Natasia Sexton

Associate Professor of Music, Fine Arts & Communications department chair

CHAMP

Department(s): Fine Arts

Biography:

Dr. Natasia Sexton came to Westminster College in 2009. In addition to conducting the Churchill Singers and teaching studio voice, she teaches Fundamentals of Music, Music of the Western World, Music in the Community, and Music of Resistance, Revolution, and Liberation.

Dr. Sexton has published articles and reviews for major music journals including a 2018 article in the MTNA e-Journal titled “Body Alignment and Awareness for Conductors: What’s Good for the Conductor is Good for the Ensemble” and a 2009 cover article for the Choral Journal analyzing choral settings of poetry by Sara Teasdale. As a choral clinician she has presented sessions for the Louisiana Choral Directors Association and Indiana Choral Directors Association, conducted the Northeast Arkansas Women’s Honor Choir, and adjudicated festivals in numerous states.

In 2020, she was appointed president of the Missouri Arts Foundation by the Executive Director of the Missouri Arts Council. In 2017, Governor Nixon appointed Dr. Sexton to the Missouri Arts Council board, and in that capacity she chaired a task force on arts integration in Missouri public schools. In February of 2018, she was the featured guest on KOPN’s “Glocal News in Social Artistry” where she was joined by Westminster students to discuss various musical initiatives used to build community.

Prior to her appointment at Westminster, Dr. Sexton taught at Franklin College in Indiana, at St. Andrew’s School in Saratoga, CA, and in the Fort Bragg Public Schools in California where her high school choirs received Superior ratings at district and state contests.

Beginning in 1996, she conducted the San Jose Symphony Chorus for three seasons where she prepared the chorus for performances of major works by Orff, Brahms, Stravinsky, Mahler, Fauré, and Beethoven. In 1998, she was one of 14 international conductors chosen to study with Helmuth Rilling at the world renowned Oregon Bach Festival.

A dedicated church musician, Dr. Sexton is the director of the Chancel Choir at First Presbyterian Church in Jefferson City, MO. Previously, she was the Director of Music at Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church in California, and Director of Children’s and Youth Music at Burlingame Presbyterian Church, also in California.

Dr. Sexton is a proud graduate of Louisiana State University with a DMA in choral conducting. As a graduate student there in 2001, she was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award and inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda National Honor Society. She completed a MA degree in choral music at San Jose State University in 1998 where she was a conducting assistant of Dr. Charlene Archibeque’s. Dr. Sexton graduated magna cum laude from Belmont University in 1992 with a BM degree in voice performance. At Belmont, she was inducted into Alpha Chi National Honor Society in 1991.

Dr. Sexton is an active member of American Choral Directors Association, Music Educators National Conference, College Music Society, and National Association of Teachers of Singing.