It's been quite a run, but all good things must come to an end. A special thank you to all of my listeners, all of my guests, and to my sponsors Celtic Horizons and Kaleidoscope Adventures. All of your support and belief in this show kept me going for so many episodes.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Jake Walker, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes for the final 50 or so episodes to create the website, change the branding, and create the amazing images we see for the final run of the show. He's been invaluable to me and I couldn't have gotten as far as I did without him. Ditto Colin Peters who wasn't with me for as long as Jake, but who helped relieve some of my work load by taking on the scheduling for me for a while. Both of them have my gratitude.

If you ever want to talk about anything and everything band, please feel free to reach out to me at mark.connorprincipia.edu. Replace the with an @ and you're good to go! I plan on retiring from this job, so barring something unfortunate, I should be at that email address for a while.

Thank you all so much for everything. You're the best, and remember to help your students become their best selves through music!

Benjamin Dean Taylor (born 1983), has been described as “elegant and energetic” (Kenneth Thompson) and “powerful and direct with delightful surprises in each work.” (Marilyn Shrude) Having grown up as a performer in jazz, rock, ska, country, and concert bands as well as in choirs and orchestras, Taylor is driven to write music that highlights the strengths of each performing ensemble. His catalog of more than 100 works covers a large range of styles and genres including music written for orchestra, wind band, opera, choir, jazz big band, gamelan, chamber ensembles, and soloists with live electronics. Further, Taylor has written music for multimedia collaborations with dancers, filmmakers, poets, and visual artists.

Taylor has received commissions from ensembles including the Calidore String Quartet, Omaha Symphony, Solaire Saxophone Quartet, New World Youth Symphony, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Civic Wind Symphony. His music has been performed by ensembles around the world including the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, Kenari Quartet, L’ensemble Itineraire, Nurnberg Hochschulorchester and has been championed by soloists Keith Kirchoff, Zach Herchen, and Scotty Stepp. As a sought-after composer for wind band, Taylor has been commissioned by over 100 band directors of players at all educational levels.

Charles McGhee is the band director at Double Peak School in the San Marcos Unified School District, just North of San Diego. This is Charlie’s final year as a band director and he joins the show to share some of the wisdom he's learned in 30 years of teaching.

Topics:

• Charlie’s background as a percussionist and his choice to go to college in his 20’s to earn his teaching credential.
• A long discussion about some of the skills required to be a successful middle school music educator including topics such as discipline and motivational tools.
• Charlie’s current gig at Double Peak and the interesting way that his students are introduced to instrumental music.
• To offer saxophone or not in beginning band day one?
• This is Charlie’s retirement year and we talk about his feelings as he approaches the end of his time as a full time music teacher.

Links:

• Double Peak Music
• Del Borgo: Shaker Variants
• Balmages: Industrial Loops
• Basic Training for Concert Band
• Piazzola, arr. Longfield: Street Tango

Biography:

Charlie McGhee is in his 30th year as a Middle School music teacher. He began his career in Escondido Union School District and for the last 25 years he has been teaching in the San Marcos Unified School District. During his tenure as a music teacher, Charlie has had the privilege of starting music programs in 5 different North County schools; Rincon Middle, L.R. Green, Woodland Park Middle, San Elijo Middle and Double Peak K-8 School.

Charlie’s current assignment is Double Peak K-8 School where he was able to design an intensive music program for all the students Kinder thru 8th grade, which involves music classes twice a week for the younger grades. Then, in the upper grades everyone gets class instruction on recorders, violin, Clarinet, and finally on trumpet before starting their career in Beginning Band.

Although Charlie teaches Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced Band, his passion has always been for Jazz band, which he also started at each of his school assignments. In fact, ten years ago, while he was at San Elijo Middle School, he started his own Jazz Festival where, after the students perform and are graded with comments by professionals, the judges and the teachers get up on stage and perform for the students! There is nothing more exciting than for these students to see their director’s play jazz.

Charlie’s philosophy of Music Education stems from the conviction that students need to feel connected to school. Music Education addresses the needs of many students who have not found a connection in their other classes. Therefore, the cornerstone of his philosophy is to first, involve the students in music, then, support and encourage them through “the difficult things like, the rigor of playing an instrument”, and finally instill in them a passion for a lifetime.

Charlie’s Bands consistently score superior ratings at festivals as he holds the highest expectations for his students. During his career, Charlie has been awarded “Teacher of the Year” at four different schools and once was the District Teacher of the Year” for San Marcos Unified. Over the years, he has been sought after as an Honor Band Director and he has presented several Jazz clinics for both CMEA and SCSBOA conferences. Most recently, Charlie was awarded the “Educator of the year” award by the San Diego Youth Symphony at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. Charlie incorporates a Parent Band Booster organization to assist him in making the musical experience more exciting and special for the students. Charlie’s students regularly attend festivals and clinics at Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm. He always has his eye out for new places for his students to perform! Performances always make the experience of playing music fresh and exciting! Charlie has played professionally his entire life on drums and percussion. Among the many bands that Charlie regularly plays with is the Ira Liss Big Band Jazz Machine from San Diego. He has recorded 5 CDs with this organization. Charlie is from San Diego and lives with his wife Jane in Encinitas. When Charlie is not at school or playing music you can find him jogging on the beach or with a fishing pole in his hand.

Jacquie Dawson is the Director of Bands at the University of Manitoba. Prior to this position she was a highly successful band director at several schools in the Winnipeg area.

Topics:

• Jacquie's early musical education including a discussion of an early move from flute to clarinet and the music teacher who helped her find the right instrument.
• Jacquie's difficult first year as a music teacher and the lessons that we can take from her experience.
• Her teaching career, building a culture and community around her band programs, and her move the University of Manitoba.
• Teaching artistry to even the youngest students.

Links:

• Jacquie Dawson
• University of Manitoba, Desautels Faculty of Music
• Winnipeg Wind Ensemble
• Maslanka: Symphony No. 4
• Schwantner: ...And the Mountains Rising Nowhere
• Colgrass: The Winds of Nagual
• Messiaen: Et exspecto ressurectionem mortuorum

Biography:

Noted for her unique ability to create an inspiring ensemble experience and sculpt an impressive wind band sound, Jacquie Dawson has had a marked impact on the wind band community in Manitoba for two decades. She is in demand as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator across Canada. Jacquie has been published in the Canadian Music Educator Journal and the Canadian Winds Journal, and has presented at numerous conferences across Canada including the Canadian Music Educators’ Association National Conference. Her research interests are in community music, the relationship between music education and the cultivation of community, as well as inclusion in instrumental music education.

Composer Omar Thomas is one of the brightest new talents in the band community, using his jazz background to write powerful works with a social conscience.

Topics:

• Omar’s background in his high school music program and a young trombonist and why he doesn’t remember his high school cafeteria.
• Some tips for teaching jazz and some advice for teaching the language of swing.
• The story about how Omar was commissioned to write his first large scale work for wind ensemble (“Of our New Day Begun”) to honor the victims of the shooting a the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
• “When does an opportunity present itself when you’re ready? The answer is never.”
• Omar’s position at the Peabody Conservatory and the lessons that musicians can take from dancers.

Links:

• Omar Thomas
• Thomas: Of Our New Day Begun
• Thomas: Come Sunday
• Thomas: A Mother of a Revolution!
• Maria Schneider
• Anita Baker

Biography:

Described as "elegant, beautiful, sophisticated, intense, and crystal clear in emotional intent," the music of Omar Thomas continues to move listeners everywhere it is performed. Born to Guyanese parents in Brooklyn, New York in 1984, Omar moved to Boston in 2006 to pursue a Master of Music in Jazz Composition at the New England Conservatory of Music. He is the protégé of lauded composers and educators Ken Schaphorst and Frank Carlberg, and has studied under multiple Grammy-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider.

Hailed by Herbie Hancock as showing "great promise as a new voice in the further development of jazz in the future," educator, arranger, and award-winning composer Omar Thomas has created music extensively in the contemporary jazz ensemble idiom. It was while completing his Master of Music Degree that he was appointed the position of Assistant Professor of Harmony at Berklee College of Music at the surprisingly young age of 23. He was awarded the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award in 2008, and invited by the ASCAP Association to perform his music in their highly exclusive JaZzCap Showcase, held in New York City. In 2012, Omar was named the Boston Music Award's "Jazz Artist of the Year." He is currently on faculty in the Music Theory department at The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Omar's music has been performed in concert halls the world over. He has been commissioned to create works in both jazz and classical styles. His work has been performed by such diverse groups as the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble, the San Francisco and Boston Gay Mens' Choruses, and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, in addition to a number of the country's top collegiate music ensembles. Omar has had a number of celebrated singers perform over his arrangements, including Stephanie Mills, Yolanda Adams, Nona Hendryx, BeBe Winans, Kenny Lattimore, Marsha Ambrosius, Sheila E., Raul Midon, Leela James, Dionne Warwick, and Chaka Khan. His work is featured on Dianne Reeves's Grammy Award-winning album, "Beautiful Life."

Omar's first album, "I AM," debuted at #1 on iTunes Jazz Charts and peaked at #13 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Albums Chart. His second release, " We Will Know: An LGBT Civil Rigths Piece in Four Movements," has been hailed by Grammy Award-wining drummer, composer, and producer Terri Lyne Carrington as being a "thought provoking, multi-layered masterpiece" which has "put him in the esteemed category of great artists." "We Will Know" was awarded two OUTMusic Awards, including "Album of the Year." For this work, Omar was named the 2014 Lavender Rhino Award recipient by The History Project, acknowledging his work as an up-and-coming activist in the Boston LGBTQ community. Says Terri Lyne: "Omar Thomas will prove to be one of the more important composer/arrangers of his time."

Cathi Leibinger is the band director at Ransom Everglades Middle School, the current president of the Florida Bandmasters Association, and knows just about everyone in the band world!

Topics:

• Cathi’s early musical experiences, her educational background, and early experiences as a horn player and music educator.
• The organization of the program at Ransom Everglades Middle School and some discussion of the specific pedagogical decisions Cathi has made with her students.
• The Band Director's Facebook group.
• Cathi’s long association with the American Band College and why she seems to know everyone.
• Cathi shares an anecdote about Sam Pilafian and then talks a bit about her impostor syndrome and how she deals with it.

Links:

• Cathi Leibinger
• Florida Bandmasters Association
• Program Notes Podcast
• American Band College
• Reed: Russian Christmas Music
• Music Mentor Network

Biography:

Cathi Leibinger is currently in her 30th year of teaching middle school in Miami Florida. she is the current president of the Florida Bandmasters Association and has been a staff member at the American Band College since 1999. With degrees from Millikin University and Southern Oregon University, Cathi is the founder and executive director of the Music Mentor Network.

Composer and conductor Onsby Rose has had a remarkably diverse career as a performer, teacher, and railroad conductor and was recently appointed Director of Instrumental Activities/Associate Professor of Music at Dordt College.

Topics:

• An overview of Onsby’s remarkably diverse career including a discussion about being a Marine Corps musician and his move to the classroom after a career working with professionals.
• How Onsby started to compose, his relationship with David Maslanka, and his recent success as a composer.
• His thoughts about what’s most important to teach aspiring music educators.

Links:

• Onsby Rose
• Rose: Symphony No. 1 "Heroes"
• Dordt College
• Maslanka: Symphony No. 4

Biography:

Onsby C. Rose hails from Royal Oak, Mi but grew up primarily in Abingdon, Va. Upon graduation from Abingdon High School in 1993, Mr. Rose attended the University of South Carolina as a music education major. After three years of studies, Onsby auditioned and was accepted a trombone instrumentalist for the US Marine Corps Fleet Band system. He then attended recruit training in Parris Island, SC, and Marine Combat training in Camp Lejeune, NC. Private First Class Rose was then transferred to the Armed Forces School of Music where he completed the six-month course of study in only two months. Upon his graduation from the School of Music then Lance Corporal Rose was assigned to the Marine Corps Logistics Base Band in Albany, GA as a trombonist. While there he also served as a music librarian and drill writer/instructor, writing and teaching Drum Corps style fields shows to the band for use at military tattoos. In Oct. of 1999, then Corporal Rose auditioned and was accepted for Duty with one of the two premier musical units in the USMC, The United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps “The Commandant’s Own,” and was transferred to historic Marine Barracks 8th and I Streets SE, Washington D.C. While there Sergeant Rose served as a baritone bugler and assistant instrument repairman as well as deploying to Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait as musical support. Upon his re-enlistment, Sergeant Rose was transferred back into the Fleet Marine Corps bands as a trombonist with Marine Corps Band New Orleans, in New Orleans, LA. During his four years in the Crescent City, Onsby served as trombone and low brass section head, travel operations chief, brass quintet Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge, Small Ensemble Leader, Fiscal Chief, platoon sergeant, assistant drum major and assistant conductor. He toured internationally with the Brass quintet and visited 42 states and Europe in the course of his duties. In 2004 upon his promotion to Staff Sergeant he was accepted for the Marine Staff Non-Commissioned Officers Degree Completion Program where he attended East Tennessee State University and finished his Bachelor of Music degree and also studied conducting with Roxanne Haskill. After graduation Staff Sergeant Rose was transferred to the Armed Forces School of Music in Norfolk, VA where he served on staff as brass ensemble rehearsal conductor and registrar for the school of music. In 2007 Mr. Rose was Honorably discharged from the USMC after 11 years of faithful service. He then pursued activities outside the music field while he freelanced as a trombone player in Indiana, Virginia, and Tennessee.

