Mr. Richey joined the Conservatory of Music as Director taking over for Dr. Mark Reagan in October 2020. Mr. Richey resides in Monroe, Louisiana where he continues to teach music and choir at Geneva Academy in West Monroe, LA. He is the founder and director of the Delta Youth Chorale, a children’s community choir that promotes music literacy through singing, folk dance, and other activities. Previously, Mr. Richey has directed choir, taught voice, and music appreciation classes at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He received his bachelor’s degree at Louisiana Tech University before completing his Masters of Music at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He also completed his national Kodály music teacher certification from Wichita State University. Mr. Richey is currently a doctoral student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary working toward a Ph.D. in Church Music and Worship.
Additionally, each summer he teaches solfege musicianship, folk-dancing, and folk song research and analysis courses for their Kodály music teacher training program, the Chenaniah Summer Music Institute. He is also an active elementary and middle school choir clinician and serves on the executive board of the Louisiana chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. He is the founder of the Jubilate Deo Summer Music Camp, a week-long choir and music camp open to kindergarten through college freshmen each June. He is the author of BACH to the Future: Fostering Music Literacy Today (2016) and general editor and contributing author to Raise the Song: A Classical Christian Guide to Music Education (2019). Jarrod and his lovely wife, Sarah, have seven choristers in training ranging from ages infant to thirteen.