Barbara Lamont, D.M.A

Dr. Barbara Lamont is Full Professor and Director of Choral Activities at Southeast Missouri State University where she directs all choral ensembles and teaches choral music education classes and conducting.  She has a passion for conducting, teaching, and exploring the choral arts with young singers and has served as adjudicator, clinician, and honor choir conductor in Missouri, New York, Ohio, Arkansas, Texas, and Illinois. Dr. Lamont enjoys exploring the connection between yoga/kinesthesia and choral singing and has presented sessions on yoga for choir directors and their singers at several conferences. She has served as a resource chair in multiple areas for the Missouri Choral Directors Association as well as a pianist for honor choirs and sessions at MCDA, SWACDA, and national ACDA conferences. Additionally, she is a very active collaborative pianist with faculty, students, and guest artists at SEMO.

Prior to graduate studies, Dr. Lamont was the vocal music director at Northeastern High School and South Vienna Middle School in Springfield, Ohio, where she directed the choirs and musicals as well as taught general music.  During this time she was also the accompanist and assistant conductor of the Capital University Choral Union under Dr. Lynda Hasseler and was involved in community theatre. An Ohio native, Dr. Lamont is a summa cum laude graduate of Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, with a Bachelor of Music in vocal music education.  While at Capital, she was a section leader and choral assistant in the Chapel Choir and accompanied extensively in the Conservatory.

Dr. Lamont received her Master of Music degree in choral conducting from Michigan State University, where she studied with Drs. David Rayl, Sandra Snow, and Jonathan Reed.  While at MSU, she was a graduate assistant for the Women’s Glee Club and Choral Union and assisted the Women’s Chamber Ensemble and University Chorale.  She accompanied voice majors, studio classes, and choral ensembles and was the interim director of a high school women’s community choir in the MSU community music school. 

She received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral conducting at Texas Tech University where she studied with Rick Bjella and John Hollins.  While at Texas Tech, Lamont served as graduate assistant for the Women’s Chorale, Matador Singers, and University Choir and was instructor of record for undergraduate choral conducting.  She also accompanied singers and choirs in the School of Music and was a Choral Scholar at St. John’s UMC, Lubbock. Her lecture recital and document explored the work of a contemporary Irish composer, Rhona Clarke. 

Dr. Lamont is a charter member of mirabai, a professional treble ensemble in residence at Michigan State University.  She is also featured as a collaborative pianist on mirabai’s debut recording, Ecstatic Songs.  Mirabai has presented feature concerts at a Texas Choral Directors Association conference and a Southwest American Choral Directors Association conference, was featured in Dr. Sandra Snow’s presentation at the 2023 national American Choral Directors Association conference, and headlined the Eastern Division ACDA Conference in February 2026. Her essay on Benjamin Britten’s opera “The Little Sweep” appears in the 2017 Cambridge Scholars publication Essays on Benjamin Britten from a Centenary Symposium.

Dr. Lamont is a 500-hour certified yoga instructor and hopes to open her own yoga studio someday. She loves teaching beginners as well as challenging power vinyasa classes! In her free time, she enjoys reading, walking, and spending time with her wonderful husband Dustin, children Sky and Peyton, and dogs Elliot, Bree, and Tripp.