In 2012, following the death of his wife Julia, Onsby returned to a full time music position and was hired as the Director of Bands at Hampton High School and Elementary in Carter County, TN. Mr. Rose served as the Director of Bands in Hampton for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years. During his time there his bands consistently received superior ratings in both marching and concert performances in addition the enrollment in the overall band program increasing 10 fold. Following his time in Tennessee, Onsby was a Graduate Conducting Associate with the Bands of Appalachian State University where he conducted the wind ensembles, team taught music education classes, and helped administrate and teach the athletic bands under the guidance of the Director and Associate Director of Bands. Following his time in the high countrym Onsby was blessed to be accepted as a Graduate Conducting Associate for The Ohio State University. Currently a second year Doctoral Conducting Associate at The Ohio State University, Onsby studies conducting with Dr. Russel Mikkelson. After completion of his DMA, he hopes to become a Director or Associate Director of Bands at a college or university. He is also currently the music director and conductor of The Brass Band of Appalachia from Bristol, Virginia. The group consists of numerous professional brass players from the region coming together to form a British style brass band. Mr. Rose is honored to have been asked to become the first music director and conductor of this new group as well as a co-founder along with his friends Mr. Will Shell, and Dr. Art Haecker.

In his spare time when not being a husband, father and graduate student, Onsby enjoys music composition for winds. His recent composition for wind band entitled Heroes from the Sea is set to have the world premiere by "The President's Own" United States Marine Band, on August 30th, 2017 during their concert on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building. The work is approximately at the 4.5 grade level and can be purchased on this website or by emailing Onsby directly at onsby.rose@gmail.com.

Onsby is a member of the Tennessee Secondary Schools Band Director Association (TSSBDA), East Tennessee State Band and Orchestra Directors Association (ETSBOA), North Carolina Music Educators Association (NCMEA), National Band Association (NBA), National Association for Music Education (NAFME), College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia National Music Fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi Band Service Fraternity, and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. He has held positions as a trombonist with the Johnson City Symphony, Kingsport Symphony, Elkhart Symphony, Band of America’s Few Marine Musician Alumni Band, State Line Wind Symphony, Elkhart Municipal Band, Truth in Jazz Big Band, and the various active duty Fleet Marine Corps Bands with which he served. His is the recipient of the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (2nd Award), National Defense Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Navy Unit Citation Award, Marine Corps Meritorious Unit Award, and numerous other awards and citations from his military career.

Onsby currently lives in Blacklick, Ohio with his wife Jessica and their five boys, Aidan, Timothy, Caleb, Elijah, and Colin.

Composer and conductor Brian Balmages is the Director of Instrumental Publications for The FJH Music Company and a passionate advocate for music education.

Topics:

• Brian’s background growing up as the son of a band director and the influence his father had on his early musical career.
• Brian’s move from performer to composer and conductor and his approach to writing music for young band and orchestra.
• The role of the conductor in an ensemble and the importance of programming music that inspires you and your students.
• What it looks like to commission a work from Brian and his role at FJH Publications.

Links:

• Brian Balmages
• FJH Music Company, Inc.
• Mahler: Symphony no. 2 "Resurrection"
• Balmages: Grace

Biography:

Brian Balmages (b. 1975) is an award-winning composer, conductor, producer, and performer. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music from James Madison University and a master’s degree from the University of Miami in Florida. His compositions have been performed worldwide at the state, national and international level. His active schedule of commissions and premieres has incorporated groups ranging from elementary schools to professional ensembles, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Miami Symphony Orchestra, University of Miami Wind Ensemble, Boston Brass, and the Dominion Brass Ensemble. In 2012, Mr. Balmages received the prestigious Albert Austin Harding Award from the American School Band Directors Association. He is also a 2010 winner of the Harvey G. Phillips Award for Compositional Excellence, presented by the International Tuba-Euphonium Association.

As a conductor, Mr. Balmages enjoys engagements with numerous all-state and regional honor bands and orchestras along with university and professional groups. Notable guest conducting appearances have included the Midwest Clinic, Western International Band Clinic, National Association for Music Educators, American School Band Directors Association, CBDNA, the Kennedy Center, and Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. He has also served as an adjunct professor of instrumental conducting and Acting Symphonic Band Director at Towson University in Maryland.

Currently, Mr. Balmages is the Director of Instrumental Publications for The FJH Music Company Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He resides in Baltimore with his wife Lisa and their two sons.

Philip Obado is the Director of Bands at Allen ISD in Allen, Texas where he oversees a high school and middle school band program with over 1,800 musicians.

Topics:

• The story of how Phil went from dreaming about a career as a concert trombonist to earning a doctorate in conducting and eventually landing as the director of bands for one of the largest high school music programs in the country.
• The decision to leave his position as the Assistant Director of Bands at Baylor University to return to high school teaching.
• The structure of the program at Allen and how Phil and his assistant directors are able to manage what is very likely the largest marching band in the world by developing a culture of leadership.
• A very general conversation about student discipline, having them buy into a program, and teaching by putting the students first.
• The extremely hierarchical band boosters at Allen High School and how they support the program.

Links:

• Allen High School Band Boosters
• Strauss: Four Last Songs

Biography:

Dr. Philip A. Obado is currently the Director of Bands at Allen I.S.D. in Allen, Texas. His responsibilities include serving as director of bands at Allen High School where he oversees the Allen Eagle Escadrille as well as conducts the AHS Wind Ensemble, Concert Band White (Fall), Concert Band II (Spring), and Jazz Band II. In addition to Dr. Obado’s teaching duties, he helps maintain a comprehensive and vertically aligned band curriculum (grades 6-12) with the help of the directors at Allen High School, Lowery Freshman Campus, Curtis Middle School, Ereckson Middle School, and Ford Middle School. Dr. Obado was previously Assistant Director of Bands at the Baylor University School of Music. His responsibilities included serving as Associate Director of the Golden Wave Band, director of the Courtside Players, director of the Concert Band, and teaching courses in conducting. Prior to this appointment at Baylor, Dr. Obado was Associate Director of Bands at Illinois State University where he was the director of the Big Red Marching Machine, conducted the Symphonic Winds and Symphonic Band, and taught courses in conducting and marching band techniques. He has also enjoyed twelve years teaching in the Florida public schools most notably as the Director of Bands at East River High School (Orlando), University High School (Orlando), and South Fork High School (Stuart).

Originally from Florida, Dr. Obado received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in wind conducting from Michigan State University, a Master of Music Education degree from Florida State University, and a Bachelor of Music in Education and Performance from Ithaca College. His primary conducting teachers include Kevin Sedatole, John T. Madden, Stephen Peterson, and James Croft. Dr. Obado’s professional affiliations include the College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, and is an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and Tau Beta Sigma.

Elisa Janson Jones is a band teacher, community band conductor, blogger, podcaster, public speaker, the founder of the online Music Education Summit.

Topics:

• Elisa’s origin story as the daughter of a prominent band director in Utah including her early music education and influences.
• The story of how Elisa used her experience, her network, and her personal skills to successfully open up a new middle school despite it being her first year of teaching.
• How getting an MBA while raising her children ultimately led her back into music education and the skills that she learned from that degree that transfer to the music classroom, including thoughts about fundraising.
• Tips for successfully finding grants for your program.
• The online Music Education Summit that is coming up this summer and a code (EVERYTHINGBAND20) to save 20% off of the registration fee.

Links:

• Elisa Janson Jones
• The Professional Music Educator's Blog
• The Music Education Summit
• The Music Ed Mentor Podcast
• The Music Educator’s Guide to Thrive
• Best Practices (with Fernando Penaloza)
• Whitacre: I Carry Your Heart

Biography:

Elisa Janson Jones specializes in helping music educators build, grow, and manage thriving school music programs. With an MBA alongside her degree in music, she is also a coach and consultant to small businesses and nonprofits around the country, and serves as the conductor of her local community band. She has been teaching music for nearly 20 years and currently holds the prestigious position of elementary music teacher at a private K-8 Catholic School in Grand Junction, Colorado. Elisa is an in-demand conference presenter, founder of the International Music Education Summit, producer of the 'Music Ed Mentor Podcast', and the author of "The Music Educator’s Guide to Thrive", the "Band Booster Manual", and co-author of "Best Practices for Music Educators".

Composer Jennifer Jolley is on the faculty at Texas Tech University and Interlochen and is a member of ADJ*ective New Music and the Blue Dot Collective. In this episode she discusses her career, including how she got into writing for band.

Topics:

• Jennifer’s background and her current gig as a composition professor at Texas Tech University.
• Combining electronic music with band and how composers can best help teachers bring these types of works to life.
• How Jennifer got involved in writing music for band and the story of “And The Eyes of the World are Upon You” commissioned by Jerry Junkin and Kappa Kappa Psi.
• The Fail Blog.
• Jennifer’s thoughts about self-publishing and distributors and why that’s important for composers.
• The story of how Jennifer has recognized that her anxiety was in getting in the way of her happiness and the story of her decision to seek help.

Links:

• Jennifer Jolley
• Why I Compose, aka "The Fail Blog"
• Blue Dot Collective
• ADJective New Music
• Murphy Music Press
• Jolley: The Eyes of the World are Upon You
• Jolley: Ash
• Bach: Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043
• Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
• Norman: Play: Level 1

Biography:

Composer Jennifer Jolley’s diverse catalog includes choral, orchestral, wind ensemble, chamber, and electronic works. She has been commissioned by ensembles and institutions across the United States, including the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, University of Texas at Austin, Bowling Green State University, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, The Canales Project, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, among others. She is Assistant Professor of Composition at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, is the co-founder of North American New Opera Workshop, and has written articles for the e-zine NewMusicBox.

In recent years, Jennifer has been increasingly drawn toward subjects that are political and even provocative. Her 2015 collaboration with librettist Kendall A, Prisoner of Conscience, sets to music statements made by the Russian punk-rock band Pussy Riot as they stood trial in Moscow for “hooliganism” and “religious hatred.” Quince Ensemble has performed the piece widely and has released a recording on their album Motherland with New Focus Recordings. Jennifer’s 2017 piece The Eyes of the World Are Upon You, commissioned by the University of Texas at Austin Wind Ensemble, reflects on the first-ever campus shooting in America, which took place at UT-Austin in 1966.

Jennifer’s blog—on which she has catalogued more than 100 rejection letters from competitions, festivals, and prizes—is widely read and admired by professional musicians. She is particularly passionate about this project as a composition teacher, and enjoys removing the taboo around “failure” for her students. In addition to her professorship at Texas Tech, she is a member of the composition faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp.

Jennifer deeply values the relationship that is created between composers and the communities with whom they collaborate. She has been composer-in-residence at Brevard College, University of Toledo, and the Vermont Symphony, and was in-residence at the Central Michigan University School of Music and the Alba Music Festival in Italy in 2018. She will be the Composer-in-Residence of the Women Composers Festival of Hartford in 2019.

Jennifer Jolley took 2nd Place for the 2017–18 American Prize in Composition (Band/Wind Ensemble Division) and was a finalist for the the Symphony Number One Call for Scores. She holds degrees from the University of Southern California and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where her principal teachers included Stephen Hartke, Frank Ticheli, Michael Fiday, Joel Hoffman, and Douglas Knehans.

Rachel Maxwell has enjoyed tremendous success as the Director of Bands at Traughber Junior High School in Oswego, Illinois where she teaches over 400 students in three bands.

Topics:

• The organization of the program at Traughber Middle School and how the growth of the town has changed her program during her tenure.
• Dividing bands strictly by grade levels and the goal to help every kid be successful regardless of their ability level and challenges.
• “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
• How teaching college music theory and aural skills relates to teaching band.
• Rachel’s background growing up in Rockford, Illinois and how the size of her horn case almost ended her musical career before it got started.
• The Traughber Band Literature Commision Project and how a conversation at the Chicago Hilton with John Mackey led to his work “The Sheltering Sky” and has continued with pieces from Donald Grantham, Scott McAllister, Dana Wilson, Julie Giroux, Randall Standridge, and David Biedenbender.
• #BandFamous

Links:

• Traughber Junior High School Band
• The Band Room
• Band Literature Commission Project
• Mackey: Sheltering Sky
• Queenwood Band Sets
• Standridge: Lullaby
• Donahue: Remember

Biography:

Rachel J. Maxwell attended Illinois State University and graduated in 1993 (Summa Cum Laude) with a Bachelor`s Degree in Music Education. She received a Master of Music Education degree from the University of Illinois in 1997. In 2003 she completed a Master of Educational Leadership degree from Aurora University. Mrs. Maxwell has also completed additional coursework in team-building, leadership and working with diverse students. Mrs. Maxwell has taught band in the West Aurora School District (1993-95) and in the Oswego School District (1995-present).

