Blair Buffington
E-mail: buffingtb@waldorf.edu
Office Phone: 641-585-8492
Blair Buffington joined the music faculty at Waldorf College in 2004, as Director of Choral Activities, where he conducts the Waldorf Choir and St. Christopher Chorale. As Assistant Professor of Music, he teaches applied voice, choral conducting and heads the music education program.
A native of Southeast Iowa, Professor Buffington received his undergraduate degree in music education from Wartburg College (ELCA) in Waverly, Iowa, in 1995 and his master’s degree in choral conducting and voice from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, in 2002. While at Wartburg, he served as assistant director to Dr. Paul Torkelson and was the first student to conduct the Wartburg College Choir on an international tour. In 1995, he was the recipient of the first annual Wartburg Choir Student Director Award. At Truman State, he taught applied voice to undergraduate music majors, directed the university’s Chamber Choir and Men’s Ensemble, and served as assistant director to Dr. Paul Crabb for Cantoria and the University Chorus.
With a strong background in secondary education, Professor Buffington worked as an Associate Choral Director at Central High School in Davenport, Iowa, and then later as Director of Choral Activities at Mt. Pleasant Community High School in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where he led large and small vocal ensembles and show choirs to championships and Division I ratings, with many of his students receiving All-State accolades. Recently, he has been an adjunct Instructor of Music for Southeastern Community College and co-director of the Overtones Barbershop Chorus. He has served as sanctuary choir director for the First Presbyterian Church in Kirksville, Missouri and interim choir director for the First United Methodist Church in Mt. Pleasant.
A versatile musician, Professor Buffington has directed and performed in amateur and professional theatrical productions since 1991. He has been the lead singer of the Half Past Four barbershop quartet, conductor of the Mt. Pleasant Municipal Band and an advisor for the Iowa Ambassadors of Music youth European touring program.
Professor Buffington made his international conducting debut in 1995 and has led choral ensembles in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. He has experience directing choirs at the collegiate, high school, middle school, elementary, church and community levels. Professor Buffington is an active soloist and frequently works as a choral and vocal clinician. He is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, Music Educators National Conference, the National Association of Teachers of Singing and SPEBSQSA.
Professor Buffington lives a few blocks from Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa, where he can frequently be found tinkering on one of his antique tractors or trucks.
