Donna McNeil Cox has been a part of the music faculty since 1990 and served as Coordinator of Vocal Activities for six of those years. Dr. Cox was appointed Chair of the Music Department in 2001. She continues to direct three of the University's choral ensembles: Celebration Vocal Transit , Choral Union, and the Ebony Heritage Singers. She received both the M.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Performance Practices: Choral Conducting from Washington University-St. Louis. Her undergraduate studies were taken at Virginia Union University (Richmond) in Music Education and Voice. Dr. Cox has extensive and varied performance experiences. She has performed with the famed Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Dayton Bach Society, Baroque scholar Nicholas McGegan and gospel and popular music stars Daryl Coley, Deneice Williams, Barry Manilow, Richard Smallwood, Patrick Henderson, and Dionne Warwick. She also performs as vocalist of the University of Dayton Faculty Jazztet and together with Willie Morris makes up the Ellington Duo, which specializes in the performance of works by African American composers and arrangers of spirituals, jazz, gospel, and classical pieces suitable for soprano and saxophone. A Quarterfinalist in the American Traditions Competition, Savannah On Stage, Dr. Cox has performed in Dublin, Ireland, London, England, Boissy, France, and Ghana, West Africa.
Dr. Cox is published in The Journal of Black Sacred Music, Triad, Rejoice!, Ethnomusicology and several church publications. Her chapter, "Eurocentric Hegemony In The College Music Curriculum: The African American Woman Professor Singing The Blues," appears in Black Women In The Academy: Promises and Perils (Florida University Press, 1997). Music In The Classroom: An Integrative Approach is available from Erudition Books, and contains complete lessons for use by either the music specialist or classroom teacher. She has received several grants to further her research in gospel music. The annual Gospel Music Workshop, directed by Dr. Cox, is rapidly achieving recognition throughout academe for its contributions to gospel music scholarship. In addition, she has orchestrated a weekend symposium highlighing the works and lives of African American composers and arrangers in celebration of William Levi Dawson's centennial (1999) and a Celebration of African American Sacred Music focusing specifically on the spiritual and gospel songs (2000).
Dr. Cox has led several successful international educational trips in recent years. She just returned from a twenty-one day European Exploration. During the summer of 2002 she will offer a hands-on workshop on African drumming, dance, storytelling and culture in Ghana, West Africa. Graduate credit is available for this excursion.
Dr. Cox has presented at several regional and national professional conferences including Music Educators National Conference, the Midwest Kodaly Music Educators of America, Ohio Music Education Association, American Music Therapy Association, Pennsylvania Music Educators Association,Illinois Music Educators Association, and American Choral Directors Association. As well, she has presented lectures and lecture/recitals at several universities including Berea College, Pennsylvania State University, Duke University Divinity School, Tiffin University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Colorado at Boulder. She served as the Ethnic/Multicultural Repertoire and Standards Chair for the Ohio Choral Directors Association and Multicultural Awareness Chair for the Ohio Music Education Association for several years. Dr. Cox also served as conference chair for Multicultural Awareness for OMEA 1999 and 1996. She is a regular conductor, clinician, and choral adjudicator.
In addition to teaching college music at the University of Dayton, Antelope Valley Community College, and Washington University, Dr. Cox has had varied other experiences. She served as Minister of Music at Omega Baptist Church, Choral Director-at-large at West Angeles Church Of God In Christ and music specialist in the Los Angeles Unified School District, St. Louis Public Schools, and Wilsona School District. Dr. Cox is a licensed preacher and leads the married couples' ministry at her home church. In her ministerial capacity she has taught Bible studies, workshops on Worship and Praise, vocal health, and music in the church, and organized marriage retreats and seminars.
Listen to Donna
Cox sing a section from"Winter" (56 sec., 459K .au) from Valerie Capers' 1987
song cycle, Song of the Seasons. Dr. Cox is accompanied here by Jennifer
Shoup, piano, and Jane Katsuyama, cello. This was recorded on September
13, 1997 in Sears Recital Hall.
Listen to Donna
Cox sing, in a gospel style, part of Nolan William's "Alleluia" (1 min. 17 sec., 612K .au). Dr. Cox is accompanied
here by musicians from theEbony Heritage Singers. This was recorded
as part of UD's Gospel Music Workshop on October 25, 1998 in the Kennedy Union
Ballroom.
2001-2002 Presentations:
| September 21-23, 2001 | Gospel Music Workshop | UD |
| October 12, 2001 | American Baptist Association Conference | Dayton, OH |
| November 16, 2001 | Westmoreland County Choral
Festival Guest Conductor | Pittsburgh, PA |
| February 10, 2002 | President's Concert | UD |
| March 6, 2002 | American Choral Directors Association
Honors' Choir Conductor | Chicago, IL |
| March 16, 2002 | Kettering Children's
Choir Guest Conductor | Kettering, OH |