Dr. Cara Tasher has served as Director of Choral Studies at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville since 2006 where she oversees the choral program, conducts the Chamber Singers and Osprey Treble Chorus, teaches the choral conducting and literature curriculum, oversees the Jacksonville SINGS! September Choral Invitational and Summer Choral Arts Week, collaborates with community organizations, and mentors future professional musicians in the undergraduate and graduate programs.

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Proficient in several languages, Tasher has traveled the world for concerts, festivals, competitions, masterclasses and workshops. Global and cultural competency is a focal point of her teaching, and in addition to state and regional ACDA conferences, her choirs have performed in the Baltic States, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, and Spain. She has garnered experience as singer, chorus master and conductor with the Atlanta Symphony Chorus, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Conspirare, Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus, Trinity Choir-Wall Street, Xavier University, and Young People’s Chorus of New York City. She has prepared choruses for Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, Josh Groban, the Eagles, and is proud to be a frequent guest conductor of Mexico City’s Coro de Teatro de Bellas Artes. Prior to leaning almost entirely into the ensemble aspect of vocal arts, she performed as a soprano recitalist, and as a professional choral singer on recordings with conductors Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Owen Burdick, Christoph Eschenbach, James Levine, Robert Shaw, and Sir Georg Solti. 

She studied at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, University of Texas at Austin, La Sorbonne de Paris, and Northwestern University where she received several honors and awards. Dr. Tasher is a sought after clinician and adjudicator within the national and global community and is active in the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), International Federation of Choral Music, National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO). She received the 2010 University Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award, presented at the 2014 World Symposium of Choral Music in Seoul Korea, and was awarded the University of North Florida Outstanding International Leadership Award in 2016. She is Past-President of Florida ACDA.

Alongside her academic duties, Cara has provided six international touring opportunities for students, and created several important initiatives that bring students and community members together while helping to recruit for the University. These include the Jacksonville SINGS! Honor Chorus Invitational for middle and high school singers, The Refugee Chorus (rebranding as Jacksonville World Chorus), Summer Choral Arts Week, Conductor’s Studio, the MM in choral conducting, and the undergraduate conducting certificate. Collaborations with Beaches Fine Arts Series have led to masterclasses with Chanticleer and Voces8 for the students. Collaborations with the Jacksonville Symphony have included opportunities for UNF students to perform Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, Elgar Dream of Gerontius, Puccini La Bohème, Ravel Daphnis et Chloe, Verdi Requiem, and Walton Belshazzar’s Feast. 

In collaboration with the UNF Lawson Ensemble and other talented forces, the members of the UNF Choral Program have performed Bach St. John’s Passion, Brahms, Fauré, Howells and Mozart Requiems, (twice) the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610., and of course, Handel’s Messiah. Alums of the choral program are in leadership positions with the Singing Girls of Texas, the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, FSCJ, Daytona State College, Flagler College, Naples AMU, Oxford College of Emory University, and are successfully engaged in performances as freelance artists as well as members of Chanticleer, San Francisco Opera Chorus, Bronx Opera, New York Opera Conservatory, Opera Theatre of Montclair, and Light Opera of New Jersey.  Her students and alums of the choral program continue to thrive under her mentorship in Jacksonville, Florida, and around the world.