Dr. Ramona Wis is the Mimi Rolland Endowed Professor in the Fine Arts, Professor of Music, and Director of Choral Activities at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois.  She conducts the Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, and Women’s Chorale and teaches courses in conducting, music methods, and servant leadership. Dr. Wis holds degrees from the University of Illinois, Northern Illinois University, and a PhD from Northwestern University and is an active festival conductor, clinician, writer, and public speaker. 

 

Dr. Wis has presented workshops and keynote addresses across the country and in Canada, including presentations for the British Columbia Music Educators Association, the International Conference of the Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership, Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, Tennessee Arts Academy, GALA Choruses, the ACDA North Central Division conference and the 2019 Illinois ACDA Fall Conference and the 2020 Illinois Music Educators Conference.

North Central College choral ensembles under her leadership have performed with Chicago Sinfonietta and Roosevelt University at Symphony Center in Chicago, at Carnegie Hall in New York City, with DuPage Symphony Orchestra at Wentz Concert Hall on the North Central College campus, and at IL-ACDA, IMEC, and GIA conference presentations.  Dr. Wis has also toured with NCC ensembles regionally and internationally, to France, Germany, Austria, and Ireland.

Dr. Wis is the author of The Conductor as Leader:  Principles of Leadership Applied to Life on the Podium.  She has written for The Choral Journal, Music Educators Journal, Teaching Music and the China Europe International Business School Review and is a contributing author to Toward a Description of Musical Experience and The Musical Experience: Rethinking Music Teaching and Learning.  Dr. Wis was the first woman  President of the American Choral Directors Association in Illinois and she is the 2019 recipient of the Harold Decker award for “quality leadership and service to the art of choral music.” 

 

Dr. Wis holds the 200-hour yoga teacher certification (CYT/RYT) and the 500-hour advanced CYT, continuing her study of the body-mind connection in choral music, conducting, and personal growth and wellness.