Mrs. Maxwell currently serves as the Director of Bands at Traughber Junior High School and as the Junior High Band Coordinator for the district. She has taught music education courses at VanderCook College of Music in Chicago and North Central College in Naperville, IL and has been invited to be a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator at a number of music camps and festivals including the Music for All National Summer Symposium, the NC All-State Middle School Band, ISYM at the Univ. of Illinois, Il State Univ. Junior High Camp and several IMEA District Level Festivals.

She is also a part of the team from Oswego who commissioned and premiered Sheltering Sky (2012) by John Mackey , Sol ye Sombra (2014) by Donald Grantham, Atmosphere (2016) by Scott McAllister and Our Cast Aways (2018) Julie Giroux. She is also involved in several consortium commissions: Shubuduba (2017) by Dana Wilson and N-BEAM (2017) https://mobleyj.wixsite.com/nbeam, Frogs (2018) by Randall Standridge.

Under her direction the bands at Traughber JHS have received national acclaim and have performed at The Midwest Clinic (two clinic presentations and rehearsal lab group), the Illinois Music Educators Association All State Conference (three formal concerts and four clinic presentations), the University of Illinois Super-state Festival and at the ASBDA National Convention.

Rachel Maxwell is a member of the The National Association of Music Education, Illinois Music Educators Association, American School Band Directors Association, National Band Association, Phi Beta Mu, National Council of Supervisors of Music Education, and a number of honor societies. She is the recipient of the Who`s Who Among American Teachers Award, Who`s Who Among Emerging Leaders Award, Who`s Who In American Education Award, Who`s Who Among American Women Award, ASBDA/UMI Outstanding Young Band Director Award-Junior High Division for the North Central Region of the United States, Chicago-land Outstanding Music Educator, National Band Association Citation of Excellence, and the National Recipient of the Jim Ott (Drum Corps International) Scholarship. She also serves on the advisory team for the dynamic professional learning Facebook site Band Directors Group; A World-Wide Professional Learning Community and is the author of thebandroomspage.com.

Bruce Pearson is the teacher, composer, and author behind the Best in Class, Standard of Excellence, and Tradition of Excellence (with Ryan Nowlin) method books. 

Topics:

• Bruce talks about his method books starting with Best In Class, Standard of Excellence, and Tradition of Excellence and then offers advice about choosing method books.
• Bruce’s background growing up playing both clarinet and hockey, and the similarities between music and athletics.
• Bruce’s early career, a flirtation with medical school, and how a move to teaching beginners at the elementary school level sharpened his teaching skills and changed the trajectory of his career.
• How to foster a culture of excellence in your program.
• Bruce talks about teaching from sound to sight, how to properly teach a whole note, and talks about the questions most asked about his method books.

Links:

• Bruce Pearson Music
• Neil A. Kjos Music Company
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Major, Op. 125

Biography:

Bruce Pearson is a world-renowned music educator, author, composer, and clinician. He is the author of the Standard of Excellence Comprehensive Band Method which has been regarded as the most important contribution to the band music field in the last three decades and for his first contribution, Best In Class. His new contribution, co-authored with Ryan Nowlin, the Tradition of Excellence Comprehensive Band Method, is a performance-centered curriculum that seamlessly blends time-tested and innovative pedagogy with cutting-edge technology. He also co-authored, with Dean Sorenson of the Standard of Excellence Jazz Ensemble Method and the Standard of Excellence Advanced Jazz Ensemble Method.

In addition to his method books, Dr. Pearson is well-known as a composer of many widely performed compositions for concert band and jazz ensemble. He has led clinics in all fifty of the United States and has been guest conductor and clinician, by invitation, of countries throughout the Pacific Rim, the Orient, Europe, and the Canadian provinces.

Bruce Pearson has taught at the elementary, junior high, high school, and college levels for over thirty years. Twice nominated for the prestigious Excellence in Education Award, he was recognized as “most outstanding in the field of music” for the state of Minnesota. In December, 1998, Dr. Pearson, “in recognition of his outstanding contribution to music education,” was awarded the prestigious Midwest International Clinic Band and Orchestra Conference Medal of Honor. In 2001, he was awarded St. Cloud State University’s Distinguished Service To Music Award “in appreciation for lifelong contribution to music and music education”. In 2007, Dr. Pearson received St. Cloud State University’s “Distinguished Alumni Award.” That same year he was recognized as the first Patron for the Maryborough Conference in Queensland, Australia. The American School Band Directors Association conferred on Dr. Pearson the 2014 Edwin Franko Goldman Award “as a symbol of high esteem and respect, and as a measure of appreciation and gratitude for outstanding personal contributions to the school band movement.” Additionally, Dr. Pearson has been recognized as a University of Northern Colorado “2017 Honored Alumni”.

Dr. Pearson continues to serve as a guest lecturer, clinician, and conductor in addition to his work as a composer, arranger, and author. He and his wife Dee have been married for over fifty years, have three children and nine grandchildren.

Episode 100! John Mackey joins me for a conversation about his hugely successful career, from Commodore 64 through his remarkable "Places We Can No Longer Go" that was recently premiered at CBDNA 2019!

Topics:

• The story of how John went from writing primarily chamber and orchestral music to becoming one of the most celebrated composers of music for wind ensemble and band.
• John’s background growing up and learning music and how to compose not in a traditional band, choir, or orchestra but instead on his computer through thousands of hours entering music via a joystick and reverse engineering what he was transcribing.
• The value of self publishing and the story of John’s growth from printing and shipping everything himself to having two employees to handle his current workload.
• The impact of writing dance music and how it’s influenced his compositional style and then an extended discussion of impostor syndrome, including John’s feelings about his most recent work Places We Can No Longer Go written about his mother’s battle with dementia and premiered at CBDNA just this past weekend.

Links:

• johnmackey.com/ostimusic.com
• Mackey: Redline Tango
• Mackey: Wine Dark Sea
• Ravel: Concerto for the Left Hand

Biography:

John Mackey has written for orchestras (Brooklyn Philharmonic, New York Youth Symphony), theater (Dallas Theater Center), and extensively for dance (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Parsons Dance Company, New York City Ballet), but the majority of his work for the past decade has been for wind ensembles (the fancy name for concert bands), and his band catalog now receives annual performances numbering in the thousands. Recent commissions include works for the BBC Singers, the Dallas Wind Symphony, military, high school, middle school, and university bands across America and Japan, and concertos for Joseph Alessi (principal trombone, New York Philharmonic) and Christopher Martin (principal trumpet, New York Philharmonic). In 2014, he became the youngest composer ever inducted into the American Bandmasters Association. In 2018, he received the Wladimir & Rhoda Lakond Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his spouse, A.E. Jaques, who titles all of his pieces (and also teaches at MIT).

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Anthony Barfield is a composer and music producer in New York City. In this episode Anthony discusses his early career as a trombonist, his “Heritage Concerto” for euphonium and band, and also a bit about his current career as a producer for commercial and urban music.

Topics:

• Anthony’s background growing up on his family farm in Mississippi and how the work ethic developed as a child has helped him achieve success as a musician.
• How Anthony’s success in high school helped to give him an identity outside, the impact of his middle school and high school band directors on his musical growth, and how the television show “Family Matters” may have helped him develop perfect pitch.
• The story of how Anthony kept leveraging his success into opportunity, including how being brave and persistent led him to studying trombone with Joe Alessi at Juilliard, and how that relationship led to his career as a composer.
• Anthony’s music for band and the story of the Heritage Concerto and his current work in commercial music.

Links:

• Velocity Music
• Barfield: Here We Rest
• Barfield: Heritage Concerto

Biography:

Anthony Barfield is a Composer and Producer based in New York City. Known for his lyrical writing style, his compositions have been performed throughout the U.S. and Europe. Anthony has received commissions from groups such as The University of Kentucky Wind Ensemble and Joseph Alessi of the New York Philharmonic. He made his Carnegie Hall debut at the 2012 New York Wind Band Festival where his work "Here We Rest" was performed. In demand as a composer in residence, Mr. Barfield has had performances at College Bandmasters National Association and has worked with groups such as The United States Army Band "Pershing's Own." Anthony released his first composition album in the fall of 2013 titled "Chapter II" with The University of Alabama Wind Ensemble. Anthony studied composition with C.P. First, Avner Dorman, Thomas Cabaniss, and Nils Vigeland.

Jason Nam is the Associate Director of Bands at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. In this episode Everything Band went "on the road" to Bloomington and had a chance to chat with Jason in the IU band offices.

Topics:

• The importance of doing your best in every stop and how opportunity can come from those around seeing you value and not wanting to let you get away.
• Thoughts about building relationships and connections and how awareness of these relationships can help guide your interactions with fellow professionals as well as your band parents.
• Advice for creating a multi-year plan for your band program, including a conversation about band music and the perception that music for education is of lesser value than more advanced works.
• Jason’s background growing up in Southern California, attending the University of Redlands, his subsequent teaching and his move to the University of Indiana where he is an Assistant Professor of Music and Associate Director of Bands in the Jacobs School of Music.
• Collaboration and commissions in the band community and particularly at Indiana University.

Links:

Jason Nam
Indiana University
University of Redlands
SCSBOA
Indiana University Summer Music Clinic
Dahl: Sinfonietta

Biography:

Jason H. Nam is assistant professor of music and associate director of bands at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he directs the Concert Band and teaches undergraduate courses in instrumental conducting and administration of school bands.

Nam earned a Doctor of Music in Wind Conducting degree from the Jacobs School, where he studied with Stephen W. Pratt. He also earned an M.M. in Conducting and a B.M. in Music Education from the University of Redlands, where he studied with Eddie R. Smith. Prior to his graduate degree work, he served as a lecturer in the Department of Music at California State University San Bernardino and as director of bands at La Colina Junior High School and San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara, California. More recently, he has served as a faculty member, ensemble conductor, and assistant director of the Indiana University Summer Music Clinic. In addition, Nam currently serves as resident music director of the Southern Indiana Wind Ensemble.

Nam keeps a very busy schedule as a conductor, adjudicator, and clinician across the United States and North America. As a trumpet player, he has freelanced and performed with numerous orchestras, chamber ensembles, and jazz ensembles in the southern and central coast regions of California, including with the Redlands Symphony Orchestra. As a conductor, he was honored to be named a national finalist for The American Prize in Conducting (Band/Wind Ensemble division) in 2017.

He has been published in the Journal of the National Band Association and the American Bandmasters Association’s Journal of Band Research. His research interests include the music of William Bolcom, the wind chamber music of Igor Stravinsky, the historical development of the wind band repertoire in the twentieth century, as well as effective rehearsal methodologies for conductors. He completed a new band transcription of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom’s Inventing Flight: A Suite for Orchestra of Thumbnail Portraits. The transcription was completed with the permission of Bolcom and his publisher, Edward B. Marks Music Company. In March 2016, the band version of Inventing Flight was officially published by E. B. Marks Music Company and made available as a rental to bands worldwide.

Nam holds professional memberships in the College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, Conductor's Guild, Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association, Indiana Music Education Association, and Pi Kappa Lambda music honor society, and is a proud member of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity of America.

He currently lives in Bloomington, Ind., with his wife, Melissa and son, Davis.

T. André Feagin is the assistant director of bands at Colorado State University. He joins the show to talk about his career and his involvement in DCI, and to share his thoughts about how conductors are advocates for the composer.

Topics:

• T. André’s early musical training through high school and college and some excellent advice for directors and teachers considering a decision to return to graduate work full time.
• T. André’s experience growing up with DCI from the age of 17 and his continued involvement in the activity.
• How to know when it is time to change jobs or career direction and how to know when you’re in a good job or position.
• “In the end, the only thing that matters is the music you make and the people you make it with.”
• Thoughts about the commissioning process and the importance of being a composer’s advocate.

