Dr. Abercrombie's degrees are from Westminster Choir College (B.M. & M.M) and Indiana University  (D. Mus. With Highest Honors). He has been Assistant Conductor and/or Chorus Director of Symphony Orchestras in Johnstown (PA), Elkhart (IN) and Springfield (MA). Before coming to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he held teaching and conducting positions at West Georgia College, Indiana University at South Bend and Williams College, and has been guest conductor, teacher or lecturer at the University of Iowa, Boston University, and Temple University. 

    Choirs under his direction have appeared at various professional conferences and have toured the Eastern Seaboard and in Europe, most recently the 2004 tour singing in St. Thomas’ Church, Leipzig, St. Stephen’s in Vienna, and St. Mark’s in Venice. The repertoire comprised music written for those venues. In summer, 2006, he taught master classes in conducting at the Seventh Taipei International Choral Festival, and is a frequent clinician at professional conferences and for individual choral programs and conductors.
Biography
 
 
    His appearances as guest conductor include festival choruses and orchestras throughout New England, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and Pennsylvania, as well as the Five College Orchestra, the Springfield (MA) Symphony Orchestra and both of its youth orchestras. He has lectured, conducted clinics, taught in and served as consultant to colleges, high schools and churches, and at conferences of the American Guild of Organists, the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) and the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). He served on the Executive Boards of the Conductors Guild and the Massachusetts Music Educators Association.
 
    In ACDA, he has served on the state, division and national boards, as President of the Massachusetts chapter and  President of ACDA's Eastern Division (2004-2006). In March, 2007, he was conductor – for the third time – of the Massachusetts All-State Chorus, and was named Conductor of the Year by Massachusetts ACDA.