Venezuelan-born Cristian Grases has been a professor of choral music at the University of Southern California, conductor of the USC Thornton Concert Choir and vice dean of the Classics Department since the fall 2010 semester. In demand as a conductor, lecturer, academic and adjudicator, he has toured Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia, conducted in prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall and lectured at numerous international conventions and symposia. Grases is also an award-winning composer whose works have been commissioned and sung by numerous renowned ensembles around the world. Grases served as Vice President for Latin America of the International Federation of Choral Music until December 2020 and was Chair of the Ethnic Music Repertoires and Resources Committee for the Western Division of the American Choral Directors Association (2009-2018). He currently serves on many international committees, including the Artistic Committee for the World Youth Choir and the World Symposium on Choral Music.