Adan Alejandro Fernandez, DMA
Adjunct Faculty Member - Campus Organist
He/Him
About
Dr. Adán Alejándro Fernández is a conductor, scholar, organist, and educator whose work bridges choral excellence, sacred music scholarship, and community engagement. He serves as Director of Music and Liturgy at Holy Family Catholic Church in Glendale, California, where he oversees a comprehensive music ministry that includes adult, youth, and children's choirs, handbells, instrumental ensembles, and major liturgical and concert programming. His leadership has included large-scale performances of masterworks, historically informed early music, multilingual liturgies, and collaborations with professional musicians and community organizations.
A passionate choral conductor, Dr. Fernández has held conducting appointments with the National Children's Chorus, California Lutheran University, Chaffey College, Kol Tikvah, the Claremont Chorale, and the Glendale Youth Symphony, which he founded. His choirs have been recognized nationally, including selection as finalists for The American Prize, and his conducting studies have been enriched through fellowships with the Kansas City Chorale, Yale Sacred Music Academy, Anderson Conducting Academy, the International Conductors Guild, the Los Angeles Conducting Institute, and the University of Illinois Choral Conducting Institute.
Dr. Fernández's scholarship focuses on sacred choral music, Latin American liturgical traditions, congregational song, and the relationship between music, culture, and theology. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in Sacred Music, Choral Music, Organ Performance, and Musicology from the University of Southern California, where his studies combined historical research with practical musicianship. His publications have appeared in Religions, CrossAccent, Reformed Worship, and GIA Publications, while his presentations have been featured at the Hymn Society, the North American Academy of Liturgy, the American Choral Directors Association, and numerous national and international conferences. His recent work explores topics including Nueva Canción as devotional practice, Latin American Mass settings after Vatican II, Kodály pedagogy for multilingual choirs, and sacred counterpoint.
In addition to his conducting and research, Dr. Fernández teaches at the Colburn School and California Lutheran University, where he instructs courses in ear training, keyboard harmony, choral music, liturgy, and musicianship while mentoring the next generation of church musicians and conductors. Through his performances, publications, and educational leadership, he advocates for historically informed performance, multicultural sacred repertoire, and the transformative role of choral singing in worship and public life.