Greensburg resident and Seton Hill Associate Professor of Music Marvin Huls recently received the prestigious Elaine Brown Award for Choral Excellence from the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). The Elaine Brown Award is presented to an individual for outstanding lifelong work in choral art, a minimum of 15 years of experience as a choral musician, musical/choral leadership in Pennsylvania, high and consistent musical standards, and active participation in the ACDA. The award is named in honor of Elaine Brown, the founder and director of Singing City in Philadelphia, Pa.

Marvin Huls is the associate professor of music at Seton Hill and the former chair of the Seton Hill University music department. Huls also serves as the director of music at the First Lutheran Church of Greensburg, and has served since 1976 as the music director for the Westmoreland Choral Society. From 1979 to 1981, Huls served as president of the Pennsylvania Chapter of ACDA, and from 1998 – 2007 he edited its newsletter, “Polyphony.” Huls has also been a guest clinician and conductor for various workshops, festivals and honors choirs. He was named Distinguished Performing Artist by the Greensburg Cultural Council in 1993 and Professor of the Year at Seton Hill in 1995. Huls is a graduate of Carthage College and Northern Arizona University. Huls is a native of Hancock County, Illinois.

The American Choral Directors Association, founded in 1959, is a nonprofit music-education organization. The promotion of “excellence in choral music through performance, composition, publication, research, and teaching” is a main objective of ACDA. The ACDA has 18,000 members across the nation representing over one million singers. For more information on The American Choral Directors Association, Pennsylvania Chapter please visit www.acdapa.org.

Since 1918, the study of music has been an integral part of the Seton Hill experience. The music program at Seton Hill University seeks to educate musicians who will think and act critically, creatively, and ethically, and who are prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities for careers in music in the twenty-first century. For more information on the music program at Seton Hill please visit www.setonhill.edu, or call 724-552-1722.