Executive Director
Dr. Bruce Earnest
bruce@moravianmusic.org
office: 336-725-0651
mobile: 605-670-8180
Greeting from Bruce
Dr. Earnest comes to the Moravian Music Foundation from the University of Mobile where he was Vice President of Advancement and a member of the graduate faculty. He has also served as Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dean of Graduate Programs, and Associate Dean of the Alabama School of the Arts.
Bruce Earnest is co-founder of the International Performing Arts Institute in Kiefersfelden, Germany and Fairhope, AL, and founder of the International Performing Arts Scholarship Guild. As a specialist in resource development, community engagement, international education, and donor cultivation, Bruce has been involved in building non-profit and educational arts organizations for more than 30 years.
He has served in music and worship ministry in the United States and Germany for 22 years.
Earnest earned his Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Southern Mississippi. He holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Miami, a Bachelor of Arts in Music Administration from Westfield State University, and has studied planned giving and philanthropic communication at the Heyman Center for Philanthropy at New York University.
Dr. Earnest has stage directed, music directed, or produced over 120 musical theatre and opera productions at universities and professionally. As an artist, Bruce appeared as a soloist in concert, opera and musical theatre in the United States, Germany, and Austria. Bruce has worked with Barbara Daniels, Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, Helen Donath, Barbara Bonney, Jason Robert Brown, Scott Allen, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Maltby, David Shire, Sherril Milnes, Robert Westenberg, Thomas Hampson, Robert Evans, Russel Young, Franklin Summers, Richard Owens, Kenneth Manzer, Oresta Cybriwsky, Michael Vale, Robin Jensen, Michael Strauss, and many other others.
Bruce is an early pioneer in the development of vocal technique designed to provide safe pedagogical approaches for singing musical theatre styles called Belting. He has presented master classes and workshops on the voice, opera, German, casting, career development, auditioning, song interpretation, entrepreneurship, arts administration, educational leadership, global engagement, strategic planning, and program development at universities, theatres, conferences, and professional programs throughout the United States, Thailand, and Europe. He is Producing Artistic Director of the International Performing Arts Institute in Germany and founded the organization in 2007.
From 2001 to 2005 Dr. Earnest was Guest Associate Professor of Voice at the Hochschule for Music in Munich, Germany and a production consultant for Stage Entertainment in Hamburg and Essen, Germany. He also served as founder and Director of Musical Theatre and Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida from 1995 to 2000, and as Director of Musical Theatre and Associate Professor at The University of South Dakota from 2006 to 2009.
Since 2010, Dr. Earnest has been a professor, department chair, graduate dean, and vice president for advancement. Bruce has a Doctorate in Musical Arts from the University of Southern Mississippi, a Master of Music from the University of Miami, and a Bachelor of Arts from Westfield State University.
