Richard Andrew Sparks is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 choral conductor. He is one of the leading figures in choral music in the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

 and in Scandinavian, especially Swedish a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

, choral music.

Early life and education

Sparks was raised in Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

. He graduated from Shorecrest High School

Shorecrest High School

Shorecrest High School is a public high school in Shoreline, Washington, one of two high schools in the Shoreline School District. Shorecrest was founded in 1961. Its mascot is Otis the Fighting Scot and students refer to themselves as "Scots," or the "Highlanders," a reference to the Clan Gordon...

, and he received a bachelor of music

Bachelor of Music

Bachelor of Music is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree; the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring a...

 in 1976 and a master of music

Master of Music

The Master of Music is the first graduate degree in Music awarded by universities and music conservatories. The M.Mus. combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization with graduate-level academic study in subjects such as music history, music theory, or music pedagogy...

 in 1980, both from the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

. While an undergraduate, Sparks founded Seattle Pro Musica

Seattle Pro Musica

Seattle Pro Musica is an American choir, based in Seattle, Washington, performing under the direction of conductor and artistic director Karen P. Thomas. Seattle Pro Musica is widely considered to be one of the finest ensembles in the Pacific Northwest, and has received international recognition...

, which he led until 1980. During this time, Seattle Pro Musica became known as a leader in the "authentic performance" of Baroque music

Baroque music

Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...

, especially Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

's. Sparks conducted Seattle Pro Musica in Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...

's Vespers of 1610 at St. Mark's Cathedral and Handel

HANDEL

HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....

's Messiah

Messiah (Handel)

Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...

. In the early 1980s, Sparks grew interested in Swedish choral music and the work of conductor Eric Ericson

Eric Ericson

, is a Swedish choral conductor and influential choral teacher. He graduated from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 1943 and went on to complete his studies abroad, at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Switzerland, and in Germany, Great Britain, and the United States.Renowned for his...

. He received doctor of musical arts

Doctor of Musical Arts

The Doctor of Musical Arts degree is a doctoral academic degree in music. The D.M.A. combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization with graduate-level academic study in subjects such as music history, music theory, or music pedagogy. The D.M.A...

 in choral conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music

University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music

The University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music is the performing arts college of the University of Cincinnati and is one of the nation's leading music conservatories. In its most recent rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranked Cincinnati sixth nationally among university programs...

, and his doctoral dissertation on postwar Swedish choral music was later published as The Swedish Choral Miracle.

Conducting career

In 1983, Sparks became conductor of the Choir of the West and director of choral activities at Pacific Lutheran University

Pacific Lutheran University

Pacific Lutheran University is located in Parkland, a suburb of Tacoma, Washington. In September 2009, PLU had a student population of 3,582 and approximately 280 full-time faculty...

. He remained there until 2001, during which time he directed the choir in Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

's War Requiem

War Requiem

The War Requiem, Op. 66 is a large-scale, non-liturgical setting of the Requiem Mass composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed January 1962. Interspersed with the traditional Latin texts, in telling juxtaposition, are settings of Wilfred Owen poems...

, Bach's Mass in B Minor and St. John Passion

Johannes Passion

The St John Passion , BWV 245, is a sacred oratorio of Johann Sebastian Bach from the Passions. The original Latin title Passio secundum Johannem translates to "The Suffering According to John" and is rendered in English also as St. John Passion and in German as Johannespassion...

, Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....

's Les Noces

Les Noces

Les noces by Igor Stravinsky, is a dance cantata, or ballet with vocalists.-History:The ballet was premiered on June 13, 1923 at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, by the Ballets Russes with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska...

, Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...

's Vespers, Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...

's Liebeslieder Walzer

Liebeslieder Walzer

Liebeslieder Walzer is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to Johannes Brahms' Liebeslieder, op. 52, 1869, and Neue Liebeslieder, op. 65, 1874, waltzes for piano duet and vocal quartet, set to poems by Daumer and Goethe...

, and Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

's Requiem

Requiem (Verdi)

The Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi is a musical setting of the Roman Catholic funeral mass for four soloists, double choir and orchestra. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and novelist much admired by Verdi. The first performance in San Marco in Milan on 22 May...

. During Sparks's tenure, the Choir of the West recorded five concert albums.

Sparks founded Choral Arts Northwest (later Choral Arts), a Seattle-based chamber choir ensemble, in 1993 and was its artistic director until 2006. Choral Arts is known for its repertoire of sacred music and a sound inspired by Swedish choirs. Since 1999, Sparks has been artistic director of Pro Coro Canada in Edmonton

Edmonton

Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...

, where his repertoire has included (again) Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers and Bach's B Minor Mass, as well as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts Requiem

Requiem (Mozart)

The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...

 and Gabriel Fauré's Requiem in D Minor

Requiem (Fauré)

Gabriel Fauré composed his Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 between 1887 and 1890. This choral–orchestral setting of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead is the best known of his large works. The most famous movement is the soprano aria Pie Jesu...

. He received the Richard S. Eaton Award of Distinction from the Alberta Choral Federation.

Sparks has guest-conducted the National Youth Choir of Canada and was the first American in more than two decades to conduct the Swedish Radio Choir

Swedish Radio Choir

The Swedish Radio Choir is a professional classical choir. It is funded by Sveriges Radio, the public radio broadcasting company of Sweden. The choir consists of 32 singers, currently led by conductor Peter Dijkstra.-Conductors:...

 in 2008.

Personal life

Sparks is married to the former Kathryn Wold, an artist

Visual arts

The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...

 who formerly directed the gallery at Pacific Lutheran University. Richard Nance

Richard Nance

Dr. Richard Nance is an American musician. He is currently associate professor of music and conductor of The Choir of the West at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington USA.-Education:...

 composed "Set Me as a Seal," based on the Song of Songs

Song of songs

Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon, is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. It may also refer to:In music:* Song of songs , the debut album by David and the Giants* A generic term for medleysPlays...

, for their 1996 wedding.