Soprano Sharon Leding Lawhon holds degrees from Belmont University (Bachelor of Music in voice performance) and
Southern Seminary (Master of Church Music in voice and
Doctor of Musical Arts in voice performance and
conducting). Her voice teachers include Sherry Hill
Kelly and S. Milburn Price.
She has completed further vocal study with Virginia Zeani and Bruce Kolb, and conducting with Jerry L. Warren and S. Milburn Price.
Sharon is the chair of the vocal-choral department in the music division of the School of the Arts at Samford University where she teaches private voice and diction, and conducts the 70-voice University Chorale. She also maintains an active solo career. She has taught at the Department of the Russian Evangelical Christian
Baptists Union Bible College in Moscow, Russia, and teaches regularly for the Chinese Christian Church Music Institutes held in California, Canada, New York, and Kentucky. Sharon has provided musical leadership in
several churches throughout the Southeast.
She has served on the Chorister's Guild Board, including as an executive member, and is
currently the governor of the Alabama Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of
Singing. Sharon has published numerous articles, and is an active choral director, clinician
and adjudicator throughout the United States. In 2006 she was awarded Samford University's
George Macon Memorial Teaching Award for outstanding performance as a teacher, counselor
and friend to students. She and her husband, Dan, recently were awarded the third annual Encore award (2010-11) that honors a distinguished alumnus for achievement in the
field of classical music, from their alma mater, Belmont University.