Baritone and choral conductor Anthony Washington is the founding Artistic Director of The Rostra Collective, a professional chamber choir based in the United States dedicated to social commentary through intertextual programming. Washington is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Choral Conducting at the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music where he serves as the first Assistant Conductor of Yale Schola Cantorum, assisting Grete Pedersen in all projects, most notably Haydn’s Creation with Juilliard415. Alongside Pedersen, he has studied with Jeffery Douma and Stefan Parkman. Washington previously served as Assistant Conductor of Yale Camerata.

 

Washington has appeared as a conducting fellow in numerous choral festivals, among them the Sarteano Choral Workshop in Italy, the Choral Masterworks Institute at the Eastman School of Music, and the Montreal Choral Academy in Montreal, QC. In 2025, he served as the conducting apprentice for the Berkshire Choral International program in Berlin, Germany under Dr. Marie Bucoy-Calavan. In workshops and masterclasses across the United States and internationally, Washington has worked with renowned conductors including Simon Carrington, Yuval Weinberg, Jerry Blackstone, Jean-Sébastien Vallée, Anthony Trecek-King, Markus Utz, and Ernst Buscagne, amongst others, and conducted leading ensembles including the SWR Radio Choir and Cantus.

 

Washington is currently research assistant to Bach scholar Dr. Markus Rathey, aiding in a new project centered on the Protestant Reformation. In this role, Washington edits forthcoming articles, conducts literature reviews on numerous 16th-century and early 17th-century topics, and makes scholarly connections between the material cultures of various religious reformers including Müntzer, Karlstadt, and Löner. Previously, Washington was a research fellow for the Lisette Project, tracing the evolution of the oldest published Haitian creole song during and after the Haitian Revolution. As research fellow, Washington assisted with the project album: Lisette: A Song’s Journey from Haiti & Back (Navona Records, 2026). His work was funded by the Cornell University Nexus Scholars Program. 

 

Washington graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Music and Anthropology from Cornell University. While at Cornell, he was named a Merrill Presidential Scholar, inducted into the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, and won the 2026 Downbeat Award for Small Jazz Ensemble/Combo as part of the Herbert Gussman Septet.