Phyllis W. Anderson, DMA

Dr. Phyllis W. Anderson, a native of Norfolk, Virginia, currently teaches music education courses at Augusta University.

Dr. Anderson is active as the artistic director and conductor of the Augusta Chorale, a community choir that performs classics, spirituals, and gospel accompanied by the Aiken Civic Orchestra. The Augusta Chorale enjoyed its first ever sold-out performance at the Gilbert-Lambuth Memorial Chapel in May 2019.  During the 2019-2020 concert season, the Augusta Chorale will collaborate with the Columbia County Choral Society for two concerts in May 2020 which spread love, peace, and harmony to all ages, races, cultures, and backgrounds.

Dr. Anderson worked as faculty member and choir director in the Paine College music department for 13 years where she earned the rank of a tenured associate professor.  Under her direction, the concert choir performed Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mozart’s Regina Coeli and Faure’s Requiem. One highlight of her work at Paine College is the concert choir’s 1984 live recording of Handel’s Messiah accompanied by members of the Augusta Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Anderson earned the Bachelor of Science degree in music education at Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia and the Master of Arts degree in music theory at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. She earned the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia where she won the United Negro College Fund Research Award for four consecutive years.  Her dissertation is cited in Black Music Research Digest and Jessie Carney Smith’s Notable Black American Women. She has earned the Georgia Professional Teacher Certificate, Level T7 and is certified in Orff Schulwerk and Kindermusik.

Dr. Anderson was active as an elementary music specialist in the Columbia County School System for decades. During the 2018-2019 school year, she taught music and organized the first chorus at Lamar-Milledge Elementary School in Richmond County School System.

Dr. Anderson has been active as a clinician and consultant for choirs, schools, arts groups, and churches in Georgia, Ohio, and Maryland and has served on the Georgia Teacher Assessment Certification and SACS Review Teams.

She was voted the Paine College Teacher of the Year and Euchee Creek Elementary School Teacher of the Year. She is active member of the the National Association for Music Education, the Augusta Chapter of the Links, Incorporated, Delta Kappa Gamma Society and Pi Kappa Lambda National Honor Society. She is active as a music consultant at Good Hope Baptist Church.  Two highlights of her teaching career were when her former Paine College student Byron Kelly established the Dr. Phyllis Wynn Anderson Music Award at Savannah State University (1999) and when Grovetown High School sophomore Kaitlin Crabtree’s essay, “Dr. Phyllis Anderson” which describes Kaitlin’s experience as a kindergartener in Dr. Anderson’s class, won the Lucy Laney Craft Black History Essay Award (2010).