James Benjamin Kinchen, Jr., Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities, is a native of Jacksonville, Florida and, prior to joining the UW-Parkside faculty in 1989, taught music and directed choral groups at Stanton High School, Jacksonville; Florida Community College at Jacksonville; Southern Illinois College; Hampton University; and Winston-Salem State University.
Courses which Dr. Kinchen teaches or has taught at the university include Conducting, Choral Conducting, Vocal Materials & Methods, Applied voice, Music Fundamentals, Music Appreciation, and African American Music, in addition to directing the three choirs (University Chorale, Master Singers, and Voice of Parkside) and Vocal Jazz Ensemble.
Music Director of the Milwaukee Choristers, a 66 year old, 90 voice community chorus since 1993, he conducted the Choristers in concert in Germany, Austria, Poland, and the Czech Republic in the summer of 1994 and in Italy in the summer 1999. As a conductor or choral scholar, Dr. Kinchen has also traveled to Germany (1988, 1992), Sweden (1993), and Cuba (1998, 1999, and 2002). Dr. Kinchen has guest conducted the Chicago Choral Artists (formerly known as James Chorale), a Chicago based professional chorus, and the Kenosha and Racine Symphony Orchestras in recent years. He was one of 18 conductors chosen by video audition to participate in a Conducting Workshop and Master Class sponsored jointly by the Chicago Symphony and Chorus America in 2003. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in April 1998, sharing a MidAmerica Productions program with Maestro John Rutter, one of England's foremost choral composers and conductors, and was brought back by MidAmerica to conduct choral/orchestral performances there in 2004 and 2006.
Dr. Kinchen holds membership in several organization including Music Educators National Conference, Chorus America, International Federation for Choral Music, National Collegiate Choral Organization, and the American Choral Directors Association, in which he has served in a number of key leadership capacities. He is currently president of the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association. He is also an affiliate of the Center for Black Music Research. He is in frequent demand a s a choral clinician, guest conductor, and adjudicator, and has been listed in the INTERNATIONAL WHO'S WHO IN MUSIC, and WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA.
His degrees are a B.M.E. from Jacksonville University, M.M.E. from Southern Illinois University, and a Ed.D. from the University of North Caroline-Greensboro. He is the father of five children: James III, Shirletta, Michael, Alfred and Benjamin, and is married to the former Roslyn Patrice Coleman of Nashville, Tennessee. (rev. June 2007)
Click here for information on the African American Music Course.