Heather MacLaughlin Garbes

Biography

Heather MacLaughlin Garbes is currently Affiliate Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, where she helped develop and maintains the UW Baltic Choral Library, the first collection of its kind in the United States. She is also Founder and Artistic Director of the Mägi Ensemble, a women’s ensemble that performs and records Baltic music. Dr. MacLaughlin Garbes has presented at ACDA Divisional, College Music Society’s National and International conferences, the Library of Congress and the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies conferences. She co-authored the chapter “Baltic Languages: Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian” in the book The Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet in the Choral Rehearsal (Scarecrow Press). She has conducted numerous collegiate and community ensembles in the Seattle, Chicago, and Houston areas and currently conducts the Finnish Choral Society of Seattle and the Eesti Koor (Estonian) works with the Vakarai Lithuanian choir in Seattle. Heather is also active as a music director, educator, accompanist, instrumentalist and vocalist. Past show highlights include: Mamma Mia, Ragtime, Into the Woods, Anything Goes, 9 to 5, Urinetown, Big Fish, Cats, The Addams Family, Sweeney Todd, Avenue Q, Spring Awakening, Young Frankenstein, Chess, Rent, JCS, A Year with Frog and Toad, Spelling Bee, Hairspray, The Who’s Tommy, Pippin and Once on this Island.