THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

In addition to directing WCPA's flagship choruses, Paul is Artistic Director of the Youth Choral Theater of Chicago, a community-based after-school program enrolling 200 young people in Chicago's northern suburbs. Additionally, he is Artistic Director for the Canta! Costa Rica festival in San Jose, California and Resident Conductor for the Sing A Mile High choral festival in Denver. His innovative leadership garnered national recognition in 2006 when the Youth Choral Theater was awarded the Chorus America/ASCAP prize for Adventurous Programming.

Paul composes and arranges music collaboratively with Sean Ivory. The choral works of Caldwell and Ivory (including Go Where I Send Thee, Hope for Resolution, John the Revelator and Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down) have been telecast on PBS and A&E, and performed at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Sydney Opera House, and throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. Legendary guitarist Steve Vai recently collaborated with Caldwell and Ivory to create a choral-rock fusion song, Book of the Seven Seals. The work appears on Vai's latest CD, The Story of Light.

Paul is scheduled to make his Carnegie Hall conducting debut later this year, leading concerts comprised entirely of music that he has composed.

Paul is a member of the Board of Directors of Chorus America, the US/Canadian service organization for independent choruses. His work on behalf of the choral field was honored at the National Performing Arts Conference in 2008, where he received the Michael J. Korn Founders Award for Philanthropic Contribution to the Arts.

Windy City Performing Arts is thrilled to have selected an Artistic Director such as Paul who brings an enthusiastic and vibrant energy to the choruses, an engaging personality, and an exciting and professional rehearsal experience to the organization that will see it grow in membership and musicianship.

Paul's debut performance will be at Windy City Performing Arts' spring concert entitled "A Flood of Hope", a special benefit concert for the Ali Forney Center, a shelter for homeless LGBT youth in New York City that was devastated by Hurricane Sandy last fall ( www.aliforneycenter.org ). A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will go toward the center's rebuilding efforts. For more information on upcoming concerts and events, visit windycitysings.org .

Windy City Performing Arts (WCPA) was incorporated in 1983 as the independent not-for-profit umbrella organization for Windy City Gay Chorus and Aria. Windy City Performing Arts celebrates diversity, honors creativity, and cultivates pride through the transformative power of music and the arts as Chicago's Premier LGBT Choral Arts Organization.