Links:

• T. André Feagin
• Boston Crusaders
• Naylor: Yes, I Want to Cross Over
• Maslanka: Symphony no. 4

Biography:

Dr. T. André Feagin is the assistant director of bands and assistant professor of music at Colorado State University. At CSU his job duties include serving as conductor of the Symphonic Band, director of the CSU Marching Band, Presidential Pep Band, and Basketball Pep Band. In addition, he teaches courses in undergraduate conducting and marching band techniques. Prior to this appointment, he served as director of bands at Coastal Carolina University (SC) and associate director of bands at the University of Texas at El Paso. Dr. Feagin has appeared with numerous All-state and regional honor bands throughout the United States, Canada, and Southeast Asia. Previous engagements include serving as conductor of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) All-National Concert Band, conductor of the Massachusetts All-State Band, the New Mexico All-State Concert Band, and the New England Intercollegiate Band. He has presented clinics on conducting, leadership, and the marching arts at the Arizona Music Educators Association State Convention, The Savannah State University Conducting Workshop (GA), The Universiti Teknologi MARA in Selangor, Malaysia, the South Carolina Music Educators Association State Convention, the Georgia State University Leadership Institute, the New England Band Directors Institute (NH), and the NAfME National Conference. Dr. Feagin’s research and scholarly activities include serving as a contributing author in multiple volumes of the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series. In addition, he has been featured in the Instrumentalist, Teaching Music, and Billboard magazines. His doctoral research studies Spanish wind composer Bernardo Adam Ferrero and his wind composition Homenaje a Joaquín Sorolla. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including a proclamation of “Professor T. André Feagin Day” from the Mayor and City Council of El Paso, Texas.

Composer and arranger Matt Conaway is the associate director of the Purdue "All American" marching band with his original music and arrangements published by C.L. Barnhouse and Hal Leonard.

Topics:

• Matt’s position at Purdue University.
• Matt’s musical background including his grandmother who played honky tonk piano.
• Ways that we can support the careers of aspiring young composers and conductors that find their way into our classrooms.
• Matt’s education and his teaching position in West Lafayette, Indiana and his move to Purdue University.
• Matt’s composing including the story of how he got started and his work with C.L. Barnhouse and Hal Leonard.
• Commissions and some thoughts on the new trend of crowdsourcing consortium commissions.

Links:

• Matt Conaway
• Purdue University Bands and Orchestras

Biography:

Matthew R. Conaway was appointed to the Purdue faculty in August 2012 as an Assistant Professor, and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure in July 2018. He serves as an associate director of the famed “All-American” Marching Band, directs the “Boiler Brass” Men’s Basketball Pep Band, and conducts the Purdue Symphonic Band and Varsity Band. He also serves as the department’s technology coordinator, and coordinates the Volunteer Management Team. He is responsible for coordinating marching band travel, and has organized trips around the Big Ten, as well as a significant performance experience in Medellín, Colombia in 2015. He has mentored many student organizations, previously serving as sponsor for the Beta Sigma chapter of Tau Beta Sigma, the Gamma Pi chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, the Band & Orchestra Technology Office, and the Purdue Musical LGBTQ+ Society. Conaway also serves the university as a member of the Purdue University Senate, and serves on both the Student Affairs Committee and the Advisory Committee on Equity.

Prior to his appointment to Purdue’s faculty, Conaway served for ten years as the Director of Bands for the West Lafayette Community School Corporation, during which time the program received many state and national accolades for musical excellence. He brought back the Marching “Red Devil” Band, basketball pep band, jazz band, and symphony orchestra to the music department, and raised band program enrollment by over 200 students in grades 5-12. During his tenure, West Lafayette became regarded as one of the great small-school music programs in Indiana, with two state concert finals appearances and dozens of superior festival ratings. Under Conaway’s leadership, the NAMM Foundation recognized the West Lafayette Community School Corporation as one of the “Best Communities for Music Education in America” in 2006, 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Conaway is an award-winning, internationally-known composer for concert bands, with over fifty original works currently in publication. His compositions range from very beginning through very advanced, based on his experience working with all levels of performers in grade 5-12, collegiate, and professional ensembles. He has received commissions from many schools and honor bands in the last five years. Conaway was honored to experience his Carnegie Hall debut in March 2016 with a world premiere performance by the Purdue Wind Ensemble.

He is also an accomplished arranger, and has written for athletic bands at Indiana University, Purdue University, and many high schools and colleges throughout the country. Millions of people have heard Conaway’s arrangements at multiple festivals, bowl games, basketball tournaments, and other major sporting events since 1999. His compositions and arrangements are available globally through the C.L. Barnhouse Company and the Hal Leonard Corporation.

After graduating from Woodhaven (MI) High School in 1997, Conaway attended Indiana University – Bloomington, where he studied arranging with David Woodley. He received his Bachelor of Music Education with Distinction in 2001, and earned a Masters of Music degree from the American Band College of Sam Houston State University in 2010. He is a member of NAfME, CBDNA, NBA, Indiana Music Educators Association, Indiana Bandmasters Association, and ASCAP. He is an honorary member of Tau Beta Sigma and Kappa Kappa Psi, and was recently inducted into the Gamma chapter of Phi Beta Mu. He is in demand as a clinician and adjudicator at concert and marching band festivals and competitions throughout the United States.

Acclaimed young composer Viet Cuong joins the show to share his thoughts about band music, his work as a composer, and how growing up in the Lassiter band helped him fit in and find his place in the world.

Topics:

• 
Viet’s background and how he got his start as a musician, percussionist, and composer.
• How band and music helped Viet “find his place” in the world and the importance of band as a place where kids who are struggling to feel accepted have a place where they can fit in and grow.
• Growing up in the legendary Lassiter Band Program under the baton of Alfred Watkins.
• Thought about what band directors can do to support young musicians who are writing music or want to become composers.
• Thoughts about academic music, new music for band, and some insights into building design at Princeton.
• The Blue Dot Collective

Links:

• Viet Cuong, Composer
• The Blue Dot Collective
• Cuong: Diamond Tide
• Cuong: Moth
• Stravinsky: Rite of Spring

Biography:

Called “alluring” and “wildly inventive” by The New York Times, the “ingenious” and “knockout” (Times Union) music of Viet Cuong (b. 1990) has been performed on six continents by musicians and ensembles such as Sō Percussion, Eighth Blackbird, Alarm Will Sound, Sandbox Percussion, the PRISM Quartet, JACK Quartet, Gregory Oakes, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, and Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, among many others. Viet’s music has been featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Aspen Music Festival, New Music Gathering, Boston GuitarFest, International Double Reed Society Conference, US Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium, and on American Public Radio’s Performance Today. He also enjoys composing for the wind ensemble medium, and his works for winds have amassed over one hundred performances by conservatory and university ensembles worldwide, including at Midwest, WASBE, and CBDNA conferences.

Viet holds the Curtis Institute of Music’s Daniel W. Dietrich II Composition Fellowship as an Artist Diploma student of David Ludwig and Jennifer Higdon. Viet received his MFA from Princeton University as a Naumburg and Roger Sessions Fellow, and he is currently finishing his PhD there. At Princeton he studied with Steve Mackey, Donnacha Dennehy, Dan Trueman, Dmitri Tymoczko, Paul Lansky, and Louis Andriessen. Viet holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Pulitzer Prize-winner Kevin Puts and Oscar Bettison. While at Peabody, he received the Peabody Alumni Award (the Valedictorian honor) and the Gustav Klemm Award for excellence in composition. Viet has been a fellow at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab, Cabrillo Festival’s Young Composer Workshop, Copland House’s CULTIVATE emerging composers workshop, and was also a scholarship student at the Aspen, Bowdoin, and Lake Champlain music festivals. Additionally, he has received artist residencies from Yaddo, Copland House, Ucross Foundation, and Atlantic Center for the Arts (under Melinda Wagner, 2012 and Christopher Theofanidis, 2014).

Viet is a recipient of the Barlow Endowment Commission, Copland House Residency Award, ASCAP Morton Gould Composers Award, Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composers Award, Theodore Presser Foundation Music Award, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra Call for Scores, Cortona Prize, New York Youth Symphony First Music Commission, Boston GuitarFest Composition Competition, and Walter Beeler Memorial Prize, among others. In addition, he received honorable mentions in the Harvey Gaul Composition Competition and two consecutive ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prizes. Scholarships include the Evergreen House Foundation scholarship at Peabody, a 2010 Susan and Ford Schumann Merit Scholarship from the Aspen Music Festival and School, and the 2011 Bachrach Memorial Gift from the Bowdoin International Music Festival.

Robert Sheldon has had a remarkable career as a composer, conductor, and music educator and is the Director of Concert Band Publications at Alfred Music. 

Topics:

• Robert’s incredible music background as the “Forrest Gump” of band music that included vaudevillian parents, studies at the University of Miami with Clifton Williams, Alfred Reed, and Frederick Fennell, and playing in the very first Disney World Band directed by Meredith Willson!
• Robert’s teaching career in Florida including stops at the University of Florida and Florida State University and his eventual move to Bloomington/Normal, Illinois.
• Robert’s role as the band editor at Alfred Publishing, commercial publishing vs. self-publishing, and the Sound Innovations series.
• What it looks like to commission a new band work from Robert Sheldon. (Hint: You need to plan it out several years in advance.)

Links:

• Robert Sheldon
• Alfred Music
• Sound Innovations
• Ravel: Daphnis et Chloè

Biography:

Robert Sheldon (b. Feb 3, 1954) has taught instrumental music in the Florida and Illinois public schools, and has served on the faculty at Florida State University where he taught conducting and instrumental music education classes, and directed the university bands. As Director of Concert Band Publications for Alfred Music, he maintains an active composition and conducting schedule, and regularly accepts commissions for new works. Sheldon received the Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Miami and the Master of Fine Arts in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Florida.

An internationally recognized clinician, Sheldon has conducted numerous Regional and All-State Honor Bands throughout the United States and abroad. His teaching career included 28 years in the Florida and Illinois public schools as well as at the University of Florida, Florida State University, Illinois Central College and Bradley University. He also held positions as conductor of the Alachua County Youth Orchestra in Gainesville, Florida and the Prairie Wind Ensemble in East Peoria, Illinois. He maintains membership in several organizations that promote music and music education.  He is lead author for the SOUND INNOVATIONS FOR BAND method books, and is a co-author for the MEASURES OF SUCCESS Volume 1 method book and the SOUND INNOVATIONS FOR STRINGS method books.

The American School Band Directors Association has honored him with the Volkwein Award for composition and the Stanbury Award for teaching, and the International Assembly of Phi Beta Mu honored him with the International Outstanding Bandmaster Award. He has also been a twenty-eight-time recipient of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publisher’s Standard Award for his compositions in the concert band and orchestral repertoire. His compositions have been recorded and released on compact discs including, Images: The Music of Robert Sheldon, and Infinite Horizons: The Music of Robert Sheldon, as well as numerous other recordings. Mr. Sheldon has been the topic of articles published in The Instrumentalist, Teaching Music and School Band and Orchestra Magazine, and is one of eleven American wind band composers featured in Volume I of Composers on Composing Music for Band.

A former middle and high school band director in Utah, Kaitlin Bove is currently a doctoral student in conducting at the University of Kentucky and one of the founders of the And We Were Heard recording project.

Topics:

• Kaitlin's background growing up in Northern California and as a student at the University of the Pacific.
• The importance of giving kids an understanding and ability to play their instrument by themselves and some tips for helping students to learn ways to to do this.
• Kaitlin's experience teaching middle school and high school in Utah, and her move to the University of Kentucky to pursue her doctorate.
• Her transcription for concert band of Caroline Shaw's Pulitzer Prize winning "Partita for 8 Voices".
• The origin story of And We Were Heard and how the project will help create diversity by creating a database of recordings of concert band literature by underrepresented composers.

Links:

• Kaitlin Bove
• And We Were Heard
• Jay Buckey
• Mackey: Frozen Cathedral
• Shaw: Partita for 8 Voices

Biography:

Kaitlin Bove is a second year doctoral student at the University of Kentucky where she is completing a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Wind Conducting. She is a conducting student of Cody Birdwell and a teaching assistant with the concert bands, athletic bands, and undergraduate conducting program. She is looking forward to premiering her wind transcription of Caroline Shaw’s Partita for 8 Voices as part of her lecture conducting recital in March, 2019 with the University of Kentucky Wind Symphony and University of Kentucky Choristers. Kaitlin anticipates matriculating in August 2019. Ms. Bove is from Lafayette, California and earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Education from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California where she studied with Eric Hammer. She served as Director of the Pacific Pep Band from 2007-08 and held the position of Graduate Assistant of Bands during her master’s coursework. In addition, Kaitlin served as the Interim Director of the University Concert Band in Spring 2012. For over a decade, Ms. Bove instructed musicians in the Laney Summer Music Program at Laney College in Oakland, California where she worked with the band, orchestra, jazz, and choral tracks. From 2011-2016, Kaitlin directed the band and orchestra sessions of the program. Kaitlin has served as Director of Bands at Payson High School and Director of Bands and Orchestras at Mt. Nebo Junior High School in Payson, Utah. In this setting, she has instructed courses in band, orchestra, marching band, jazz ensemble, AP music theory, guitar, folk music, musical theater, and mariachi. In 2015, the Payson High School Marching Band earned Region 1A 1st in State with the field show, “TRASH!”, featuring Kaitlin’s original music, drill, and concept design. Ms. Bove is a member of the National Band Association, College Band Directors National Association, and Women Band Director International. She served as editorial assistant for the NBA’s most recent Selective Music List (2018) and recently published an Instrumentalist article based on an interview with conductor Jerry Junkin and composer John Mackey. Kaitlin is a spearheading member of the And We Were Heard initiative which matches underrepresented composers of wind band literature with volunteer ensembles in order to generate quality recordings of the music of diverse compositional voices. Information about this program can be found at andwewereheard.org Kaitlin’s professional interests include working with diverse student and community populations, cross-curricular collaborative experiences, and relevancy and shifting priorities in the 21st century music classroom. In her free time, Kaitlin enjoys cooking, hiking, podcast bingeing, and spending time with her two Pugs.

