Before joining the Case Western Reserve faculty, Garrett was a music educator in Central Florida and Southeast Massachusetts public schools at the middle and high school levels. While in Boston, he was the conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society Children’s Choruses. Under his direction, the Youth Chorus was selected to perform in the 2006 American Choral Directors Association Eastern Division Conference in New York City. Garrett worked closely with the Society’s educational outreach program for six years to shape a comprehensive musicianship curriculum for students in the Vocal Apprenticeship Program and he founded a new ensemble specifically for young men working through their adolescent voice change. Dr. Garrett is an active clinician/adjudicator and has conducted choruses in Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Ohio. In 2009 he was a conductor at the Oregon Bach Festival, where he studied with Helmuth Rilling. Garrett has presented at local, state, and national music education conferences in the areas of developing critical thinking skills in music classrooms, choral pedagogy, pre-service teacher assessment, music education advocacy, developing students’ musical creativity, and diversity in public school and higher education learning environments. An advocate for new music, he has commissioned new choral music and worked with members of the Cleveland Composers Guild to perform contemporary works created by local artists. He is a member of American Choral Directors Association, College Music Society, National Association for Music Education, National Collegiate Choral Organization, and Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society.