Midland Center for the Arts Choirs

Dr. Letícia Grützmann is the conductor of the Midland Center for the Arts Chorale and Camerata, and the Director of Choral Studies at the Saginaw Valley State University also teaching classes in the voice, conducting, and music education areas. 

As an active clinician and researcher, Dr. Grützmann has conducted a variety of studies and conference presentations in the areas of vocal technique and body awareness for choral singers. She has been awarded a research grant from SVSU for the academic year 2024-25, and she is leading research on the effects of routine physical exercises in the vocal production of choral singers in collaboration with her colleagues in the kinesiology department. She is also a member of the Faculty Learning Community, investigating communication and perception alternative grading by undergraduate students.

As an artist entrepreneur, she founded and led the Vox Principalis Choral Association, dedicated to the performances of major works for choir and orchestra for four seasons. Concomitantly, she created and led Vox Principalis Chamber Music Concert Series. During her doctoral studies, she was the conductor of the West Virginia Women’s Chorus, regularly collaborating with the Morgantown Community Orchestra, and the conductor for the Morgantown Children’s Chorus, regularly collaborating with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and with the Morgantown Community Orchestra.

In her home country, Brazil, Dr. Grützmann was an active choral scholar, and held several appointments conducting community, church, and children’s choruses. She was the assistant conductor for the String Orchestra at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, and for the University of Caxias do Sul Symphony Orchestra. Besides her primary activity as a conductor, she sang in professional choirs, and in a quartet specialized in Renaissance Music for five seasons. She also performed multiple times as soloist for choral/orchestral major works, and in several opera choruses. In addition, she was an assistant undergraduate researcher, which led her to win three undergraduate research presentation awards at her university (UFRGS).

Previously to her appointment at SVSU, she was the Director of Choirs and Vocal Music at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI. Dr. Grützmann earned two undergraduate degrees, one in conducting performance, and later a music education degree with voice emphasis. From West Virginia University she earned two masters’ degrees, conducting and voice performance, and a Doctoral Degree in Conducting.