Works by composer Randall Standridge are consistently among the highest selling and most widely performed music each year. In this episode, he offers insight into his music and career as a composer.

Topics:

• A brief overview of Randall’s career from college student at Arkansas State through the success of his works Afterburn and Adrenaline Engines.
• Randall’s family influences and high school teachers who fostered his creativity, his first (and only) teaching job, and the story of his transition to becoming a full time composer.
• Thoughts about composition and Grand Mesa Marching.
• The story of how Percy Grainger and a guiro led to the creation of the huge Grade 1 consortium for his work Frogs.

Links:

• Randall Standridge
• Grand Mesa Music Marching Band
• Barnes: Fantasy Variations of a Theme of Nicholo Paganini
• Standridge: Frogs
• Standridge: The Nine

Biography:

Randall Standridge (b.1976) received his Bachelor's of Music Education from Arkansas State University.  During this time, he studied composition with Dr. Tom O'Connor, before returning to Arkansas State University to earn his Master's in Music Composition, studying with Dr. Tom O'Connor and Dr. Tim Crist. In 2001, he began his tenure as Director of Bands at Harrisburg High School in Harrisburg, Arkansas.  He left this post in 2013 to pursue a career as a full-time composer and marching band editor for Grand Mesa Music Publishers.

Mr. Standridge is currently published by Grand Mesa Music, Alfred Music, FJH Music, Wingert-Jones Music, Band Works Publications, Twin Towers Music, and Northeastern Music Publications.  Mr. Standridge's music is performed internationally.  He has had numerous works selected to the J.W. Pepper's editor's choice. His composition Snake Charmer,published by Grand Mesa Music, was included in Teaching Music through Performance in Band Vol. 8, and his work Gently Blows the Summer Wind is included in Teaching Music Through Performance in Middle School Band.  His works Steel, Gadget, Snake Charmer, The Rowan Tree, Still Still Still, That Old Hound Dog Rag, Danse Bohémien, Aggressivo, When the Spring Rain Begins to Fall, Danse Carnivale, Ruckus, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Angelic Celebrations, Extremis, Darklands Legends, DarkHeart, Companion of My Voice, Kinetic Dances, Brave Spirit, Frogs, Under the Cherry Blossoms, Dark Ride, Four: On a Remix of Beethoven, Imaginarium, and In the Court of the King have been performed at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, Illinois.  His work Art(isms) was premiered by the Arkansas State University Wind Ensemble at the 2010 CBDNA conference in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  Mr. Standridge is also a contributing composer for Alfred Music's Sound Innovations: Ensemble Development series.

In addition to his career as a composer, Mr. Standridge is active as a clinician.  He is also in demand as a drill designer, music arranger, and colorguard designer for the marching arts, as well as a freelance artist/photographer and writer.  He lives in Jonesboro, Arkansas with his family.

Matthew Maslanka is David Maslanka’s second son and the primary caretaker of David’s music. Born in New York City in 1982, he grew up listening to his father composing at the piano. From the age of 10, Matthew started helping out by making photocopies of scores and dubbing cassette tapes for David to send to conductors interested in the music. At 12, Matthew discovered the delights of engraving music with a computer. By 14, he was skilled enough to handle the preparation of his father’s music and proceeded to engrave virtually every work from that point forward. In this way, he built up a deep understanding of the underpinnings of David’s writing and long-term development as a composer. He frequently accompanied his father on trips to work with ensembles and observed his working process closely. Matthew enjoyed a particularly close personal and professional relationship with David.

Matthew is a versatile musician, performing on euphonium and trombone, preparing sheet music for performance and publication, and publishing his father’s music. He studied euphonium performance as an undergraduate at Michigan State University with Philip Sinder and as a master’s student at Indiana University with Daniel Perantoni. He also studied trombone as a doctoral candidate at Indiana University with Carl Lenthe. He has performed on Broadway in the orchestra of Fiddler on the Roof and plays with the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra and the Chelsea Symphony, among others.

Along with performing, Matthew is an accomplished music engraver and copyist. Equally at home in the commercial and classical worlds, he has prepared music in diverse genres. Projects have included the Pixar film The Incredibles 2, Warner Brothers’ Shazam!, the hit video game Destiny 2 by Bungie Inc. and the acclaimed musicals Far From Heaven by Scott Frankel with orchestrations by Tony Award winner Bruce Coughlin, Chess by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA, and Sycamore Trees by Ricky Ian Gordon. He has also engraved opera, wind ensemble, and chamber music for the New York-based publisher Carl Fischer and Internationale Musikverlage Hans Sikorski in Hamburg.

In 2012, Matthew founded Maslanka Press to publish his father’s works. Dedicated to producing beautiful, affordable new editions, promoting David’s music, and supporting performers, educators, and enthusiasts, Maslanka Press now publishes more than 70 works worldwide. Following David’s passing in 2017, he started the David Maslanka Foundation with his brother Stephen and sister Kathryn to preserve and promote David’s music and life. As part of that mission, Matthew travels worldwide, coaching performing groups on his father’s music.

Matthew is an avid photographer and lives in New York City with his two dogs, Cassie and Max.

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The Everything Band Podcast team includes the following contributors:

• Host and Creator: Mark Connor
• Outreach Manager: Colin Peters
• Creative Director: Jake Walker

Courtney Snyder is the Associate Director of Bands at the University of Michigan, the president-elect of the Women Band Directors International, and a panelist for the brand new ...And We Were Heard project.

Topics:

• Courtney’s background and the stories of some of the teachers who influenced her career.
• The story of “And We Were Heard”, a new project designed to record and promote the music of composers from underrepresented communities.
• The value and importance of programming music by a diverse group of composers.
• Challenges faced by women conductors and Courtney’s advice for young women who are interested in a career as a composer or a conductor.
• Building connections and being aware of our surroundings so that we can find and offer the help that we and others need.

Links:

• Courtney Snyder
• …And We Were Heard
• Schachter: "Karnatakamallika"
• Valerie Coleman
• Schwantner: “...And the Mountains Rising Nowhere”
• Women Band Directors International Composition Competition

Biography:

Dr. Courtney Snyder is associate director of bands and assistant professor of conducting at the University of Michigan, where she directs the Concert Band, teaches conducting, and directs the Michigan Youth Wind Band – a group of select, auditioned high school students from area high schools. Under her direction, the Concert Band was invited to perform at the College Band Directors Association North-Central Division Conference. Previously, Snyder served as the Assistant Director of Bands and Director of Athletic Bands at the University of Nebraska – Omaha where she directed the “Maverick” Marching Band, was conductor of the Concert Band and associate conductor of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and taught courses in conducting, music education, and brass methods. While in Omaha, Snyder served as Music Director for the Nebraska Wind Symphony, which, also under her direction, was invited to perform at the Nebraska State Bandmasters Association Annual Conference. Prior to directing college ensembles, Snyder taught high school and middle school band and orchestra in the Michigan public schools.

Mark is joined by Sean Smith from the Source Material Podcast and Olin Hannum from the AMusEd Podcast as we have a conversation about our expectations for the 2018 Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic. In the episode we discuss a few sessions we're interested in, take some time to talk about creativity in the large ensemble, and offer some advice for first time attendees.

The Music Teacher Development Podcast Network is a network of podcasts with the common goal of providing support for music education in the form of audio on demand programming designed by, and for music educators. In addition to Everything Band, Source Material, and AMusEd, the fourth podcast in our network is the Anacrusic Podcast hosted by Anne Mileski.

Special thanks to VanderCook College of Music for sponsoring this episode. With a world-class faculty, a location just minutes from downtown Chicago, and an intensive summers-only masters program, it's no wonder VanderCook College of Music has graduates teaching music in all 50 states, 21 countries, and 6 continents.  Make next summer your most inspiring summer yet by pursuing a Masters in Music Education at VanderCook College of Music. And for the next generation of music educators, VanderCook offers an exceptional, comprehensive 4-year Bachelor of Music Education program. VanderCook Admissions information is available at www.vandercook.edu.

John Bogenschutz, the creator of the band and music themed Tone Deaf Comics tells the story of why he switched from band director and composer to comic strip creator and offers thoughts about our community from a very different perspective.

Topics:

• John’s early musical background and his experience as a band director and composer.
• How being a stand-up comedian is similar to being a band director.
• The story of the founding of Tone Deaf Comics and the development of the strip’s style.
• How John comes up with ideas and anecdotes about some of the notable composers and conductors who have appeared in the strip.

Links:

• Tone Deaf Comics
• “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield
• Mahler: Symphony no. 2 “Resurrection”

Biography:

Tone Deaf Comics was created, and is ran, by John Bogenschutz. John received a Bachelors of Music Education degree from Northern Kentucky University. He was also a band director for a couple of years, a music arranger for about ten years and now cartoonist. He also has 3 published compositions to his credit (Hymn for the Altruistic, Red Rocks Fanfare, and Contambiance Fanfare). John currently lives in Union, KY with his beautiful wife and three sons.

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Special thanks to VanderCook College of Music for sponsoring this episode. With a world-class faculty, a location just minutes from downtown Chicago, and an intensive summers-only masters program, it's no wonder VanderCook College of Music has graduates teaching music in all 50 states, 21 countries, and 6 continents.  Make next summer your most inspiring summer yet by pursuing a Masters in Music Education at VanderCook College of Music. And for the next generation of music educators, VanderCook offers an exceptional, comprehensive 4-year Bachelor of Music Education program. VanderCook Admissions information is available at www.vandercook.edu.

The Director of Bands at the University of Missouri, Brian Silvey joins the show to talk about his background, music teacher education, and the importance of conducting gestures.

Topics:

• Brian’s background as a young trombonist from rural Kentucky, the lessons he learned from his band director, and his path to becoming the director of bands at the University of Missouri.
• Music teacher education and the challenges faced by young teachers and the resources to help young teachers succeed.
• Thoughts about differentiated teaching in band, particularly keeping the students who are pushing ahead of their classmates occupied and engaged while not discouraging others.
• Brian’s research into expressive conducting and some interesting findings about the importance of what conductors do on the podium.
• The types of classroom routines that are most effective for classroom management and good rehearsals.

Links:

• Brian Silvey
• The University of Missouri School of Music
• Maslanka: A Child's Garden of Dreams
• Vaughn-Williams: Symphony no. 5

Biography:

Brian A. Silvey is Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Missouri. At MU, he teaches undergraduate and graduate music education courses, conducts the Wind Ensemble, and provides oversight to the entire band program. Dr. Silvey has presented music education research and teacher preparation clinics at state, national, and international venues. Recent presentations have included the International Society for Music Education conference in Baku, Azerbaijan (2018), the Music Research and Teacher Education National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia (2018), the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois (2017), and the College Band Directors National Association conference in Kansas City, Missouri (2017). He is published in the Journal of Research in Music Education, International Journal of Research in Music Education, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Research Studies in Music Education, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, Journal of Music Teacher Education, Journal of Band Research, and the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series. He serves currently as Associate Editor/Editor-Elect of Update: Applications of Research in Music Education and as Editor of the Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education. In addition, he also serves on the editorial board of the College Band Directors National Association Research Journal.

His research interests include conducting expressivity and effectiveness, instrumental conducting pedagogy, and preservice teacher preparation. Dr. Silvey is the past recipient of the MU Writing Intensive Teaching Excellence Award, the School of Music Faculty Excellence Award, and the Gold Chalk Award for Teaching Excellence. He is an experienced events adjudicator, guest conductor, and guest clinician, having worked with bands across the United States.

President Emeritus of VanderCook College of Music, Charlie Menghini enjoyed a long career as a music educator in the Kansas City area before joining the faculty at VanderCook. In this episode he shares wisdom and anecdotes from a remarkable career.

Topics:

• Charlie’s background growing up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and how an influential 7th grade band teacher nurtured and inspired a young cornet player.
• How a speech by John Paynter at Bands of America and a subsequent meeting with his former high school band director helped a young Charlie understand the value of the high school music teacher.
• After following Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser to the University of Missouri, the story of how Charlie got his first high school teaching job at Winnetonka High School outside of Kansas City.
• Your first big mistake is not an indicator of your future success and other anecdotes from Charlie’s first job.
• Practical tips and thoughts about getting better as a band director, as well as thoughts about building connections and creating relationships.

