Vocal Camp
Vocal Camp
Rowan Music Vocal Camp
Open to students entering 8th through 12th grade, this dynamic five-day camp offers participants the opportunity to study with fine choral and vocal technicians from Rowan's music faculty. Students participate in large and small ensembles, experience challenging quality repertoire, and have group coaching sessions throughout the week. Campers will develop their musicianship and improve their vocal technique as they perform in master classes and large ensemble rehearsals. They will work closely with current Rowan music students who serve as counselors and section leaders throughout the week.
Evening concerts provide opportunities to hear world-class musicians, instrumental and vocal, from various musical backgrounds. Students will have multiple performance opportunities in solo and ensemble settings, working alongside faculty and fellow campers.
The vocal camp culminates in a group performance on the Pfleeger Concert Hall stage. All vocal campers should come prepared with concert attire, including a black dress or black pants or skirt and a black shirt with comfortable black dress shoes.
Each camper will have a short, informal placement session at the start of camp. They will be asked to perform basic vocal exercises for one of the camp counselors to help the camp director assign voice parts for the duration of camp.
Camp 2025 Info
Dates: Sunday, July 20 through Thursday, July 24 2025
Location: Wilson Hall, Rowan University's Glassboro Campus
Register Here
Camp Faculty:

Christopher B. Thomas is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ, Artistic Director of the 130+ voice Greater South Jersey Chorus in Haddonfield, NJ, and past-president of the New Jersey chapter of the American Choral Director’s Association (NJACDA).
At Rowan University, Dr. Thomas oversees four curricular choirs comprised of over two-hundred singers. He conducts the Rowan University Concert Choir, the flagship choral ensemble of the department of music; Voces, a chamber ensemble which performs early, contemporary, and improvisatory projects, and University Chorus, which is open to both music majors and students across campus. Additionally, Dr. Thomas teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in choral conducting and choral literature. Under his direction, choirs at Rowan University have performed at regional and state conferences of ACDA and NJMEA and internationally on tours throughout Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Poland. Recent highlights of the choral program have included a successful 2019 Tenor|Bass Festival which hosted over 1400 young tenors and basses, a performance by the Concert Choir for the 2020 Eastern Division ACDA conference in Rochester, NY in the beautiful Hochstein School of Music, performing The Here and Now, a multi-movement setting of texts by Rumi, scored for choir and wind ensemble by American composer Christopher Theofanidis, serving as the chorus for the Rowan Opera Company’s production of Amahl and the Night Visitors, and a collaboration with the University Orchestra in a presentation of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem and Jake Runestad’s Dreams of the Fallen, a setting of texts by veterans of the Iraq war.
And while it is indulgent to ruminate on the quality and depth of experiences prior to March 2020, the choirs have recently been discovering the importance of community music making through a combination of masked rehearsals, performances, and virtual work. While we have no recent impressive major works, performance venues, or tales of travel to boast upon, we do have a greater appreciation for one another, the power of singing together, and will never again take for granted the unmasked faces of those among us.
Dr. Thomas has twice been invited to serve as assistant conductor and instructor for the Varna International Music Academy, culminating in performances of The Creation by Joseph Haydn and Mozart’s Requiem in opera houses throughout Bulgaria. Domestically, guest conducting engagements including all-state and regional honor choruses have taken him to Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. His work as a guest conductor is consistently recognized as energetic, inspiring, enthusiastic, and inclusive of all levels of experience and ability.
In addition to his academic positions, Dr. Thomas is in his fifth season as the Artistic Director of the Greater South Jersey Chorus, which collaborates with regional orchestras and guest musicians to present major works in addition to stand-alone performances. Under his leadership the choir has grown in size and stature. Recent performances have included Beethoven Ninth Symphony, Puccini Messa di Gloria, James Whitbourn Annelies, Handel Messiah, Haydn Creation, Mozart Solemn Vespers, Respighi Laud to the Nativity, Vivaldi Gloria, and Conrad Susa Carols and Lullabies.
Dr. Thomas studied music education at Millikin University with Dr. Brad Holmes and earned his graduate degrees in Choral Conducting at the University of Arizona under the direction of Dr. Bruce Chamberlain. Chris lives in Glassboro, NJ with his two beautiful children Greyson and Elandra “Ella” who both love to laugh and are known to throw impressive impromptu living room dance parties.

Soprano Lauren Athey-Janka serves as Assistant Professor of Voice and Voice Pedagogy at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, where she teaches applied voice, vocal pedagogy, vocal literature, and diction courses. She has taught classical voice for almost 20 years and has professional classical voice students in the USA, Canada, and throughout Europe.
Ms. Athey-Janka is on the voice faculties of Opera Viva! in Verona, Italy and the Florence Voice Seminar in Florence, Italy. She formerly taught at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Vocal Program. She was recently invited to give masterclasses at the renowned Het Conservatorium van Amsterdam in The Netherlands and frequently gives masterclasses at universities and conservatories internationally. She has also served on the voice faculties of Westminster Choir College and West Chester University, teaching both undergraduate and graduate students.
Ms. Athey-Janka's students have performed with and been accepted to Academy of Vocal Arts, New York City Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Opera North, Wolf Trap Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Saratoga, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Iowa, Spoleto Festival, Opera Delaware, Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra Montréal, Muziekgebouw aan't IJ in the Netherlands, Theater Rochester Biel Solothurn, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Copenhagen Opera Festival, Nordrhein-Westphalia Opera Studio (NWR Opernstudio), Oper Dortmund, Oper Wuppertal, Aalto Musiktheater Essen, Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirche, Stadttheater Gießen, Opernfest Berlin, Wad Opera in The Netherlands, The Royal Opera Academy in Copenhagen, OPERA2DAY, Jonge Grote Zangers Young Artist Program, Ensemble Volte in Montréal, Nightingale Opera Theatre, Seagle Music Colony, Oberlin in Italy, Chicago Summer Opera, and the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. Her students have placed and won in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, Lotte Lenya, Talent Gala of the Opéra de Montréal, Classical Singer, Schmidt, and NATS competitions.
Ms. Athey-Janka co-authored a series of five anthologies for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone and bass with Dr. Christopher Arneson. These anthologies were written in response to their critically acclaimed first literary collaboration "Literature for Teaching: A Guide for Teaching Solo Vocal Repertoire from a Developmental Perspective". They plan to continue this work for countertenor and contralto voices.
Ms. Athey-Janka has studied voice science, voice pedagogy, voice disorders, and speech with leading industry professionals. She received a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from Boston University, Master of Music degrees in Voice Performance and Vocal Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College, and completed post graduate coursework at Temple University. Ms. Athey-Janka has continued her pedagogical education with The Voice Foundation Annual Symposiums, National Association of Teachers of Singing National Conferences, Westminster Choir College's Voice Pedagogy Institute, and The David Jones Teacher Mentoring Program. In 2014, Ms. Athey-Janka was the winner of the Milton Cross Young Artists Program, and in 2013, won an Enrichment Grant from the Music Teachers National Association Foundation Fund.