Helen V. Kernizan

Ms. Helen Kernizan is the Youth Chorus director with Rise Up Chorus. Her biggest passion is educating young people to become the best musicians possible. Her educational philosophy is guided by three tenets: all children have a right to an education in the Arts, have the ability to be musical and improve musicality regardless of musical aptitude, and have the capacity for music literacy.



Since 2017, Ms. Kernizan has worked as the Choral Director at the Township of Ocean Intermediate School (TOIS), where she directs both its Choir and Select Choir. At TOIS, she collaborates with colleagues to organize the District’s Annual Music in Our Schools Month Concert series and the Intermediate School’s Annual Arts Cafe. Before coming to Ocean Township, Ms. Kernizan worked for Perth Amboy Public Schools for nine years, where she had the unique pleasure of teaching at each grade level. At the Wilentz Elementary School, she taught general music and choir, and started the Gifted and Talented Music Theater and Bucket Drumming Ensembles with over 75 members each. At Shull Middle School, she taught General Music, started a Bucket Drumming Ensemble, the Annual Teacher Talent Show, and the Annual Student Talent Show. While at Perth Amboy High School, she built the choral program from 20 to 75 singers in one school year, and directed the superior-rated Show Choir and Gospel Choir. Additionally, she revamped and organized the choral library; acquired new uniforms, risers, and chairs for the music department; and started a Tri-M Music Honor Society chapter and acted as its advisor. Ms. Kernizan also has innovated and integrated new curricula for over seven courses, and she has designed at every level, K - 12. In addition to her work with Rise Up Chorus and in a public school setting, Ms. Kernizan is the K-8 Chorus and Music Chair with the Central Jersey Music Educators Association (CJMEA). She is responsible for organizing Region II Intermediate and Elementary Honor and Region choirs. CJMEA consists of six counties: Hunterdon, Monmouth, Mercer, Somerset, Middlesex, and Union.



She holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Westminster Choir College of Rider University, where she studied voice and techniques for leading choral ensembles of varying styles, ranging from the classical European tradition to jazz, gospel, Negro spirituals, R&B, pop, and Broadway. She received a Master of the Arts in Teaching, also from Westminster, where she focused on choral conducting and community music in diverse contexts.



As a performer Ms. Kernizan has had the great opportunity to perform in such renowned concert halls as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall, the Apollo Theater, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Princeton University Chapel, Philadelphia's Kimmel Center, Philadelphia Cathedral, and Catherine's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia. She performed in these concert halls with internationally known choral ensembles, such as Westminster Symphonic Choir, under the direction of Joseph Flummerfelt, Andrew Megill, and Sun Min Lee; with the Williamson Voices under the direction of James Jordan; with Westminster Jubilee Singers as a soloist and graduate assistant under the direction of J. Donald Dumpson; and with world-renowned orchestras New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the Dresden Philharmonic. As a back-up singer and soloist, Ms. Kernizan has had the honor of performing with Cece Winans, Denyce Graves, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Pauletta Washington, and Natalie Cole.