Dr. Toni Anderson
Chair & Professor
Vocal Studies

Toni Passmore Anderson brings a wealth of performance, scholarly, and administrative experience to LaGrange College. She earned a Ph.D. in Higher Education from Georgia State University, a Masters degree in Vocal Performance from The New England Conservatory of Music, and the Bachelor of Music degree from Lamar University.

A mezzo-soprano, Dr. Anderson has performed in concerts, operatic productions, and solo recitals in the United States and abroad. Recent performances include Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Stravinsky’s Les Noces, and Lee Johnson’s Symphony No. 7: Infinitude, performed at the Moscow Conservatory. Repeat performances of Johnson’s work were given at LaGrange College’s 175th anniversary celebration, and at the Human Rights Defenders Conference, hosted by former President Jimmy Carter at the Carter Center in Atlanta.

Dr. Anderson has performed in concert with the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Virtuosi, Camerata Musica (Columbus, Georgia), ONYX Opera, the Boston Musica Viva, the Boston Academy of Music, and numerous university and civic chorales. She has also performed the role of the narrator in Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat with members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Premieres of chamber works include From the land of the farther suns (Lee Horton) and Three Songs (Mitch Turner). She performed the title mezzo-soprano role of Mme. Bernardey in the world premiere of Curtis Bryant's Zabette in Atlanta, which also aired on WABE Radio (Atlanta), and the role of Mrs. Krenshaw in Sharon Willis' The Opera Singer.

Dr. Anderson is the author of “Tell Them We Are Singing for Jesus”: The Original Fisk Jubilee Singers and Christian Reconstruction, 1871-1878, a social history of this historic choral ensemble, published by Mercer University Press. She participated with WGBH-TV in Boston in the making of a documentary on the Jubilee Singers which aired May 2000 as a part of PBS's American Experience historical series. She has presented her research in lectures at several colleges, given papers at scholarly conferences, including the College Music Society's national and regional meetings, and is published in the Southeastern Journal of Music Education. Her research interests extend to issues in higher education. She co-authored an essay entitled, "Building Conversations of Respect: The Voice of White Faculty at Black Colleges" that appears in Affirmed Action: Essays on the Academic and Social Lives of White Faculty Members of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, by Foster, Guyden, and Miller, editors.

Dr. Anderson is the governor of the Southeastern Region of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and holds membership in the following professional organizations: College Music Society, the Society of American Music, History of Education Society, and Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity. She also serves on the boards of several arts organizations.