Arkansas Chamber Singers

Dr. Lorissa Mason is the Director of Choral Activities and Voice Area Chair at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where she directs the Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, and Women’s Choir and teaches undergraduate conducting, advanced conducting, and music education courses. She holds degrees from Texas Tech University, with studies in Music Education and Conducting under the tutelage of Dr. John Dickson. In 2019, Dr. Mason completed a DMA in Conducting at the University of Missouri Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance, where she studied conducting and choral literature with Dr. Robert Bode.

Dr. Mason is a valued member of the UA Little Rock Community and frequently collaborates with other programs and departments on campus. Throughout her conducting career, Dr. Mason has conducted in workshops and performances throughout the United States and abroad. In the autumn of 2020, she joined Dr. James Meaders and the Hurst Green Singers in England as part of a panel of notable conductors to speak on the topic of structure and history of Ein Deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms. She has also performed as a conducting fellow in symposiums and concerts in Italy. Dr. Mason made her Carnegie Hall conducting debut on June 26, 2022, conducting Poulenc’s Gloria, with UA Little Rock Choirs and additional singers from across the United States. In June of 2023, Dr. Mason conducted the Ozark Festival Singers in a concert at Cadogan Hall in London entitled “The Music and Lineage of Paul Mealor” with Vox Anima London and in collaboration with the composer Paul Mealor and the ensemble Apollo 5. Most recently, Dr. Mason conducted the Vivaldi’s Magnificat at Carnegie Hall in June of 2024.

Often invited to speak to young conductors and future music educators, Dr. Mason has been a guest lecturer on campuses across the country. As an active member of ACDA, she served as a clinician for the College Immersion Day at the Southwest ACDA Conference in 2020, and later was part of the National ACDA committee, screening undergraduate conducting videos for the conducting masterclass in 2021. Dr. Mason served as Arkansas ACDA’s Membership Chair from 2020 to 2025, and now serves as the Conducting Symposium and Guest Choirs Coordinator. She continues to present at state, regional, national, and international conferences, with her most recent participation as part of a panel of presenters at the National ACDA Conference in 2025, sharing repertoire suitable for tenor-bass choirs. Her research covers a variety of topics, with a focus on the pedagogy of conducting. In the fall of 2023, she joined the Steering Committee as a founding member of the World Choral Conducting Network and now serves as the coordinator for the organization's Centre for Choral Literature.

Dr. Mason was appointed as the Artistic Director for the Arkansas Chamber Singers and began her work with the ensemble on July 1, 2024. She recently began working with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra in preparing the chorus of singers from Central Arkansas for the upcoming performance of  Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. In addition to her work as a conductor and educator, Dr. Mason sings with Little Rock’s professional choir, Trinitas, under the direction of Dr. Colin MacKnight. Later this year, she will conduct the Arkansas Chamber Singers, Ozark Festival Singers, and other guest choirs in Marianna Martines’s Dixit Dominus in Vienna with the KünstlerOrchesterWien on June 17, 2026, as part of a week-long residency with MidAm International’s 21st Season.