ACDA Utah

Dr. Reed Criddle is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Utah Valley University, where he conducts the Chamber Choir and Deep Green (tenor-bass choir) and teaches Advanced Choral Conducting, Lyric Diction, Voice Lessons, Conducting Lessons, and Introduction to World Music. He is twice recipient of the UVU Faculty Senate Teaching Excellence Award and winner of the School of the Arts Dean's Award for exemplary faculty scholarly and creative work. He has conducted the acclaimed UVU Chamber Choir at national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association (2023) and the National Collegiate Choral Organization (2013, 2017), as well as over a dozen divisional and state conferences of ACDA and the National Association for Music Education. 

Dr. Criddle was president of the Utah chapter of ACDA and serves regularly as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator for school and community ensembles. He has served on the faculty at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), University of California-Berkeley Young Musicians Program, Eastman Community Music School (Rochester, NY), and Willow Oaks Elementary School (Menlo Park, CA). Dr. Criddle was a Visiting Professor of Choral Music and Interim Associate Director of Choirs at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, where he conducted the University Choir, Michigan Youth Chamber Singers, and the 100-voiced University of Michigan Men's Glee Club in its 165th season. He has given workshops at 50 universities globally, including Oxford University (UK),  Maastricht Conservatorium (Netherlands), Hochschüle für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar (Germany), Westminster Choir College (New Jersey), California State University (Los Angeles), Louisiana State University, Arizona State University, Taipei University of the Arts (Taiwan), Foguangshan Buddhist College (Taiwan), Fudan University (Shanghai, China), and the Technical University of Kenya. 

Named a U.S. Fulbright Senior Scholar to Taiwan, Dr. Criddle is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and a foremost ethnomusicologist of Chinese Buddhist chant. An ardent advocate for multiculturalism, Dr. Criddle served as Chief-of-Staff and Chant Rector for the Woodenfish Humanistic Buddhism Monastic Life Program in Wenzhou, China. He is editor of Chanting the Medicine Buddha Sutra: A Musical Transcription and English Translation of the Liberation Rite of Water and Land at Fo Guang Shan Monastery (AR Editions: Middleton, Wisconsin). This unprecedented ethnography and translation of Chinese Buddhist liturgy was named a finalist for the American Musicological Society’s 2021 Claude V. Palisca Award. His pioneering English translation of a third-century Chinese musical treatise by philosopher Ruan Ji entitled Essay on Music (Asian Music: University of Texas Press) is required reading for Music, Neo-Taoism, and Philosophy courses at universities around the globe.

Criddle's compositions and arrangements span a wide range of sacred and secular topics and are available through Earthsongs, Hal Leonard, NorthStar Music, and Santa Barbara Music Publishing. Dr. Criddle completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting at the University of Michigan and Masters of Music in Conducting at the Eastman School of Music. At Stanford University, he received a Masters of Arts in East Asian Studies and Bachelors of Arts in Vocal Performance (with honors) and Chinese.