Links:

• Charles Menghini
• Stan Kenton Big Band with Maynard Ferguson
• VanderCook College of Music

Biography:

Dr. Charles T. Menghini is President Emeritus of VanderCook College of Music. Dr. Menghini served as President and Director of Bands from August of 2004 through May of 2017, and prior to that time served as Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Director of Bands. He began his teaching at VanderCook College in 1994 and in addition to being Director of Bands he taught instrumental conducting, organization and administration, curriculum and supervision, brass methods and rehearsal techniques classes.

Dr. Menghini brought 18 years of successful high school band experience in Missouri and Kansas with his appointment to VanderCook. Bands under his direction received consistent Division I ratings in regional, state and national music festivals, performed at various state music educator conventions and performed in the Tournament of Roses Parade, Orange Bowl Parade, Bands of America International Festival and the XV Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, Canada.

Originally from Iron Mountain, MI, Dr. Menghini attended Northern Michigan University and the University of Missouri-Columbia where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in music education. He also holds a master's degree in educational administration and a Doctorate of Arts in wind conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Dr. Menghini recognizes Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser, Gary Green and Gary Hill as being the most influential teachers in his growth and development.

Dr. Menghini is co-author of the Essential Elements Band Method, published by the Hal Leonard Corporation.  He also writes for numerous professional journals and magazines including InTune Monthly, School Band and Orchestra and The Instrumentalist, where he serves as a member of the Board of Advisors.

Dr. Menghini8 frequently serves as a clinician and adjudicator throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and has actively worked with over 350 school and community ensembles from 20 states as well as Canada, Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia. He has conducted all-state ensembles in Wisconsin, North Dakota, Georgia, South Carolina, Nebraska, New York, Virginia and Minnesota, and has presented numerous clinics at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago and various state and regional music education in-services throughout the world.

Dr. Menghini is a Lowell Mason Fellow and a member of the American Bandmasters Association, College Band Directors National Association, the National Band Association, National Association for Music Education and Phi Beta Mu. He was inducted into the Alpha Psi Chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda National Honor Society for Music – the highest honor a conservatory faculty can bestow on a student in recognition of outstanding musicianship and scholarly achievement, and is an honorary member of the Xi Kappa (VanderCook) Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

Dr. Menghini is an educational consultant for the Hal Leonard Corporation and the Conn-Selmer musical instrument company. In addition, Dr. Menghini is an educational member of the Music Achievement Council of the NAMM Foundation. An active performer, he played lead trumpet in the Kansas City Chiefs Professional Football Band and serves as the official trumpeter of the City Club of Chicago.

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Special thanks to VanderCook College of Music for sponsoring this episode. With a world-class faculty, a location just minutes from downtown Chicago, and an intensive summers-only masters program, it's no wonder VanderCook College of Music has graduates teaching music in all 50 states, 21 countries, and 6 continents.  Make next summer your most inspiring summer yet by pursuing a Masters in Music Education at VanderCook College of Music. And for the next generation of music educators, VanderCook offers an exceptional, comprehensive 4-year Bachelor of Music Education program. VanderCook Admissions information is available at www.vandercook.edu.

Sister Gail Buckman has been teaching in the St. Louis are since 1968, and I recently had a chance to visit Sister Gail in her band room at St. Gabriel the Archangel School. Here is my conversation with this truly remarkable music educator.

Topics:

• Sister Gail’s early career and influences.
• The importance of always trying to learn from others and the value of mentors.
• “No one rises to low expectations”
• A brief conversation about fundraising.
• A discussion of classroom management and tips for regaining control if it’s been lost.
• Why music is the one of the few things that parents can’t help their students with and why that, and the need for practice is so valuable for kids.
• Why having students name their instruments can be a valuable teaching strategy.

 Links:

• St. Gabriel the Archangel School
• De Haan: Yellow Mountains

Biography:

Sister Gail Buckman is in her 50th year of teaching and has taught music in the St. Louis/St. Charles area for the past 47 years. For the past 23 years she has, and is currently teaching instrumental music at St. Gabriel the Archangel School in St. Louis. She teaches students in grades four through eight in Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, and Jazz Bands. Sister Gail is a member of St. Louis District 8 of MMEA, and currently serves as Secretary for that District. Sister Gail is active in many facets of Music education: she is Assistant Director with the St. Charles Municipal Band; she is a staff member at the Viking Band Camp in Hillsboro, MO; she is a staff member with Missouri Ambassadors of Music European Tours; and has served as adjudicator/clinician around Missouri and Illinois. Sister Gail received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Notre Dame College in St. Louis, and a Master Degree in Music Education from the University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. She holds affiliations in National Association of Music Educators, Catholic Educators Association, National Catholic Band Association, Missouri Music Educators’ Association, Missouri Bandmasters Association (MBA), and is a member of Phi Beta Mu. Sister Gail belongs to the religious community of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

Composer and arranger Rob Romeyn joins me this week to talk about his career, the lessons he learned from great mentors as a young arranger, and his current work with C.L. Barnhouse.

Topics:

• Rob’s background growing up in Florida and his exposure to some of the great names in the music education and marching arts communities during his early career in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
• The story of a band arranging class taught by Bob Cotter that exposed Rob to band music and arranging while still in high school.
• How conducting a community band led to Rob’s transition to writing for concert band and his introduction to Andy Glover at C.L. Barnhouse.
• Rob’s current compositional process, the value of writing holiday music, and how he formulates a plan for each piece that he writes.

Links:

• Rob Romeyn
• C.L. Barnhouse
• Second Time Arounders Marching Band
• Walton: Crown Imperial
• Romeyn: Soar with Dragons
• Romeyn: Apollo: Myth and Legend
• Romeyn: Atlantis: The Lost Continent

Biography:

Rob Romeyn’s (b. 1961) music career has been multi-faceted and diverse. He has served as a performer, conductor, educator and as a composer and arranger. As a band director, he has directed bands from the elementary level to adult community groups. His first composition for band was published at age 19. His ability to write effective and educationally sound music for bands and string orchestras of all levels can be attributed to his vast teaching experiences.

Many elementary, middle school, high school, university, community bands and string orchestras worldwide have performed his arrangements and compositions. He has been commissioned to write for marching band, concert band, string orchestra and jazz ensemble. His concert band and orchestra music is on many state required music lists. Many of his works are featured as “Editor’s Choice” selections at all levels by major music distributors. His music has seen extensive airplay worldwide. Many of his arrangements have been featured on national television, including portions of the Peach Bowl halftime shows for 2000-2001, and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Mr. Romeyn is a member of the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers. Much of his music has been recorded, and is available on CD and download through Walking Frog Records and other music outlets. He is in demand as a guest conductor for honor bands, and regularly accepts new commissions. His conducting and rehearsal style has been described as inspiring and energetic.

Mr. Romeyn received a M.M. Ed. Degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He served as staff arranger for the University of Louisiana at Monroe “Sound of Today” band from 1983-1986. His graduate assistant duties at ULM in addition to arranging included conducting the university concert band and the basketball pep band. Mr. Romeyn also served as staff arranger at James Madison University. He was the director of the St. Petersburg Community Band in St. Petersburg, Florida from 1994-2013.

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Special thanks to VanderCook College of Music for sponsoring this episode. With a world-class faculty, a location just minutes from downtown Chicago, and an intensive summers-only masters program, it's no wonder VanderCook College of Music has graduates teaching music in all 50 states, 21 countries, and 6 continents.  Make next summer your most inspiring summer yet by pursuing a Masters in Music Education at VanderCook College of Music. And for the next generation of music educators, VanderCook offers an exceptional, comprehensive 4-year Bachelor of Music Education program. VanderCook Admissions information is available at www.vandercook.edu.

Ron Sikes has been a band director in Jefferson County Missouri for 19 years and a MMEA Past Jazz Vice President. In many ways, Ron embodies the growth mindset and in this episode he discusses his relentless pursuit of personal growth in all that he does.

Topics:

• Ron’s background growing up and the winding road that he took to becoming a music teacher and music professional.
• Thoughts about jazz education, tips for teaching improvisation, and how those experiences led to Ron composing music for his own band and eventually those around him.
• The importance of taking private lessons on instruments that you don’t know well and advice for bartering your knowledge in exchange for those of another musician.
• Working with other composers, especially Gary Gackstatter (Episode 12) and the value that these collaborations bring to his students and the audience.

Links:

• MLO Music Publications
• Jefferson R-VII School District
• Funky Butt Brass Band
• Missouri Music Education Symposium
• Wagner: Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral
• Elgar: Nimrod from the Enigma Variations
• Wagner: Overture to Rienzi

Biography:

Ron Sikes began teaching in the Jefferson R-VII School District (Festus, Missouri) in 2000. His responsibilities include 5th Grade Band, 6th Grade Band, 7th/8th Grade Band, 7th/8th Grade Jazz Band, High School Jazz/Salsa Band, and High School Band. In 2011, The Jefferson High School Concert Band was selected to perform at the Missouri Music Educators Association Convention. In 2013, he started conducting the Jefferson College Concert Band director. In addition to his many teaching responsibilities, Sikes maintains a busy schedule as a clinician, composer, percussionist, drum set artist, frottoirist, and jazz vibraphonist.

As a composer, Sikes has written music for concert bands, jazz bands, and professional bands. His compositions have been performed all over the country. In 2009, Ron authored and self-published the beginning band method book, “Keys to Success.”

As a performer, Ron performs with the Funky Butt Brass Band (drum set), Gumbohead (congas, timbales, frottoir), and Southside Creole Playboys (cajon/frottoir). Other playing credits include: Boudin Bros., Musica SLESA, Rhythm Section Road Show, Big Chief, All Roostered Up, Shane Maue, The Trophy Mules, Paul Winter, Eugene Friesen, Darol Anger, Barbara Higbie, Tommy Halloran, Stratus, Mama's Pride, Pat Liston, Danny Liston, Snarky Gargoyles, Thunder Biscuit Orchestra, Big Mike Aguirre and the Blu City All-Stars, Preston Hubbard, & Rockin' Jake. He has performed all over the country and recorded over 20 CD’s with various artists from all genres.

Mr. Sikes earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree in 1999 from University of MO-St. Louis. In 2008, he completed his Masters in Educational Administration from Missouri Baptist University. Ron has been influenced by some of the finest educators, including Mark Trautwein, Brad Madson, Dr. Claude Baker, Dr. William Richardson, Marvin Sparks, Jeff Hamilton, Sally Herman, Dennis Reis & Ray Hunt.

Sikes’ professional affiliations include the MBA, Phi Beta Mu, NAfME, MOJAE, MMEA, and MSTA, and remains active as performer, teacher, and clinician throughout the area. Ron Sikes loves his titanium snare made by Dynamicx Drums and is endorsed by Lewi Custom Cajons and Vic Firth Sticks & Mallets.

Steve Graves has been a middle school band director in Orange County, California for over 30 years. In this episode he shares his advice about teaching middle school including some really great advice for young band teachers.

Topics:

• Steve’s background and his career as a successful middle school band director.
• Great teaching is not about teaching people to play instruments but rather to teach young musicians to be great people.
• Classroom management and thoughts about how to create a set of expectations that help students to stay on task.
• Steve and I get into the weeds about teaching beginners and he shares some wonderful advice about teaching time and articulation.
• The value of commissions for both students and composers.

Links:

• Standridge: Frogs
• Jager: Esprit De Corps
• Reed: Russian Christmas Music

Biography:

Currently in his 32nd year of teaching junior high band, Steve is the band direct and VAPA chairperson at Lexington Junior High School in Cypress, CA. An active adjudicator for marching bands, concert festivals, and indoor drumline, Steve is also a frequent clinician and guest conductor. While unpublished, Steve has been writing and arranging for bands and percussion ensembles since 1980, and his method books, "Great Beginnings - Warm Ups for Second-Year Bands" and "Notes, Drills, and Tunes - a beginning band method" are in use by schools across the country. Steve stays active as a regular performer in wind ensembles, big bands, and rock/R&B groups, and is a graduate of California State University Long Beach, and earned his masters degree from the American Band College.

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Special thanks to VanderCook College of Music for sponsoring this episode. With a world-class faculty, a location just minutes from downtown Chicago, and an intensive summers-only masters program, it's no wonder VanderCook College of Music has graduates teaching music in all 50 states, 21 countries, and 6 continents.  Make next summer your most inspiring summer yet by pursuing a Masters in Music Education at VanderCook College of Music. And for the next generation of music educators, VanderCook offers an exceptional, comprehensive 4-year Bachelor of Music Education program. VanderCook Admissions information is available at www.vandercook.edu.

Self-described as "an Australian composer with a penchant for colour and creativity in the wind band genre," Jodie Blackshaw shares the story of her career, her music, and her thoughts about teaching band.

