Scott Rieker , Music Teacher

Scott Rieker teaches vocal and general music for the Des Moines Public Schools. He spent five years teaching at Meredith Middle School and three years at Hoover High School.  Under Scott’s direction, his choirs were invited to sing at Iowa Governor Chet Culver’s Inauguration, the Iowa Education Association’s 2009 Read Across America celebration, and the annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration for the Des Moines Public Schools. Scott specializes in teaching choral voice in the style of Richard Miller, creating beautiful musical sound through correct vocal technique.  He is looking forward to the challenge of teaching in his new position in K-5 music at Pleasant Hill and Phillips Elementary Schools in Des Moines. 

 Scott also serves as Director of Music at the Basilica of St. John in Des Moines, where he is responsible for a choir of nearly 40 voices, instrumentalists, and cantors.  Scott also provides music planning and administration, as well as the music for Sunday Mass. His choirs regularly perform works by Palestrina, Bach, Josquin, Lauridsen, and others.  Scott has led honor choirs and taught classes on sacred music for Drake University and Heartland Area Education Association.  He is also the Director of Music for Christ Our Life: A Catholic Conference in October 2010 in Des Moines.

 Scott sponsored the Hoover High School/ Meredith Middle School Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), a national anti-bullying organization that seeks to make schools safe for all students.  Students approached him in 2005 to begin the first GSA at the middle-school level in Iowa.  Scott and his students have presented twice at the Governor’s Conference on LGBT Youth, - most recently in February 2010 - addressing the challenges our students face, which are markedly different form the challenges faced by LGBT students and their allies even ten years ago.

 Scott is an active composer and arranger, with his works performed by choirs around the world. His latest composition, a setting of William Butler Yeats’ “Aedh Wishes for the Clothes of Heaven” premiered this spring in Phoenix and Des Moines. Scott serves on the board of the Iowa Music Educators Association as Publications Editor, responsible for its magazine and its other published materials.