Dr. Gary D. Cannon is one of the Seattle area’s most versatile choral personalities, active as conductor, musicologist, singer, educator, composer, and editor. In 2016, he founded the Emerald Ensemble, as Artistic Director and conductor.
Since 2008, Dr. Cannon has served as conductor and Artistic Director of two prominent community choirs. The Cascadian Chorale, a fifty-voice chamber choir based in the Eastside suburb of Bellevue, performs a historical breadth of mostly unaccompanied repertoire including frequent premieres of works by Seattle-area composers. The Vashon Island Chorale, numbering 60–80 unauditioned singers, is a focal point of its island’s arts community, often performing major works with orchestra. At the invitation of the Early Music Guild, Dr. Cannon founded and directed a Renaissance choir, Sine Nomine (2008–15), the first community choir devoted to that repertoire in Seattle. He has three times conducted for Vashon Opera, and has served the Northwest Mahler Festival as guest conductor and chorusmaster many times over the last twenty years. Equally comfortably directing professional and volunteer ensembles, he has also conducted Anna’s Bay Chamber Choir, Choral Arts Northwest, Earth Day Singers, Kirkland Choral Society, Seattle Praetorius Singers, several choirs at the University of Washington, and others. As of 2025, he has conducted the world premieres of at least sixty-three new works.
Dr. Cannon gives pre-concert lectures for Seattle Symphony and has provided written program notes for choirs across the country. He has also supplied liner notes for several recordings by Choral Arts Northwest on the Gothic label. His research and writing topics span music of nine centuries, with special emphasis on William Walton and other twentieth-century English composers. In 2024, he joined the faculty of Edmonds College, where he teaches voice lessons. He has taught at Whatcom College (2004–6), where he received the Faculty Excellence Award, given to just one adjunct faculty member annually. As a tenor, he has appeared as a soloist with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle Philharmonic, and the Auburn, Eastside, Rainier, and Sammamish Symphony Orchestras, as well as Byrd Ensemble, Canonici, Les Chanterelles, Choral Arts Northwest, Master Chorus Eastside, St. James Cathedral Cantorei, Seattle Bach Choir, and Tudor Choir.
Dr. Cannon is also active as a composer, arranger, and orchestrator. His O Absalom, which was premiered by the Emerald Ensemble, was a finalist for the 2025 American Prize in choral composition of shorter works. He was the founding Secretary and long-time board member of the Greater Seattle Choral Consortium. His editions of public-domain works are posted at the Choral Public Domain Library and have been performed by ensembles across the world.
A California native, Dr. Cannon holds an undergraduate degree from the University of California at Davis, where he sang under Paul Hillier and Jeffrey Thomas and studied musicology with Anna Maria Busse Berger, D. Kern Holoman, and Christopher Reynolds. His doctoral work at the University of Washington included conducting studies with Geoffrey Paul Boers, Peter Erős, Abraham Kaplan, and James Savage, musicology seminars with George Bozarth, and vocal training from Julian Patrick.
More information about Dr. Cannon is available at www.cannonesque.com.