Joshua O'Dell

Josh O’Dell currently serves as Director of Choirs and Assistant Professor of Music at West Virginia State University.  Before coming to State, he served as Chorus Master/Director of Education & Community Engagement at Opera Roanoke, Director of Sales at the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director/Founder of the Voices of Appalachia (Roanoke, VA), and served as Minister of Music for churches throughout Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. Josh also held a Music Faculty position at Radford University where he taught Music Theory.


Josh has completed doctoral studies in Choral Conducting and Pedagogy and holds a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from Messiah University, a Bachelor of Science in Music from Radford University, and a Certificate in Sacred Music from Virginia Wesleyan University with additional graduate studies in Choral Conducting at the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music. He has served as a clinician for church music workshops and as an Adjudicator for All-District and All-State Chorus Auditions, as well as serving as a judge for the Bland Music Competition for the Lions Club of Virginia. In May 2017, Josh led the Thrasher Memorial Sanctuary Choir in a concert tour to New York City, where they premiered a new work at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center. The choir returned to NYC in April 2018 to perform with the Virginia Wesleyan University Choir at Carnegie Hall. Josh made his conducting debut at Carnegie Hall in July 2022 with a choir of almost 100 singers from Virginia and Florida. The choir consisted of members of his various church choirs and also included members of the Roanoke Valley Children’s Choir.