Scott Hanoian’s Milestone 10th UMS ‘Messiah’

By UMS

This weekend marks a milestone for UMS Choral Union music director and conductor, Scott Hanoian, as he takes the podium for his 10th UMS presentation of Handel’s Messiah, a tradition that has been at the root of UMS since its founding in 1879.

Please enjoy these messages of congratulations from the UMS community:

Scott made his UMS debut on December 5, 2015 as conductor and music director of Handel’s Messiah, leading the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra (A2SO) and UMS Choral Union at Hill Auditorium. Only six years later, Scott would unexpectedly find himself navigating choral singing in one of the first public UMS presentations coming out of the COVID-19 Pandemic in December 2021.

Scott has inspired audiences — and artists — in memorable performances of Western Classical choral works presented at Hill Auditorium, including last March’s UMS presentation of Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky Live with the UMS Choral Union and A2SO, marking Scott’s conducting debut synchronizing film and accompanying score; 2019’s Britten War Requiem with the UMS Choral Union, A2SO, and Ann Arbor Youth Chorale; and 2016’s mixed-choral program, Love is Strong as Death.

Throughout the past 11 years, Scott has remarkably served as chorus master of the UMS Choral Union, delivering exciting choir preparations for esteemed international conductors including Jader Bignamini, Dennis Russell Davies, Iván Fischer, Alan Gilbert, Earl Lee, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jeffrey Schindler, Leonard Slatkin, Alain Trudel, and Osmo Vänskä.

At the heart of Scott’s work is his commitment to community. Summer Sings, a UMS series of community music-making events leading as many as 250 singers from southeastern Michigan, northern Ohio, and Canada in great choral repertoire with some of the nation’s most respected choral conductors and outstanding soloists, exemplifies his commitment. Scott has worked tirelessly to develop relationships between chorus members and audiences and to value an investment in community on an equal platform at his acclaimed presentations.

His passion — and humor — on the podium has resulted in Scott being an especially beloved leader of the 150+ members of the UMS Choral Union. Scott annually gifts homemade pickles to UMS Choral Union staff at every Messiah and has even welcomed a service animal into the chorus, a Samoyed named Maya.

Please join UMS in congratulating Scott on his myriad accomplishments and artistic successes in serving the UMS Choral Union over the past 11 years!