Heidi Blythe, Assistant Conductor

Heidi Blythe (she/they) is excited to join the Seattle Pro Musica community as Assistant Conductor! Heidi has sung professionally with SoundCity Singers, Radiance, and the St. James Cathedral Cantorei. An experienced keyboardist, Heidi played for Croswell Opera House, Eastern Michigan University, Ann Arbor Civic Theater, the State of Michigan Honors Choir, and for various vocal recitals.

Heidi spent thirteen years as the Director of Music at University Congregational United Church of Christ, leading a music program that included three choirs, chamber orchestra, handbells, and drumming ensemble. In addition, she supported a kaleidoscope of regularly rehearsing small ensembles. Under Heidi’s direction, the Chancel Choir presented a diverse repertoire from Bach to Barnwell, from the Faure Requiem to the Street Requiem.

A passionate advocate of congregational music making, Heidi delighted in a music program that encompassed as many as 180 participants a year. Heidi presented a workshop on multi-generational congregational music at the national convention of the United Church of Christ Musicians Association. In 2009 and 2011, Heidi served as music director for the Pacific Northwest Conference of the UCC.

Heidi provided rehearsal direction for the Seattle Symphony Chorale at the behest of Associate Conductor Christian Knapp, preparing the ensemble for Belshazzar’s Feast, Messiah, Carmina Burana, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. She prepared a select group of SSC singers for a reading of Augusta Reed Thomas’ Love Songs, and directed a Summer Sings reading of Handel’s Messiah. Under the auspices of the Chorale Summer Sings, Heidi served as alto soloist for the Mozart Requiem under the direction of Geoffrey Boers. She was alto soloist for Messiah under the direction of George Fiore.

Heidi received a Masters in Choral Music Education from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance, where she studied voice with John Gillas and John Charles Pierce, and studied conducting with Sandra Snow and Jerry Blackstone. She was the recipient of the Margaret V. Hood prize and appeared on the Classical GRAMMY-winning album “Songs of Innocence and Experience”. While at Smith College, she studied voice with Jane Bryden and organ with Grant Moss, and was the recipient of the Harriet Dey Barnum and Sarah H. Hamilton prizes in music, and the Imogene Mahony Memorial and Constance Kambour Edwards prizes for organ.

Heidi was the Gregg Smith Singers’ first choral fellow at the Adirondack Festival of American music, singing with the ensemble under Gregg’s direction, as well as that of Margaret Hillis, Vance George, and Dave Brubeck. She was a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution, working on a joint project on American musicals with the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of American History.

Heidi lives in Seattle with her spouse Owen and her sons Felix and Oscar.