Douglas A. Buchanan, DMA
Artistic Director
Uniting a “sense of creative imperative” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) with the “ability to get under the skin of [the music’s] core material,” (The Scotsman), Douglas Buchanan (they/him) cultivates cross-disciplinary careers as conductor, composer, keyboardist, and educator.
As a choral conductor and music director, Douglas elicits “assured, nuanced singing” from the ensembles they lead, inspiring a “keen sense of mood, dynamics, and pacing” (The Baltimore Sun). Recent awards include the 2025 Choir Master Prize and S. Lewis Elmer Award from the American Guild of Organists and 2nd Place in the 2025 American Prize/Dale Warland Award in Choral Conducting. Through commissioning and recording Buchanan passionately advocates for the works of emerging composers and the diversification of the choral canon. Dedicated to helping all people realize their own joy in music-making, Douglas co-founded the street choir Voices Rise: A Baltimore Choir of Hope along with brother Benjamin Buchanan, serving singers experiencing homelessness and financial distress in southwest Baltimore. Douglas was also the longest-serving Artistic Director of the Maryland Choral Society, conducting the ensemble from 2015 to 2024.
Recognized for “clear, personal music,” Douglas’s compositions are “filled with terrific orchestral color and weight, not to mention feeling“ (The Baltimore Sun), wherein a cross-disciplinary musicianship is evident. Most recently, they received the 2024-2025 Dominick Argento Prize in Chamber Opera, alongside librettist Caitlin Vincent, for Bessie and Ma, an opera addressing issues of racism and sexism by exploring the lives of Bessie Coleman, the first woman of color in the United Sates to become a pilot, and Ma Ferguson, the first woman to serve as governor of Texas. Bessie and Ma previously won the 2017-2019 University of Connecticut Commissioning Prize and also won 2nd place in the 2025 American Prize Thoms Putsché Award in Opera Composition. As 2016-2018 Composer-in-Residence with the Dallas Chamber Symphony, Buchanan composed Crossroads, a chamber symphony featuring the Dallas Street Choir with poetry written by the Street Choir’s members.
Douglas serves as Director of Music and Organist at St. David’s, Baltimore. There, they lead professional, volunteer, and children’s choral ensembles and direct the concert series, including the Ensemble-in-Residence and Composer-in-Residence programs as well as the Baltimore Bach Marathon. In 2026, the Marathon celebrated its 50th anniversary, during which Douglas led a performance of J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor. Douglas teaches at the Peabody Conservatory, where they teach Choral Composition and Arranging and the analysis of Bach. Previous teaching positions include composition faculty at Dickinson College and theory, composition, and conducting faculty at Towson University.
When not making music, Douglas enjoys painting, writing, hiking, and designing board games.
Christopher Schroeder
Collaborative Associate
Christopher’s experience as a musician spans more than four decades, beginning in high school when he accompanied his high school choir and began to play the organ for church. Chris holds a master’s degree in Church Music and Organ Performance from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University where he studied with Dr. Marilyn Keiser. Christopher leads a vibrant music ministry at Grace United Methodist Church in Baltimore where he serves as Director of Music and Organist. Chris also accompanies the Harford Choral Society and accompanies vocal students at Morgan State and Towson Universities. In his free time, Chris enjoys biking and running and seeing friends and family.
Board of Directors
President: Carol Beck
Vice President: M. Liam Smith
Treasurer: Greg Zechman
Secretary: Max LePage
Delegate: Rico Farquharson
Delegate: Karyn Marsh
Delegate: Stephen Resto
Delegate: Cheryl Whittington