Stan Engebretson came to Washington, DC in 1990 as the Director of Choral Studies at George Mason University and Director of Music at the historic New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. In 1994 he was the Conductor of the Masterworks Chorus and Orchestra that led to becoming the Artistic Director of the National Philharmonic Chorale in 2005. Originally from the upper Midwest, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano and voice from the University of North Dakota and a DMA in Conducting from Stanford University. Additional grants led to study with legendary choral mentors of our time, including Eric Ericson, Robert Shaw, Gregg Smith, Richard Westenburg, Roger Wagner, and Margaret Hillis.

Engebretson is a frequent guest conductor, adjudicator, and clinician throughout the United States and abroad, most often in Germany, but also Switzerland, Italy, France, Russia, Lithuania, Cuba, South Korea, and in Iceland where he was a Senior Specialist Scholar for the Fulbright Foundation. His choirs had great tour experiences with Varna International performing Verdi Requiem in Italy in 2011 and a Mozart concert tour to Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague in 2015. Most recently he returned from a two-year residency at The American Church in Paris, where he was Guest Artist in Residence and Interim Director of Music. Currently he is the Music Director and Organist at Bethesda Presbyterian Church and is honored to join the distinguished music faculty at the Catholic University of America in fall of 2026 to teach graduate choral conducting and repertoire courses. In 2027, he looks forward to leading advanced choral conducting at a Columbia, South Carolina choral festival, and in the summer, return for his third choral tour to Amalfi, Italy.