Professor Emeritus Joseph Huszti Named 2020 Swan Award Winner

The California Choral Directors Association (CCDA) recently presented Professor Emeritus Joseph Huszti with the Howard S. Swan Award. Since 1985, the CCDA has recognized an outstanding choral director in California who is retired from full time conducting, having spent the major portion of their careers in the state. Each year the CCDA Board of Directors nominates two candidates for the Swan Award. A nominee may be generally well known or known only in the immediate area in which he or she worked. These names are then submitted and voted upon by the past presidents. At the time of the nomination, the candidates are to be retired from full-time conducting, having spent the major portion of careers in California.

Huszti served as a professor of music and head of the choral program in the Department of Music. His tenure included twenty-seven international concert tours featuring numerous prize-winning performances at the international forum. Under his direction, the UCI choirs have performed concerts in the cathedrals of York, Sterling, Westminster, Coventry, Canterbury, Ely, Burgos, Liverpool and Boston as well as presenting formal concerts in London, Tokyo, Burgos, Shanghei, Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, Budapest, Warsaw, Prague, and Vienna.

In 1997, he founded Men in Blaque, a men’s ensemble performing an eclectic body of literature from all eras and styles. This ensemble has traveled the world performing in festivals and competitions in Spain, China, South Korea, Slovakia, South Africa, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

Huszti retired from UCI in June 2016.