She also served as Acting Assistant Conductor for the Phoenix Chorale in 2019 and has been a member of the AzACDA board for seven years. Prior to her appointment at the Phoenix Girls Chorus, Ms. Tiller was the Music Curriculum Consultant for Great Hearts Academies, training new music teachers for their network of charter schools; she also founded and conducted the annual Great Hearts Academies High School Honor Choir. She was the high school Music Theory and Choir Instructor at Great Hearts’ Chandler Preparatory Academy, where she conducted several extra
curricular choirs, including an elite ensemble that toured nationwide. She made her conducting debut at Carnegie Hall in 2016 with Vivaldi’s Gloria and 200 singers from across the USA, and has toured extensively performing with choirs both in this country and worldwide, including concerts in England, Italy, France, Spain, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Wales, the Czech Republic and Canada.
 

For seventeen years years she was the Associate Director of Music at Mountain View Presbyterian Church in Scottsdale, AZ, where she worked with children and adults in choirs and handbell ensembles. She began a statewide women’s choral festival, Songfest, in the spring of 2013 in collaboration with Phoenix College, Northern Arizona University, and the Phoenix Chorale. This festival was designed to give young women the opportunity to celebrate their voices and sing with more experienced singers in universities, community choirs and professional groups.
 

Ms. Tiller has been providing quality private lessons in both voice and piano for three decades, and has recently founded Aria Music Studio, where she will continue offering solo and group instruction. Other past positions include Men’s Choir Director at Arizona School for the Arts, Associate Director of the Phoenix Boys Choir, Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at New Mexico Highlands University, Conductor/Director of the Jefferson Children’s Chorus in New Orleans, and Assistant Director of the Alabama Boychoir.

 

Ms. Tiller is an accomplished vocalist and a founding member of Helios, a professional early music ensemble, beginning its sixth season and releasing its first recording this fall. She is also embarking on her sixteenth season singing with the Grammy Award-Winning Phoenix Chorale. She has sung on many professional recordings, and performed both as soloist and choral artist with other distinguished ensembles, among which are the Phoenix Symphony, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, New Orleans Opera, the Oklahoma Philharmonic Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Music Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Fe Opera, and the American Bach Festival. Ms. Tiller has performed in many world-famous venues as well, including Notre Dame Cathedral, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Monastery at El Escorial, Alice Tully Hall, and the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.