Avon Lake High School chorale director William Zurkey was honored by Bowling Green State University as a 2013 College Alumni Award Recipients the weekend of March 4.

Zurkey was one of six recipients honored as an outstanding, notable and accomplished alumni.

Zurkey, a graduate of the College of Music, has been director of choral activities at Avon Lake High School for the past 26 years. He earned his bachelor of Music Education degree from the university. He also holds a Master of Music degree from Cleveland State University and has completed work in doctoral studies at Kent State University.

And while Zurkey's accomplishment are well known in Avon Lake, his honors extend far beyond the city's limits.

Long active in Ohio public school music, Zurkey has served OMEA (Ohio Music Educators Association) as a District Honors Choir Festival Guest Conductor, State Chair for the All-State Choir, and Regional Chair of the All-State Choir.

His choirs have been honored to be selected to perform at nine Ohio Music Education Association Professional Conferences, more than any other choir in the state of Ohio. His Chorale was chosen to perform at the Midwest Kodaly Music Educators Regional Convention and was honored to sing in London's St. Paul's Cathedral & The Royal Academy of Music. The Avon Lake Chorale has also performed in Carnegie Hall as a solo choir three times.

In 2012, his chorale performed when Presidential candidate Mitt Romney held a rally at Avon Lake High School. 

Currenty, Zurkey is the president of the Ohio Choral Directors Association and on the ACDA Central Division Board. Last summer, Zurkey was hired to create and direct the first-ever, new Cleveland Pops Orchestra Chorus. This chorus performs with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra four times a year.

BGSU included a host of other accomplishments Zurkey has earned.
 
Zurkey has also been director of the Senior Honors Chorale at the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music Outreach Program and served as an adjunct faculty of music education at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music where he directed the Women’s Chorale.