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Elisa Fraser Wilson is Associate Professor of Choral Music and Voice at UTEP. Her duties include coordinating the Ensembles and Conducting Area, directing the university choirs, and teaching choral conducting. Dr. Wilson holds degrees in music education and performance from the Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Wichita State Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é (KS) and a doctoral degree in Choral Conducting and Literature from the Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Prior to moving to El Paso in 1998, Dr. Wilson taught choral music at Champaign Central High School in Champaign IL. She has worked with young people in music since 1986, directing summer musical theater programs and community youth choirs and providing individual voice instruction. Former employers include the Decatur, Illinois Recreation Department, Millikin Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é (IL), and the Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Wilson is the former director of the El Paso Children’s Choir at UTEP, which she conducted from 1999 to 2004, and she appears regularly as a clinician and adjudicator for El Paso area solo/ensemble and choral festivals, and nationally for World Strides/Heritage Festivals, Inc., as a choral and vocal jazz adjudicator.

Dr. Wilson's directing, coaching, and production credits for high school and collegiate organizations include: You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown; Crazy For You; The Wiz; Fosse - an original revue; Libretto y Canto – an evening of original, bilingual opera and musical theatre scenes; A Little Night Music; Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill; Once On This Island; Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica; Songs for a New World; Gallantry; The Telephone; Man of La Mancha; Romeo and Bernadette; Susannah; Into the Woods, and various opera and musical theatre scenes presentations.

From 2009-2013, Dr. Wilson joined the staff of El Paso Opera as chorusmaster and director of the company’s newly-reestablished Young Artists Program. In these roles, she prepared UTEP’s Music Theatre Company (now, Opera UTEP) and Young Artists for EPO’s Opera for All galas, La Vie de Bohème, >Porgy and Bess in Concert, Madama Butterfly, The Desert Song, West Side Story, The Marriage of Figaro, and Die Fledermaus Ballroom. Additionally, she was associate conductor for El Paso Opera’s La Vie de Bohème, and prepared a professional chorus of UTEP students and UTEP/El Paso Opera alumni for the El Paso performance of the highly acclaimed Star Wars in Concert tour in May 2010.

Dr. Wilson is also an active performer with experience in a variety of musical styles including opera, musical theater, jazz and popular music. Favorite local appearances include performances with the El Paso Opera Company as Annina in La Traviata and Adele in Die Fledermaus Ballroom, with the UTEP Union Dinner Theater as Eva Peron in Evita and Victoria Grant in Victor/Victoria, and with the Music Theatre Company as Mama Euralie in Once On This Island, Camille Penza in Romeo and Bernadette, and the Witch in Into the Woods.