Dr. Dilworth is an Associate Professor of Choral Music Education at Temple University. He received his Doctor of Music degree in conducting performance at Northwestern University where he studied conducting and composition with Robert A. Harris. He is an active conductor, educator, composer and clinician
who has taught choral music at the elementary, secondary and university levels. His performing endeavors have taken him to Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Recently, he traveled to China to lead the choral salute to the Olympic Games with performances in Beijing and Shanghai.Dilworth is an award-winning composer, and his choral compositions are a part of the Henry Leck Choral series published with Hal Leonard Corporation and Colla Voce Music Company. He has recently published pieces with the Santa Barbara Music Publishing Company as part of the Mary Alice Stollak Choral Series. In addition to composing music in the choral genre, his research interests are in the areas of African-American music and music education curriculum and instruction.
Selina Midkiff, Festival Conductor
Selina Midkiff is the founder of the Appalachian Children’s Chorus 
and is the Artistic Director, as well as the director for both the Concert and Camerata Choirs.
Mrs. Midkiff holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education from West Virginia University. She is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, the Music Educators National Conference, and the West Virginia Division of the Orff Schulwerk Association. She is an experienced singer who has performed leading roles in opera, oratorio and musical theater throughout West Virginia. Mrs. Midkiff has studied children’s choral technique and conducted with such renowned artists as Henry Leck, Barbara Tagg, Doreen Rao, Sandra Murphy, Janet Galvan, David Brunner and Lee Kesselman. She received the prestigious Artist-Teacher Certification from the Doreen Rao Choral Music Experience Institute. She is currently serving as a commissioner on the WV Governor’s Commission on the Arts.
Ron Sowell, Festival Director
Best known for his role as the musical director of the internationally-acclaimed public radio show Mountain Stage, Ron Sowell is also a dynamic singer-songwriter, guitarist, performer and producer.
Some years ago, Ron joined a fledgling local radio show called Mountain Stage as the resident guitar player, eventually becoming the music director. Mountain Stage is now heard each week on 120 public radio stations nationwide and worldwide via Voice of America. On the show, he has played with hundreds of performers, such as Sarah McLachlan, Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin, Kathy Mattea and the legends Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Rambling Jack Elliott and Odetta.
In 1992, he released his first solo CD, Oil and Water, featuring 10 original compositions. The songs range from the absurdly humorous to the socially conscious. His story songs have been compared to John Gurka and Nancy Griffith and his voice to James Taylor. As a performer, he has the gift to make a thousand people in a concert hall feel like they are sitting in his living room. He’s engaging and funny and plays great guitar and harmonica. Whether making you laugh or cry, sing or dance, Ron Sowell exudes sincerity and grace rarely found in such an accomplished entertainer.
Billy Edd Wheeler, Guest Mentor
Billy Edd Wheeler was born Dec. 9, 1932, in Whitesville, West Virginia. After studying at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, he transferred to Berea College in Kentucky, from which he graduated in 1955. He then served briefly as editor of the regional magazine Mountain Life and Work before serving two years in the Navy, where he trained as a pilot. He returned to Berea College as an instructor and then moved on to study drama for a year at Yale. During the early '60s, he recorded two albums for Monitor Records.
Following his Yale studies, Wheeler lived in New York, writing plays and songs. His first song writing triumph came when the Kingston Trio, then the reigning group of the new folk movement, recorded his The Reverend Mr. Black and Desert Pete. Both were chart hits in 1963.
As a recording artist in his own right, Wheeler went to No. 3 on the country charts in 1965 with his novelty song Ode To The Little Brown Shack Out Back. Over the next several years, he would continue to chart intermittently on various labels with such singles as I Ain't The Worrying Kind, West Virginia Woman and Fried Chicken And A Country Tune.
Wheeler wrote for several notable musicians, including Johnny Cash and June Carter (Jackson), Jerry Reed (Gimme Back My Blues) and Kenny Rogers (Coward of the County). Elvis Presley, Glen Campbell, Judy Collins and Neil Young also recorded Wheeler's compositions.
Tapping into his playwriting skills, Wheeler has written such popular outdoor dramas Hatfields & McCoys and Song of the Cumberland Gap. In addition, he is a well-received poet and storyteller.