Employee Directory
Michael Skyles
Michael Skyles
Instructor of Voice
Spafford Hall 301A
- 605-626-2501
Born and raised in the Chicago area, he previously maintained a private voice studio and taught voice at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. In recent years, his students have advanced to compete at the national level. In 2009, one of his students was selected to be a finalist with the NFAA YoungArts program in classical voice, an honor bestowed on only 12 students from across the country, and was the first finalist in any discipline ever from North Dakota. In 2010, another of Mr. Skyles' students was selected to be an NFAA Young Arts finalist in musical theater. Following this student's performance at the finals, he was invited for further competition and workshops in New York and was selected to be a Presidential Scholar.
More recently, many of Mr. Skyles' students have won or placed in competitions hosted by the Metropolitan Opera National Council, National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). Not only have his students competed well, but many of his students are attending high-profile graduate programs, and are performing on Broadway and in regional musical theater and operas.
As a performer, Mr. Skyles has been featured with a number of opera companies across the United States, including Lyric Opera Cleveland, Natchez Opera in Mississippi, Florida State Opera, and Brevard Opera in North Carolina. In recent engagements, Mr. Skyles has performed the roles of Nemoriono in Sounds of South Dakota's L'elisir d'amore, Pong in South Dakota Symphony's production of Turandot, Remendado in Fargo Moorhead Opera's production of Carmen, Mr. Erlanson in Muddy River Opera's production of A Little Night Music, Ferrando in CandleOpera's production of Cosi fan tutte, Rodolfo in N.O.V.A.'s production of La boheme, Arturo in Bowen Park Opera's production of Lucia di Lammermoor, and Larry/Matt in Face on the Barroom Floor with Fargo Moorhead Opera.
Mr. Skyles' concert performances have included the Beethoven 9th Symphony (tenor soloist) with the South Dakota Symphony, An Afternoon of Opera with the Huron Symphony Orchestra, Schütz Musikalische Exequien with Early Music Chicago, Bach's Magnificat with Urban Baroque in Chicago, Schubert's Mass in G, countless performances as tenor soloist in Handel's Messiah, and other varied concert works around the country. He also has performed as a professional member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and the Grant Park Symphony Chorus.
Assistant Professor of Music/Director, Aberdeen University-Civic Symphony
- 605-626-2519
Christopher Stanichar
Christopher Stanichar
Assistant Professor of Music/Director, Aberdeen University-Civic Symphony
Johnson Fine Arts Center 120
- 605-626-2519
D.M.A., M.M., Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
B.M., Central Washington University
“It was as though he were telling a story with his hands.” — Pravda Cevera (Russia)
“One of the best musical conductors to appear in Latin America”— Diario Xalapa (Mexico)
"The ever-smiling and extremely animated (Stanichar) guided the Everett Symphony through a superb performance filled with wit and charm… It was the kind of charismatic interaction with the audience and orchestra that showed the brilliance of Stanichar's directorial methods."
—Mukilteo Beacon (Seattle)
Christopher Stanichar (b. 1969) is an active conductor, composer, and educator. He is a popular conductor, having directed some of the finest orchestras in Europe, Russia, Mexico, and the United States. Stanichar is skilled at conducting all styles of music, whether it is the classical repertoire, new music, or pops repertoire.
He has collaborated with a wide variety of artists, including members of St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, The Texas Tenors, Mark O’Connor, the rock band Kansas, members, and many other world-class musicians.
He is also at home as an educator, working with ensembles of all ages, and using his passion for music as a catalyst to get the best out of the orchestras he conducts.
The Northwest Iowa Review noted: “ … We were impressed with Stanichar’s obvious energy, great joy of directing and outright enthusiasm.”
Stanichar is assistant professor at Northern State University, where he serves as the director of the Aberdeen University/Civic Symphony. Celebrating its 102nd season, the orchestra is the oldest continuous orchestra in the state of South Dakota, and attracts musicians from Minnesota, North Dakota, and Iowa, as well as the surrounding area. Dr. Stanichar is the 17th conductor of the orchestra, and proud to carry on the tradition of great orchestral music in the Hub City of Aberdeen.
Stanichar is an active professional conductor throughout the Midwest, serving as music director of the Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra in Southwest Minnesota (since 2010)—a recipient of several regional grants, and broadcast regionally in a holiday special with the native American band, Brulé, on Pioneer Television (Minnesota PBS).
Stanichar earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts in conducting at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he was a student of Gerhard Samuel. He has participated in master classes with Ilya Musin, Daniel Lewis, Gerard Schwartz, Ken Keisler, and Bystrík Režucha, among others.
Stanichar was conducting assistant for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, working closely with maestros Jesus Lopez-Cobos and Erich Kunzel. He also received a Fulbright Scholarship to the Slovak Republic, allowing him to study and conduct professional orchestras in the homeland of his ancestors.
He has been music director to several exceptional orchestras: Seven Hills Sinfonietta (Cincinnati), Orchestra Omaha, Heartland Philharmonic Orchestra (Omaha), the Tri-City Symphony Youth Orchestra, Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestra, and is founding music director of the South Dakota Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Stanichar is an active composer whose works have been commissioned and performed throughout the world. His original work, Trisagion, was used in Ric Burns’ PBS documentary on Andy Warhol.
More recent projects include a full-length cantata, St. Mark Passion, written for the 150th anniversary of Augustana University as part of a Granskou grant. TrevCo-Varner Music publishes several of his works for English horn.
His composition, Tales of Hans Christian Anderson, is the first concerto for nyckelharpa, a Swedish folk instrument, which premiered with the Hastings Symphony Orchestra in Nebraska. This work was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2014.
In 2020, he was commissioned to compose the song cycle, She Loves, for colleagues Audrey Miller and Darci Bultema as part of a South Dakota Arts Council grant. In 2022, he received the prestigious Nora Staael Evert grant to write orchestral accompaniments for the band Brulé, which will debut in 2025.
Most recently, his composition Pink Ribbon for Susan, written for his friend Susan Hill as a tribute to her battle with breast cancer, was published by Edizioni Musicali Eufonia as his first European publication.
In his free time, Stanichar’s interests outside of music include Russian icons, foreign languages, and biking, and he is an avid pinball player. The most important thing to him is his family, and his children are active in the arts.
William Wieland
William Wieland
Professor of Piano and Music Theory
Spafford Hall 304
- 605-626-2499
Ph.D. Northwestern University
M.A. University of Minnesota
B.A. Valley City State College
Bill Wieland, a native of North Dakota, is an educator, composer and pianist. His compositions have received numerous awards and performances and he is often featured as a piano accompanist in the region. Dr. Wieland earned a bachelor of arts in composite music (piano) from Valley City State College in 1986, a master of arts in theory and composition from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities in 1988 and a doctor of music in composition from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., in 1991. He has taught at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, De Paul University and Northwestern University.
He began teaching music theory, piano, music technology and composition at Northern State University in 1994 and served as coordinator of the music and theatre department from 2000-2010. In addition to teaching, composing and accompanying, Dr. Wieland leads the piano session of the International Music Camp and corrects AP music theory exams every summer.
Associate Professor of Music, Director of Choral Activities/Music History
- 605-626-7758
Timothy Woods
Timothy Woods
Associate Professor of Music, Director of Choral Activities/Music History
Spafford Hall 317A
- 605-626-7758