Joseph Svendsen is the Director of Choral Studies and Associate Professor of Music at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he conducts the UNLV Singers and teaches graduate coursework in conducting, choral literature, and pedagogy, working with students seeking a MM in Choral Conducting.

Svendsen is the artistic director of the Las Vegas Master Singers, a 90-voice ensemble that serves as the symphony chorus for the Las Vegas Philharmonic and provides the choruses for Opera Las Vegas’s main stage productions. In 2024 Svendsen led the ensemble in a performance of Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna at Carnegie Hall with the New York City Chamber Orchestra.

Svendsen serves as cantor at Faith Community Lutheran Church in Summerlin, Nevada, where the church’s Kantori and Choral Scholars undertake a regular residency at St Albans Cathedral in Hertfordshire, England. Kantori was selected to perform at the 2026 Western Region conference of the American Choral Directors Association.

Svendsen advocates for critical pedagogy and agency building in the choral rehearsal, developing student musicianship, independence, and engagement through the teaching of diverse repertoire. He has presented on this subject for state and regional conferences of the American Choral Directors Association and the National Association for Music Education. Svendsen is the recipient of the 2023 UNLV College of Fine Arts Outstanding Teaching Award and was a national quarterfinalist for the 2026 GRAMMY Music Educator Award.

Svendsen is a proud alumnus of Luther College, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Texas Tech University, from which he earned his DMA in Choral Conducting. His choral mentors and teachers include Richard Bjella, Chester Alwes, Craig Arnold, and Timothy Peter.