Faculty and Staff

Dr. Richard Schnipke serves as Assistant Professor of Choral Activities at Bowling Green State University.  His duties at BGSU include conducting the Collegiate Chorale and Men’s Chorus, as well as teaching graduate courses in choral repertoire and conducting.  Previously, Dr. Schnipke held faculty positions at Xavier University and The Ohio State University and spent 15 years as a public school choral director.  He holds degrees from Bowling Green State University and Ohio State University, and has done additional graduate studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.  

Choirs under Schnipke’s direction have sung for conferences of the Ohio Music Education Association, the Ohio Choral Directors Association, and the American Musicological Society, as well as national seminars of the Intercollegiate Male Choruses organization.  Dr. Schnipke also frequently presents at state, regional, and national conferences on the incorporation of Dalcroze Eurhythmics in the choral rehearsal.

As a vocalist, Schnipke performs regularly as a professional chorister and has served as tenor section leader for Cincinnati’s Vocal Arts Ensemble (Grammy Award winner, Craig Hella Johnson, music director).  Dr. Schnipke also currently serves as Vice/Past-President of the Ohio Choral Directors Association.

​Michael Gartz is accompanist for the choirs at BGSU. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music with a Bachelor’s Degree in Organ Performance, and a minor in piano. Further studies were undertaken at Eastman in Musicology. He currently serves as organist of St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, and organist for the Toledo Diocesan Choir at Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral. He is also organist for the Canterbury Singers USA, which has performed in various English cathedrals, including Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's, Ely, Norwich, Chester, Liverpool, York Minster, Christ Church, Oxford and St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. Michael is well known internationally as the owner of "Liberty Music", a mail-order firm specializing in rare classical 78-rpm records. Many records from his personal collection of 30,000 discs have been used in various CD transfers, on labels such as Pearl, Naxos, Tahra and Arbiter. His particular field of study, uniting his background as a performing musician and record collector, is performance practice of the Romantic era, with emphasis on early recordings by composers and their pupils.