Topics:

• The conversation begins with a discussion of Jodie’s current project, a 25 minute work for band and how she’s incorporated ideas from chamber works for winds to show off the colors of the ensemble.
• Jodie’s background growing up in Yenda, a small town in New South Wales, Australia with an electric organ in her house and a few wonderfully inspiring teachers.
• The band tradition in Australia and how instrumental music is taught without the school band and orchestra tradition that defines instrumental music in the United States.
• The experience that inspired Jodie to a career as a professional musician and her thoughts about what we can do to help nurture girls and young women as composers.
• Jodie’s work Belah Sun Woman and her interesting thoughts about the type of music that kids like to play.

Links:

• Jodie Blackshaw, Composer
• Blackshaw: Peace Dancer
• Blackshaw: Belah Sun Woman
• Stravinsky: Octet for Winds
• Stravinsky: Symphonies of Wind Instruments

Biography:

Jodie Blackshaw grew up in the Riverina, NSW and after completing high school, studied a Bachelor of Music in Composition with Professor Larry Sitsky at the Australian National University, School of Music. Since then, she has worked teaching music to students of all ages and conducting a variety of ensembles in several different settings, from remote country centers to the inner city.

The influence of Orff-Schulwerk methodology is a significant influence of Jodie’s teaching practice and composition. In December 2012, Jodie presented the clinic ‘Get off the Podium’ alongside Dr. Mark Fonder of Ithaca College and conductor Professor Craig Kirchhoff at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, Illinois. This clinic, advocating her unique compositional style and inclusive teaching approach to ensemble, offered directors opportunities to explore musical elements other than melody and harmony. Jodie is passionate about inspiring teachers and musicians to be active in the music making process.

Jodie resides in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia with her husband David and daughter Matilda and works full-time as a composer and appears as a guest clinician and adjudicator for band festivals throughout Australia. Jodie is fanatical about producing quality, meaningful works for band. She desires that her music not just be “another piece, but an educational and spiritual journey for both the players and the director.”

Gary Green is Director of Bands Emeritus at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, Florida. Prior to joining the faculty at UM, Gary served for ten years as Director of Bands at the University of Connecticut. Gary joins the show today to discuss the important life lessons that music teachers need to know to build a culture of excellence.

Gary Green and was influential in commissioning and recording new works for winds and percussion which included Symphony No. 3 by David Maslanka and A Cornfield in July and The River by William Penn. Urban Requiem by Michael Colgrass was commissioned by the Philip Frost Commission Fund and has become a standard in the repertoire for wind ensemble.

Throughout his career, Professor Green has received numerous honors and awards including The Phillip Frost Award for Scholarship and Teaching at the University of Miami. In March 2007, he joined the ranks of Frederick Fennell, William Revelli, and John Paynter in the Bands of America Hall of Fame.

Gary has conducted events in Florida, Texas, Connecticut, Kansas, Maryland, Georgia, Utah, Virginia, Washington, amongst many others. In addition, he has conducted all state, regional, national, and international honor bands.

Gary holds a B.M. degree from Boise State University and an M.M. degree from the University of Idaho.

Mr. Green is a member of the American Bandmasters Association, the College Band Directors Association, the Music Educators National Conference, the Florida Bandmasters Association and the Florida Music Educators Association.

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The Everything Band Podcast team includes the following contributors:

• Host and Creator: Mark Connor
• Outreach Manager: Colin Peters
• Creative Director: Jake Walker

Dr. Michael Nickens, aka "Doc Nix" is the Director of Athletic Bands at George Mason University. He joins the show to discuss the incredible variety of bands at GMU and share his thoughts about inclusiveness and building community.

Topics:

• The Green Machine Bands and Ensembles

• The birth of the “Doc Nix” and how the persona and wardrobe have become a part of making the Green Machine pep band a signature part of the George Mason basketball games.

• How a student violist who wanted to become part of the group led to a diverse ensemble that includes the standard band instrumentation but also features vocalists, rappers, string players, and more.

• The importance of building and being present as part of a community both to build a program and also to rely on the community in times of need.

• Michael’s musical background growing up in Northern Virginia as a tuba player, high school drum major, student conductor, and even a composer and how his varied experiences have led him to his current success

Links:

• Dr. Michael Nickens
• The George Mason Green Machine
• Doc Nix and The Green Machine
• Music, identity, diversity, convergence - TEDxGeorgeMasonU

Biography:

Special thanks to VanderCook College of Music for sponsoring this episode. With a world-class faculty, a location just minutes from downtown Chicago, and an intensive summers-only masters program, it's no wonder VanderCook College of Music has graduates teaching music in all 50 states, 21 countries, and 6 continents.  Make next summer your most inspiring summer yet by pursuing a Masters in Music Education at VanderCook College of Music. And for the next generation of music educators, VanderCook offers an exceptional, comprehensive 4-year Bachelor of Music Education program. VanderCook Admissions information is available at www.vandercook.edu.

Myra Rhoden is the director of bands at Fayette County High School in Georgia and founder of the Athena Music and Leadership Camp. Myra is the recipient of numerous teaching awards, including being named the 2018 NAfME Band Director of the Year.

Topics

• Myra’s story of growing up in Tuskegee, Alabama in a family that valued the arts, and how her high school band director created an environment that encouraged the students to do things outside of the school.
• The inspiration behind Myra’s decision to become a music teacher rather than a math teacher and the lesson she took from her first job teaching beginners in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
• “Don’t make excuses, figure out what you can do with what you have” and other advice for young teachers.
• Winning the NAfME 2018 “Band Director of the Year” and what she feels might be most responsible to her success at Fayette County High School.
• The genesis of the Athena Music and Leadership Camp and what it means for the students who go to the camp.

Links:

• Myra Rhoden
• Myra Rhoden named 2018 Band Director of the Year
• Athena Music and Leadership Camp
• Tchaikovsky: March Slav (arr. for band)

Biography:

Dr. Myra Rhoden serves at the Director of Bands and Fine Arts Department Chairperson at Fayette County High School in Fayetteville, Georgia. Located approximately twenty miles south of downtown of Atlanta, the Fayette County High School Band program has performed at national and international venues and consists of a competitive marching band and winter guard, three concert bands, a jazz band, and several chamber ensembles. Recent invitational performances include the Georgia Music Educators Association (GMEA) In-Service Conference, the Kennesaw State University Concert Band Festival, and honor band festivals at the University of Alabama, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Georgia. Her marching bands have been finalists at Bands of America Regional and Super-Regional Championships and have won numerous Grand Championships at area competitions.

Dr. Rhoden has been awarded the National Band Association’s Citation of Excellence on four occasions, has been named STAR Teacher at FCHS, was named Teacher of the Year on two occasions, was selected for membership in the Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity, and was presented the 1995 Sallie Mae First Class Teacher Award, a national award given to one teacher in each state for an outstanding first year of teaching. She recently presented a clinic at the 2017 GMEA In-Service Conference and was named the National Band Director of the Year by the National Association for Music Education for the 2017-2018 school year. She is the founder of the Athena Music and Leadership Camp, a summer band and orchestra camp for middle and high school-aged girls that was created to promote musical excellence while emphasizing self-esteem and leadership skills, and the New Notes Band Camps, summer day camp programs for middle school musicians in the metropolitan Atlanta area.

Before joining the faculty at Fayette County, Dr. Rhoden taught at the middle and high school levels in Alabama. A native of Tuskegee, Alabama, she received the Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degrees in Music Education from the University of Alabama and the Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Southern Mississippi. Dr. Rhoden serves as a GMEA All-State Band Organizer and has served as the GMEA District VI Band Chairperson. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Southeastern United States (SEUS) Honor Band Clinic at Troy University, served on the Board of Directors for the Alabama Bandmasters Association, and is honored to be a clinician and adjudicator throughout the southeast. She resides in Fayetteville with her husband, Errol Jr., and son, Errol III.

Composer Rossano Galante joins the show to discuss his career as a band composer and Hollywood orchestrator.

Topics:

• Rossano’s early years growing up in Buffalo, New York, the story of how he used to organize his own reading bands for his music, and how he became an orchestrator for Hollywood movies.
• A discussion of composing including using pencil and paper versus the computer, the compositional process, and advice for young composers.
• Self-publishing, social media platforms, commissions, and the importance of being patient.

Links:

• Rossano Galante on IMDB
• John Williams: E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
• Galante: Resplendent Glory

Biography:

Born in Buffalo, New York, Rossano Galante received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Trumpet performance from SUNY Buffalo in 1992. That same year he was one of nineteen people from around the world to be accepted to the University of Southern California’s Film Scoring Program. He studied with the late Jerry Goldsmith, who won an Academy Award for his film score for The Omen. In 1999, Mr. Galante moved to California to pursue a career in composition and film orchestration. Since then he has worked with two-time Oscar nominated composer Marco Beltrami, Christophe Beck, Brian Tyler, Christopher Lennertz and Wolfram de Marco. Mr. Galante has 32 published compositions between G. Schirmer, Alfred, Hafabra, Rundel Music and Dehaske/Curnow.

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This episode is sponsored, in part, by VanderCook College of Music. With a world-class faculty, a location just minutes from downtown Chicago, and an intensive summers-only masters program, it's no wonder VanderCook College of Music has graduates teaching music in all 50 states, 21 countries, and 6 continents. Make next summer your most inspiring summer yet by pursuing a Masters in Music Education at VanderCook College of Music. And for the next generation of music educators, VanderCook offers an exceptional, comprehensive 4-year Bachelor of Music Education program. VanderCook Admissions information is available at www.vandercook.edu.

Eric Combs is a middle school band director in Olney, Illinois and is dedicated to helping his peers through his Sound Beginnings website and Thoughts from a Beginning Band Director Facebook page.

Topics:

• Eric’s background and how he overcame his early self-doubts to become a very successful middle school director in Only, Illinois.
• Eric’s impulse to share his strategies and successes as a teacher with others and his work to help other band directors find success.
• A few tips and best practices for first and second year band directors including being willing to take the time to visit other successful programs in your area.
• The system of differentiated instruction that Eric uses and a discussion of classroom management.

Links:

• Sound Beginnings
• McCracken Middle School Band
• Ed Lisk: The Creative Director
• David Newell: Classroom Management in the Music Room
• Scott Rush: Habits of a Successful Middle School Band Director
• Stone: Shadows of Eternity

Biography:

Eric Combs earned both his bachelors and his masters in music education from Eastern Illinois University. He has been a 6-8 grade beginning band director for 14 years in rural Illinois, and has worked in his current job in Olney, Illinois for the past 11 years. Mr. Combs' bands regularly receive perfect first superior ratings at contest. Under his direction, the band program has been named three years in a row a "Support Music Merit Award" winning school through the NAMM Foundation's "Best Communities for Music Education" program. Mr. Combs' and the RCMS band program was recently recognized in a regular session the United States Congress. Mr. Combs spends his free time providing free materials geared towards educators who are new to the field of beginner band directing, including his "Thoughts From a Beginning Band Director" Facebook blog, and his "Sound Beginnings Beginner Band Series" website.

Cait Nishimura is the winner of the 2017 Canadian Band Association Composition Competition and a rising star as a composer for band.

Topics:

• Cait’s background growing up in Canada, playing the bass clarinet, going to an arts high school, and deciding to become a composer.
• Commissions and how and why Cait made the transition from aspiring teacher to full time, self-published composer.
• Being a young, non-white, Canadian composer and how that has helped Cait along the way, but how writing good music that connects with audiences is ultimately the most important factor in her long-term success.
• The sense of belonging and acceptance that she got from being in band.

Links:

• Cait Nishimura, composer
• Canadian Band Association Composition Competition
• Nishimura: Chasing Sunlight
• Holst: The Planets

Biography:

Cait Nishimura (b. 1991) is a Canadian composer and music educator based in Toronto, Ontario. Described as having a "refreshing buoyancy", her music uses minimalist patterns, simple yet lush harmonies, and themes that linger in listeners' minds, drawing inspiration from the beauty of the natural world. Nishimura strives to present contemporary concert music that is accessible and approachable by musicians of all levels. Her work for wind band, Chasing Sunlight, was selected as the winner of the 2017 Canadian Band Association Composition Competition, and has since been added to the Music Fest Canada national syllabus. Nishimura holds undergraduate degrees in music and education from the University of Toronto. Her work is regularly programmed and commissioned by ensembles across North America, where she is in demand as a visiting composer and educator. 

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This episode is sponsored, in part, by VanderCook College of Music. With a world-class faculty, a location just minutes from downtown Chicago, and an intensive summers-only masters program, it's no wonder VanderCook College of Music has graduates teaching music in all 50 states, 21 countries, and 6 continents. Make next summer your most inspiring summer yet by pursuing a Masters in Music Education at VanderCook College of Music. And for the next generation of music educators, VanderCook offers an exceptional, comprehensive 4-year Bachelor of Music Education program. VanderCook Admissions information is available at www.vandercook.edu.

Matthew Provino is an accomplished middle school band director in Southern California and the co-author of a two volume free beginning band method that he makes available as a free download.

