Our Director

As a native of Palm Beach County, Eric Keiper is a graduate of Lake Worth High School, Palm Beach Community College, and the University of Florida. An accomplished tenor, Eric has performed throughout South Florida for over twenty-five years in concert work as well as musical theatre and opera. He regularly performs with the Palm Beach Opera Company where he also served as interim chorus master from 2000 -2002.

Mr. Keiper found his true calling when he began his teaching and conducting career in 1991 in Tampa, Florida. In 1993 he moved back home to Palm Beach County where he served as the Director of Choral Activities at Santaluces Community High School until 2006. Additionally, he served as Performing Arts Chairman there for eight years and was twice voted Teacher of the Year by his peers. In the 2000 school year, Eric was selected as a finalist for Teacher of the Year for the School District of Palm Beach County. In 2004 he was named the Sam’s Club Palm Beach County Teacher of the Year. Eric left the classroom in 2006 to work in K-12 Arts Education Curriculum for the Palm Beach County School District. Currently Eric is serving as music specialist and head of boys athletics at the Saint Joseph’s Episcopal School in Boynton Beach.

Throughout his teaching career, Mr. Keiper’s choirs and ensembles consistently earned superior and excellent ratings at both the district and state levels. He regularly serves as an adjudicator and choral clinician throughout Florida. Eric is most proud to have more than 30 former students now working as teachers at all levels of education. Teaching to him is not a career; it is a vocation, a calling and the most rewarding life anyone could ever wish for.

Contact Eric Keiper.

Our Accompanist

Ed Shuman is a pianist, composer, conductor and teacher who has been musically active in the community since his arrival in South Florida in 1985. He has worked in various capacities with the Palm Beach Opera since 1991, and has concertized throughout South Florida as soloist, accompanist and chamber music pianist . In 2006 Mr Shuman was the accompanist for the Elementary All State Chorus concert at the annual FMEA Clinic/Conference in Tampa.

A public school music teacher in Palm Beach County since 1985, Ed is a certified Level 4 Orff specialist, and he has presented numerous workshops for integrating music into the curriculum. He is the author or several volumes of interdisciplinary compostions for music, language arts and mathematics. His book of piano duets for children, Let's Play Together was favorably reviewed in the Florida Music Director magazine in 1987.

Ed has been actively involved with the Spotlight on Young Musicians concerts at the Kravis Center since the series' inception in 1994. He has served as steering committee member, conductor, composer, accompanist and manager, and in May of 2007 he conducted the fifth composition of his to be performed at a Spotlight concert.

In 1981 he appeared as piano soloist in the presigious Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago. That concert was broadcast live on WFMT, National Public Radio. In 1999 Mr. Shuman received the William T. Dwyer Award for excellence in elementary education.