Edith A. Copley is a regents’ professor emerita at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff where she served as director of choral studies from 1993-2021.  She conducted the highly acclaimed Shrine of the Ages Choir and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in conducting and graduate choral literature.  The Shrine of the Ages Choir performed at state, regional and national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association and the National Association for Music Education.  NAU choral ensembles under her direction also toured internationally to Western Europe, the Peoples Republic of China, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Bulgaria, Istanbul, Estonia, and Latvia.

 

Prior to her NAU appointment, Dr. Copley taught secondary choral music for seven years in Iowa and four years overseas at the American International School in Vienna, Austria.  While completing her doctoral degree in choral conducting at the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, she served as the assistant and interim principal conductor of the May Festival Chorus, one of the oldest symphony choruses in the nation that regularly performs with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops. 

 

In Spring 2016, Dr. Copley retired as the artistic director of the Master Chorale of Flagstaff (MCF).  She led this auditioned 100-voice community chorus for 23 years.  She served as the chorusmaster for Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra for 27 years.  During that time, Dr. Copley conducted numerous choral/orchestral works, including Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Bach’s B Minor Mass, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Duruflé’s Requiem, and Britten’s War Requiem.  

 

Dr. Copley is an active member of the National Association for Music Education and the National Collegiate Choral Organization.  She is a life-member of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).  Copley has served ACDA in many leadership roles, including Arizona President, Western Region President, and interest session chair for three national conferences.   She was the Conference Chair for the 2025 National Conference in Dallas and is currently ACDA National President.  

 

Dr. Copley has received numerous honors, including the NAU School of Performing Arts Centennial Teacher of the Year Award, Arizona Music Educator of the Year, Arizona ACDA Outstanding Choral Director Award, the Weston H. Noble Award from her alma mater Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, the Arizona Choral Educators Lifetime Achievement Award, and in March 2026, she was the ACDA Western Region Conference Honoree.

 

Dr. Copley has served as a clinician, festival adjudicator, and guest conductor in the US and abroad.  She has conducted all-state choirs in over 30 states, and choral festivals in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, and 11 appearances in Carnegie Hall.  Dr. Copley has conducted international choral festivals in Germany, the Netherlands, Tasmania, Japan, Luxembourg, Australia, China, Turkey, England, Poland, Oman, Ireland, Austria, and France.  Since her retirement in 2021, she continues to be in high demand as a guest conductor, adjudicator, and conference clinician.