Music Director Hired

The Music Director Search Committee unanimously recommended and the Cabinet agreed that we hire Leonard Rumery for the position. Leonard holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral and orchestral conducting from Stanford University (1976). His extensive experience includes direction the University of Illinois Concert Choir and Oratorio Society, and conducting a traveling American youth orchestra which performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall in New York. Albert Hall in London, and Notre Dame in Paris.

Leonard also served as Interim Head of the Choral Division of the UIUC School of Music (1981-82). In 1989, Leonard received his Juris Doctor from The Law School at UIUC and was admitted to the Bar. He served as State’s Attorney for Piatt County as recently as 2008, and is now semiretired in private general practice of law in Monticello.

Over the years, Leonard has directed quite a number of church choirs in Illinois and California, including those locally at Wesley Foundation (1978-82) and the Unitarian Universalist Church in Urbana (1989-2004). He co-directed the Miller Legacy Chorus in 2004, and was director of the Miller Chorus in 2007 and 2009.

His other interests include the Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company , where he has directed the pit orchestra, been a performer, and a producer (all in different productions). Most recently, he was the Stage Director for the premier of 1787: We the People by Pickleshimer and Lawrence.