Dr. Lynne Gackle

2025-2026 Guest Clinician

Lynne Gackle is Professor Emeritus of Music at Baylor University where she served as the Director of Choral Activities, Chair of the Ensemble Division and held the Mary Gibbs Jones Chair in Music. In addition to her position at Baylor University, Dr. Gackle previously taught at the University of South Florida, the University of Mississippi, and the University of Miami (FL). She received her education from LSU (BME) and the University of Miami (MM/PhD).

Lynne is an active choral clinician and conductor, nationally and internationally. She has conducted All-State, Festival Choirs and Clinics in more than 30 states, several Divisional ACDA honor choirs and two ACDA national honor choirs. Her choirs have also performed at American Choral Directors Association state, regional, and national conferences as well as at the Music Educators National Conference Biennial Convention (currently known as NAFME). Internationally, she conducted the Australian National Choral Association’s High School Women’s Choir in Brisbane, the Alberta Choral Federation’s High School Honor Choir in Calgary, the DoDDS-Europe Honors Music Festival Mixed Choir, (Wiesbaden, Germany), the Haydn Youth Festival in Vienna, the Association for Music in International Schools (AMIS) International Women’s Honor Choir in Beijing, China as well as Luxembourg, and the International Honors Performance High School Honor Choir at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia. For the past 25 years, she has served as guest conductor for various National Honor Choirs at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

She has held various positions within the American Choral Directors Association, including National President, Southern Division and ACDA-Florida President, as well as National R & S Chair for Children’s Choir, Southern Division Chair for Women’s Choir and VP Collegiate/Community Choirs for the Texas Choral Directors Association (TCDA). She currently serves on the Past-National President’s Council of ACDA. The Florida ACDA awarded her the Wayne Hugoboom Distinguished Service Award for dedicated service, leadership, and excellence. Dr. Gackle was awarded the highly coveted Texas Choir Master Award by the Texas Choral Directors Association (2021). In 2023, she was awarded the MacPherson Choral Prize for choral excellence in the state of Texas by the San Antonio Chamber Choir and most recently, she received the 2023 Frost Centennial Medal for Outstanding Alumni in Music Education from the University of Miami.

Gackle has written several highly cited articles for the Choral Journal. She is also the editor of Choral Artistry for the Singer (Walton Music/GIA) and the Lynne Gackle Choral Series (Colla Voce Music). Internationally recognized for her research on the female adolescent voice, Lynne is the author of Finding Ophelia’s Voice, Opening Ophelia’s Heart: Nurturing the Adolescent Female Voice (Heritage Music)). She has also served as a contributing author several books published by GIA including Choral Repertoire by Women Composers, Conducting Women’s Choirs: Strategies for Success, and Teaching Music Through Performance in Choir, Vol. 4 and Vol. 5. Additionally, she has published articles for Choral Reflections (Insights from American Choral Conductor/Teachers (Hal Leonard Publishing), the Oxford Handbook for Singing (Oxford Press) and was a Lead Author for Voices in Concert (Hal Leonard/McGraw Hill). She holds memberships in ACDA, TMEA, and TCDA.

Lynne and her husband, Merlin Gackle, reside in Waco, Texas.

Dr. Jared Eben

Pianist and Composer

Jared Eben is a dynamic pianist, composer, and music director whose career is defined by versatility across collaborative piano, musical theater, and academia. Equally adept as a collaborative concert artist, vocal coach, and musical theatre conductor, he is a recipient of both the prestigious NYU Steinhardt Scholarship and the UC Santa Barbara Martin Kamen Fellowship for Outstanding Keyboard Studies.

Dr. Eben is a highly sought-after collaborative pianist, with a deep history of working with prominent recital artists and major regional choral ensembles. His commitment to choral performance is evident through his previous work as an accompanist for the Modesto Symphony Chorus, the UCSB Women’s Chorale, and the California State University Stanislaus Concert Chorale. He currently accompanies the McLennan Community College Chorale (SATB) and Highlanders (TB) ensembles.

A significant portion of his career is dedicated to musical theatre, where he has served as Music Director or collaborative pianist for over twenty-nine productions. These collaborations span regional, community, and educational organizations, with recent credits including Guys and Dolls (MCC), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Waco Civic Theatre), and extensive work on shows like Swing, Once on This Island, Pippin, and Company (East Carolina University).

An academic with deep roots in performance, Dr. Eben completed his DMA in Keyboard Studies with an emphasis in Collaborative Piano at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he held a full scholarship and a Teaching Assistantship accompanying various instrumental and vocal programs.

His foundational training includes a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance from New York University, where he studied with Eduardus Halim and served as an adjunct instructor. He earned his Bachelor of Music from Chapman University, receiving the Outstanding Keyboard and Music Theory Awards and was an award recipient of the Music Teachers’ Association of California 2009 Piano Competition.

Jared Eben currently resides in Waco, Texas, where he serves as Assistant Professor of Music at McLennan Community College. He is a member of the music department, teaching Music Theory, Sight Singing and Ear Training, and Vocal Coachings. Prior to his current post, he served on the music faculties of East Carolina University and California State University Stanislaus.