CLU music professor honored

Download photo

Wyant Morton of Thousand Oaks joined the CLU faculty in 1992 and is currently the chair of the music department and director of choral and vocal activities.

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – May 19, 2009) An accomplished and popular music professor received the President’s Excellence in Teaching Award during Honors Convocation at California Lutheran University on May 15.

Wyant Morton of Thousand Oaks joined the CLU faculty in 1992 and is currently the chair of the music department and director of choral and vocal activities. He is the third conductor in the history of the CLU Choir, which has performed at Lincoln Center and in England, Norway and Sweden under his direction. The spring 2010 tour is slated for Italy.

While his colleagues selected Wyant for this award, students selected Morton as Professor of the Year in 2001. An enthusiastic and caring teacher, Morton is praised by students for encouraging them to strive for excellence in their music and in their lives. He has also received Positive Impact Recognition and Masters of Mentoring awards at CLU.

Off campus, Morton maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator. In 2005, he conducted Esa-Pekka Salonen’s “Five Images After Sappho,” a performance the Los Angeles Times called “persuasive.” Morton conducted similar concerts in 2003 and 2007 with Pulitzer Prize-winning composers Henry Brant and Steven Stucky.

Morton earned bachelor’s degrees in music and marketing from Gonzaga University and a master’s and doctorate in choral conducting from University of Arizona, where he studied with Maurice Skones. The University of Arizona School of Music presented him with an Alumni Award for Excellence in Performing and Teaching in 1995. 

A former CLU president created the Excellence in Teaching Award in 1995 to recognize professors who are held in high esteem by their peers, the students and the university community.