The Hugh A. Glauser School of Music

Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Dr. Seachrist is Associate Professor of Music at Kent State University Trumbull Campus in Warren, Ohio, where she teaches a variety of courses including:  Understanding Music, Music as a World Phenomenon, History of Jazz, and America’s Music.

She is also the director of the Kent Trumbull Community Choir, which under the direction of Dr. Seachrist, was reorganized in January 1996.  The choir joined with the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Chorus (1998) in a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s great oratorio, Elijah.  They were invited back to join Maestro Isaiah Jackson (1999) in a performance of Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony.  The choir joined with the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra and two choirs from the Cleveland area under the direction of Susan Davenny Wyner for performances of Gabriel Faure’s Requiem (2000), Franz Schubert’s Mass in G (2001), and Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria (2002).

Dr. Seachrist is also the founder and coordinator of the Kent Trumbull Performing Arts Series, which brings both western classical and world music performances to the campus.  The Series was recognized in 1997, when it received the National Association of College Activities (NACA) Great Lakes Regional Award of Excellence – First Place Multicultural Program Award.

Earning a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Heidelberg College in 1982, Dr. Seachrist’s graduate degree, also in vocal performances, was awarded from the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University in 1985.  In 1993, a Ph.D. in Musicology-Ethnomusicology was earned from the Hugh A. Glauser School of Music at Kent State University.  Her dissertation, “Snow Hill and the German Seventh-Day Baptists:  Heirs to the Musical Traditions of Conrad Beissel’s Ephrata Cloister” has created much interest among scholars in the areas of communal studies and utopian communities, and Dr. Seachrist is considered a specialist in the musics of both historical and living German religious communities in Pennsylvania.  In 2001, and again in 2003, Dr. Seachrist received the Dean’s Award for Leadership and Service at the Trumbull Campus.

In 1999, she was the recipient of the Kent State University Trumbull Campus Outstanding Service Award for Full-Time Faculty and was selected as one of four delegates to represent Kent State University in a seventeen-day educational exchange to China with the Guangming Daily.  She has served on the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra’s Board of Trustees since 1998, and is Past-Chair of the University Teaching Council.  She is the author of The Musical World of Halim El-Dabh, which was published by Kent State University Press in April 2003.