Biography
Peggy Dettwiler, DMA is Professor Emeritus of Music and recently retired as Director of Choral Activities at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania, where she conducted the Concert Choir, Festival Chorus, and Chamber Singers, and taught choral conducting and methods. She retired in 2025, returning as a guest conductor of the MU Festival Chorus in Spring 2026.
Dettwiler served as director of choral activities at Mansfield for 35 years, transforming a small rural program into an internationally recognized choral powerhouse through her visionary leadership and commitment to students.
At Mansfield, Dettwiler led nine European concert tours highlighted by major international competition awards, including recognition in Germany, Austria, Wales, Bulgaria, France, and Latvia. Due to its reputation for musical excellence, Mansfield received multiple invitations to perform at Carnegie Hall. Her Mansfield choirs drew praise for performances in productions such as “The Sound of Music” and “Candide,” and helped bring national attention to the university’s music program. In honor of her decades of dedication and “brilliant choral leadership,” alumni established an endowed scholarship in her name earlier this year.
She holds the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. She also has a Master of Music Degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a Master of Music Degree in Music Education from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Under her baton, the Mansfield University Concert Choir was invited to perform at state, regional, national, or international choral conventions for twenty-three consecutive years, and won eleven gold medals and numerous prizes in international competitions.
In 2010, Dr. Dettwiler received the Elaine Brown Award for Choral Excellence from the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association, and she placed second in 2011 and 2013 for the American Prize for Choral Conductors at the College/University level.
Dettwiler has served as a guest conductor and lecturer throughout the country and has given presentations at numerous NAfME and ACDA Conventions. She has produced two DVDs, one entitled, “Developing a Vocal Color Palette for Various Choral Styles” and the second, “Sing in Style.”
Dettwiler made her conducting debut in Carnegie Hall in January 2014 and presented an interest session at the World Choral Symposium in Seoul, Korea in August 2014.
In 2015, she received the Presidential Coin for Excellence from General Francis Hendricks, then-President of Mansfield University, and was designated “2015 Honored Artist of the American Prize.” In 2016, she served on the jury for the World Choir Games in Sochi, Russia, and was one of ten conductors from seven countries, who participated in the course, CONDUCTING 21C: Musical Leadership for a New Century, held in Stockholm, Sweden.
In January of 2017, Dettwiler served as Artistic Director for the concert, “Of War, Peace, and the Power of Music,” held in Carnegie Hall and sponsored by Performing Arts Educators. In 2018, she prepared 80 singers from Mansfield University to sing the choruses for Carnegie Hall’s Gala Benefit Celebration of Bernstein’s Candide, garnering a “superb” mention in the New York Times.
She is a past President of the Eastern Division of the American Choral Directors Association.
In Fall 2022, Dettwiler and her husband musicologist Dr. Jürgen Thym, jointly were honored as part of the Eastman Centennial Celebration in Rochester, NY for their contributions to artistry, scholarship, community engagement, and philanthropy.
- To read more about Peggy Dettwiler, check out Peggy’s Story: From an Illinois Farm to Carnegie Hall, Mansfield University’s Peggy Dettwiler Made Herself into one of America’s Finest Choral Conductors