Alma College | Music Department | Faculty: Will Nichols

Will Nichols is the Secrest Professor of Music and Director of Choirs at Alma College where he conducts the Alma College Choir, the College Chorale and the Women's Glee Club. Under his leadership the Alma Choirs have become one of the nation’s highly regarded collegiate choral programs.

Dr. Nichols is a professional singer with an active career as a soloist in classical and popular styles. A bass-baritone, Will has sung with many of the major Symphony Orchestras (Grand Rapids, Midland, Saginaw, Interlochen) and Oratorio Societies (Michigan Bach Collegium, Central Michigan University, Calvin College, Kalamazoo College, Michigan Tech University).

He has sung with Maestro Helmut Rilling in the U.S., Germany, Poland, and Spain, and he is a member of the renowned and Grammy winning Oregon Bach Festival Chorus.

Dr. Nichols is a graduate of Western Michigan University where he studied with Profesor Mel Ivey and Michigan State University where he conducted the Men's Glee Club and studied with Professor Ethel Armeling and Dr. Charles Smith. Before coming to Alma College in 1983, Dr. Nichols taught in the public schools of Greenville, Michigan.

For ten years Dr. Nichols was the Director and Dean of the Bay View Music Festival and Summer Conservatory of Music in Northern Michigan. He is a past president of the Michigan Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. He and his wife, Pamela, are the parents of Jennifer, Christian, Wilson, and Elizabeth.