Theodore Guerrant
THEODORE GUERRANT
PRINCIPAL ACCOMPANIST
Now in his 28th season as GMCW’s principal accompanist, “Dr. Teddy” began his musical life in his native College Park, Georgia, with piano lessons from his mother at age three, an Atlanta television appearance at age four on Freddie Miller’s Stars of Tomorrow and formal piano lessons with Regina Pudney at age five. At age 11 he began organ lessons with his then next door neighbor, Frank Willingham. By the time he was a senior in high school at Woodward Academy and studying piano with his aunt, Eliza Holmes Feldmann, then artist-in-residence at Brenau College in Gainesville, Georgia, Teddy was accompanying five choral groups and playing five church services every week. He went off to colleges with various scholarships and assistantships and eventually earned five degrees in keyboard performance (three in piano, one in harpsichord and one in organ) from the Universities of Georgia, Wisconsin and Maryland, as well as the Peabody Conservatory. He spent an idyllic summer in England studying piano with Denise Lassimonne in 1984, and ultimately settled down to juggle the six part-time positions he presently holds as organist-choirmaster at Saint Margaret’s Episcopal Church (Washington); associate organist at Saint Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church (Hyattsville); accompanist/rehearsal assistant for the Central Maryland Chorale, the National Philharmonic Chorale at Strathmore Hall and GMCW; and coach-accompanist in the University of Maryland School of Music where, among a wide variety of duties, he leads graduate students through their comprehensive exams, works with the resident faculty and artists such as Evelyn Lear, and accompanies his other men’s chorus, UMen. In his spare time, Dr. Teddy works at maintaining a century-plus old home in Laurel, Maryland’s historic district and several keyboard instruments older than his house.