Our Team
Shawn Funk
Artistic Director & Conductor of Bel Canto Singers
Artistic Director of Pittsburgh Youth Chorus since 2015, Shawn Funk has been working with young voices for more than 30 years and recently retired from Fox Chapel School District after 32 years of service in public school music education. In addition to his teaching appointment there, he served as the district’s music department chair for 17 years. He has held adjunct professorships in music education and piano at Clarion University, Point Park University and Duquesne University, and he currently serves as a part-time faculty member at the Mary Pappert School of Music, Duquesne University. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in music education as a piano and voice major and a Master of Music degree in piano performance.
In music education and performance, he holds postgraduate credits from the University of Memphis, Northwestern University, Penn State University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Colorado. He holds level III Orff Certification from the University of Memphis and pursued an advanced choral conducting study with Robert Harris at Northwestern University, Shirley McRae at the University of Memphis, and Christine Jordanoff at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
In 2011, he received the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association’s “Citation of Excellence Award” for his work in the area of music education. At Fox Chapel, Funk served as one of the first fully inclusive classrooms, developing programs for students with exceptionalities to be educated in their home school with their typical peers. He has been a featured presenter at numerous national conferences of the American Orff Schulwerk Association, state, division, and national NAfME conferences, as well as state, division and national ACDA conferences. He currently serves as the Youth Choir R & R Coordinator for ACDA-PA as well as serving as guest conductor/clinician for numerous choral festivals throughout the eastern seaboard. During the summer of 2017, he led the Pittsburgh Youth Chorus on their first international tour, with performances in Canterbury Cathedral and London. During his artistic leadership at Pittsburgh Youth Chorus, the organization has expanded its outreach to develop Neighborhood Training Choirs in 4 locations, as well as the development of a satellite choral program at Grove City College (PYC@GCC). In his work with Pittsburgh Youth Chorus, he has prepared children’s choirs for performances in Pittsburgh Opera’s productions of “Hansel and Gretel”, “Tosca,” “Turandot” “La Boheme” and “Carmen,” as well as collaborative performances with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Pittsburgh Public Theater, the Chautauqua Symphony, the Wheeling Symphony, the Mendelssohn Choir and the Jr. Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh among others.