Wyant Morton

New West Symphony Chorus, Director

Dr. Wyant Morton is Professor Emeritus at California Lutheran University where he served for 33 years in the Music Department as conductor of the Cal Lutheran Choral Ensembles, and where he now conducts the Cal Lutheran Alumni Choir. Morton continues to serve as conductor of Areté Vocal Ensemble (a chamber choir he founded in 2009) and is the director of the Chancel Choir at Ascension Lutheran Church in Thousand Oaks, CA.

In 2023, Morton was named Director of the New West Symphony Chorus and prepared Mozart’s Requiem for the chorus’ debut. He recently prepared the chorus for performances of Handel’s Messiah in 2024 and Orff’s Carmina Burana in 2025. Later this season, Morton will also prepare Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy as well as music for the Winter Dreams concert. In prior seasons, Morton prepared the Cal Lutheran Choral Ensembles for many performances with the New West Symphony including Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in 2022, A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream by Felix Mendelssohn in 2019 both with Michael Christie; Leonard Bernstein On Stage in 2017 with John Mauceri; Gloria by Francis Poulenc in 2017 with Kynan Johns; The Planets by Gustav Holst in 2016 and Daphnis et Chloé in 2015 with Marcelo Lehninger.

In 2012-13, Morton conducted concerts with Areté Vocal Ensemble in collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Minimalist Jukebox Festival curated by composer John Adams, and the Los Angeles Opera’s Britten 100/LA Festival, commemorating the centenary of composer Benjamin Britten. In 2017-18 Areté again collaborated with the Los Angeles Opera in the Leonard Bernstein Centenary.

Other highlights in Morton’s career have been conducting New Music Concerts at Cal Lutheran which he helped start in 2003. A memorable concert brought award winning composer and then Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen, to Thousand Oaks. The concert culminated with Morton conducting Salonen’s Five Images After Sappho, a performance the Los Angeles Times called “persuasive”. Morton has conducted similar concerts with Pulitzer Prize winning composers Henry Brant, Steven Stucky and David Lang. He has also collaborated with composers Libby Larsen and Morten Lauridsen; and Grammy Award winners Eric Whitacre (composer), Hila Plitmann (soprano), and Gloria Cheng (pianist).