Topics:

• Matthew’s background growing up in Southern California and some of the influences on his career.
• The story of how Matthew and Phillip Herrera wrote their own (free!) method book and then wrote a second book that’s three times as long.
• The challenges of writing a beginning method book, the methodology, and the what’s still left to finish.
• Matthew’s experience with the American Band College and what he learned while he was there.
• Music education conferences and professional development opportunities in California, especially the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Conference.

Links:

• Matthew Provino (with links to method books)
• Justin Dickson
• The American Band College
• Southern California School Band and Orchestra Conference
• Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral

Biography:

Matthew Provino has been the band director at Sierra Vista MS in Hacienda La Puente USD for 12 years. He has organized and developed most of the district band events including the honor bands for elementary, middle school, and middle school jazz; the district’s solo and ensemble festival aimed towards the beginning band students; Middle school Masterclass Night; and our district’s Mall Caroling Concert which takes place at the local Puente Hills Mall (aka Twin/Lone Pine Mall from aback to the Future). He is a product of Kennedy HS in La Palma of the Anaheim Union HS District in Southern California. I have a BA in Music from Cal State University, Fullerton, and a MM from the American Band College. Before his current position, Matthew started the band program at St. Paul’s Lutheran School in Orange, California and was also the manager of the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra and for 4 years.

As the composer of more than 250 works for band and co-founder of Queenwood Publications, Anne McGinty has enjoyed a remarkable career. In this episode she shares highlights and stories from her extraordinary musical life, and offers advice for young composers and teachers.

Topics:

• Anne's early years as a young musician, including her stint as a flutist for the Tuscon Symphony in her early 20's.
• How she got into writing for band music and the story of Queenwood Publications.
• The story of her commission by the United States Army Band "Pershing's Own"
• Advice for young composer and thoughts about commissions.

Links:

• McGintyMusic.com
• Queenwood Catalog at Neil A. Kjos Music Company
• NAMM Oral Histories: John Edmondson
• McGinty: Tuba and 12
• McGinty: Clouds
• McGinty: All the Pretty Little Horses

Biography:

Anne McGinty is known throughout the world as the most prolific woman composer in the field of concert band literature, having written more than 225 pieces, with more than 50 of those commissioned by bands across the United States. Thousands of people have played her music and discovered the joy and beauty of playing music that is both educational (helping instrumentalists learn basic musical skills) and also musical, engaging their imagination and encouraging them to stay in the instrumental music program. In addition to concert band, she has written for solo flute with band, solo clarinet with band, brass band, string orchestra, solo flute, flute with piano accompaniment, and music for flute duet, trio, quartet and choir. All of her compositions and arrangements have been published. Her publishers include Queenwood Publications (now Queenwood/Kjos), C. L. Barnhouse Co., Boosey & Hawkes, Hal Leonard Corporation, Kendor Music, Kjos Publications and Southern Music Company.

After a successful career spanning 30+ years as both a composer and publisher of educational music, Anne is now writing chamber music for brass and woodwinds, all published by McGinty Music. An expert in writing for wind instruments, Anne is also composing for diverse instrumental combinations to showcase their varied timbral possibilities in modern, tonal music.

She began her higher education at The Ohio State University, where Donald McGinnis was her mentor, band director and flute teacher. She left OSU to pursue a career in flute performance, and played principal flute with the Tucson (Arizona) Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Pops Orchestra, and in the TSO Woodwind Quintet, which toured Arizona under the auspices of a government grant. When she returned to college, she received her Bachelor of Music, summa cum laude, and Master of Music from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she concentrated on flute performance, music theory and composition. She studied flute and chamber music with Bernard Goldberg and composition with Joseph Willcox Jenkins.

Ms McGinty is a life member of the National Flute Association and served on its Board of Directors. She taught flute at several colleges in the Mid-West, taught flute and chamber music to underprivileged children, and was leader of a Royal American Regiment Fife and Drum Corps. She performed professionally in orchestras, chamber groups and as a flute clinician for a major manufacturer. She also was the editor of a flute column for a music magazine and co-founder of the NFA Newsletter, now known as “The Flutists Quarterly.” Although no longer performing as a flutist, she remains well known as a flute choir specialist and was the first person to convince two major educational music publishers to publish a series for flute choir. As the flute editor at Hansen Publications in Miami Beach, Florida, she arranged and produced the first such flute choir series.

She is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and has received annual composition award since 1986. She received the Golden Rose Award from the Women Band Directors National Association and the Outstanding Service to Music Award from Tau Beta Sigma, a national honorary band sorority.

Conductor and Composer Jack Stamp shares his story, including his early musical education and the people and experiences that contributed to his remarkable career.

Topics:

• “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity”: Jack’s education and eclectic musical background including the story about how and why he taught himself to play the piano from popular music lead sheets.
• How an experience playing the Persichetti Symphony for Band in high school taught Jack to listen beyond his own part as a percussionist and hear what everyone else in the band was doing.
• Jack’s first teaching job, how that experience taught him about teaching and dealing with students, and what he misses about teaching at the high school level.
• The story of the Gavorkna Fanfare and how the “Gavorkna Factor” changed Jack’s career.

Links:

• Jack Stamp
• Stamp: Gavorkna Fanfare
• “Why Music Matters”
• Persichetti: Symphony for Band
• Vaughn Williams: Symphony no. 5, Third Movement
• Prayers for a Troubled Nation

Biography:

Dr. Jack Stamp is currently adjunct Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls where he teaches conducting. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Stamp served as Director of Band Studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania for 25 years. In addition, he served as chairperson of the music department for six years. He holds a DMA degree in Wind Conducting from Michigan State University where he studied with Eugene Corporon.

Prior to his retirement from IUP, he served as chairman of the Division of Fine Arts at Campbell University in North Carolina. He also taught for several years in the public schools of North Carolina. In addition to these posts, Dr. Stamp served as conductor of the Duke University Wind Symphony (1988-89) and was musical director of the Triangle British Brass Band, leading them to a national brass band championship in 1989.

Dr. Stamp's primary composition teachers have been Robert Washburn and Fisher Tull, though he was strongly influenced by his music theory teachers at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and East Carolina. Other studies include work with noted American composers David Diamond, Joan Tower and Richard Danielpour.

He is active as a guest conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and composer throughout North America and Great Britain. His compositions have been commissioned and performed by leading military and university bands across the United States. He has won the praise of American composers David Diamond, Norman Dello Joio, Ron Nelson, Michael Torke, Samuel Adler, Robert Ward, Robert Washburn, Fisher Tull, Nancy Galbraith and Bruce Yurko for performances of their works. He is also a contributing author to the "Teaching Music Through Performance in Band" series released by GIA Publications.

In 1996, he received the Orpheus Award from the Zeta Tau Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha for service to music and was named a "Distinguished Alumnus" of Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In 1999, he received the "Citation of Excellence" from the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association. In 2000, he was inducted into the prestigious American Bandmasters Association. He was awarded the title of "University Professor" for the 2008-2009 academic year at IUP. This is the highest award the university gives to a professor.

Andrew Glover is the Executive Vice President in charge of music production, staff arranger, and one half of the band editorial board at the C.L. Barnhouse Company. He joins the show for a conversation that touches on the history of circus bands in America, the story of C.L. Barnhouse, and what he looks for when deciding what to publish.

Topics:

• Andy's background growing up in St. Louis through his time as a music education student at Central Missouri University.
• Windjammers Unlimited and the history and influence of the circus band on American band music.
• The story of C.L. Barnhouse and how he founded the publishing company that bears his name.
• A discussion of the criteria used by Barnhouse to determine what music might be published by the company and some strong advice for young composers.

Links:

• Andy Glover
• C.L. Barnhouse
• Windjammers Unlimited
• Claude Smith: God of Our Fathers
• Elgar/Glover: Nimrod Variations

Biography:

Andrew Glover’s diverse career in music has included successful tenures as educator, composer/arranger, performer, conductor, clinician, and publisher. He joined the staff of the C. L. Barnhouse Company in 1998, and as Executive Vice President is in charge of music production, serves as staff composer-arranger and editor, and manages the business as Chief Operating Officer. A native of the St. Louis area, he was educated in the public schools of Webster Groves, where he was a student of Walter Lathen, Tony Carosello, and Ed Carson. He received a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Central Methodist University, where he studied with Keith House, Ron Anson, and Ronald Shroyer, and did graduate work at Southeast Missouri State University.

As a sophomore in high school, Glover first band arrangement was performed by the school’s wind ensemble, and thus began a multi-decade career in composition and arranging. His band works number over 200, many published by Barnhouse, and have been performed, recorded, and broadcast by bands worldwide.

In college, Glover won a position in the Detroit Concert Band, conducted by Leonard B. Smith, and performed for four seasons on euphonium. He participated in numerous recording sessions with the DCB, including ten phonograph records of “Gems of the Concert Band” and a documentary film soundtrack. For many years he also performed as a soloist and guest artist.

Glover taught briefly in the public schools of Webster Groves, and served for seven years as Director of Bands at Rosary High School in St. Louis. As a guest conductor, clinician, soloist, and speaker he has appeared in over 35 states. He also worked in the private sector for over a decade in association management.

An enthusiast of, and advocate for classic concert band music and history, Glover is not only involved in new music production at Barnhouse, but also oversees the company’s 130+ year archive of publications and historical memorabilia, and is frequently involved in band history research projects. He is a member of ASCAP; Association of Concert Bands, where he serves on the advisory council; and is Vice President of Windjammers Unlimited. In May 2013 he received the Distinguished Alumni award from Central Methodist University.

Lynne Jackson has been a music teacher for over 40 years and shares some of her thoughts about music and band, and offers some tips for teachers heading back to school for the new year.

Topics:

• Lynne's background growing up in Michigan, deciding to be a band director in the 8th grade, early mentors, and playing in William D. Revelli's band at the University of Michigan.
• Lynne's journey from Michigan to Texas via VanderCook University and the Midwest Clinic.
• Lynne's advice for teachers as they head back to school this year and the most common concern she gets from music education students before they head into the classroom.
• Best practices for starting beginners.

Links:

• Lynne Jackson
• Persichetti: Symphony for Band
• Young Educator Seminar

Biography:

Lynne Jackson has taught forty-three years and currently teaches wind method and graduate music education classes at Southern Methodist University. Jackson also serves as a wind pedagogy specialist for the Berkner area in the Richardson Independent School District, Richardson, Texas. Jackson grew up in Michigan and attended the University of Michigan, where she studied with Clifford Lillya and Elizabeth Green and performed for four years under the baton of William D. Revelli. She received her master’s degree in music education from Vandercook College of Music. In July 2010, Jackson was awarded the “Meritorious Achievement Award” by the Texas Bandmasters Association.

For this episode I'm going to be sitting across from the microphone while Colin Peters interviews me. I have had pretty rough go of it during the pandemic and felt that it was the right moment to share some thoughts and encouragement from my own experience.

Biography:

Mark J. Connor (b. 1971) is a composer, conductor, educator, and podcaster who has a passion for everything band. His music is diverse, his interviews are inspiring, and his ability to capture the listener’s attention for both means of expression is remarkable.

As a composer, Mark has written a collection of wind band literature ranging in various levels, orchestral music, and chamber ensembles. His works have been published by Alry Publications, Grand Mesa Music, and RWS Music Company. As an educator for more than 20 years, Mark has had the fortune to teach students at every level from elementary to postgraduate. Through reflection and continued education, Mark adapts his philosophy of teaching to fulfill the needs of his diverse students. Prior to his current position as band director at the Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School, he was a visiting assistant professor and adjunct professor at several universities nationwide.

Popularly known for his role as the host of Everything Band, Mark enjoys producing this weekly podcast that features interviews with leaders in the band community. He has a faithful following for each episode and takes pride in delivering a motivational message of gratitude, inspiration, and perseverance in regards to music, education, and life.

Learn more about Mark: http://www.markjconnor.com

Composer Nicole Piunno joins me to tell her remarkable story of resiliency, to describe her career as a composer and trumpet player, and to share her thoughts about music and the band community.

Topics:

• Nicole's background and the remarkable string of events that forced her to reinvent herself several times in her musical career.
• The injury to her trumpet embouchure that required surgery and how that injury and a comment from a colleague launched her career as a composer.
• Meeting David Gillingham and how he invited her to study with him at Central Michigan University.
• Thoughts about being a self-published composer and advice for young composers.

Links:

• Nicole Piunno, composer
• David Gillingham: Be Thou My Vision
• Nicole Piunno: Beauty Broken
• Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring

Biography:

Nicole Piunno (b. 1985) is a composer who views music as a vehicle for seeing and experiencing the realities of life. Her music often reflects the paradoxes in life and how these seemingly opposites are connected as they often weave together. Her harmonic language and use of counterpoint mirrors the complexity of our world by acknowledging lightness and darkness, past and present, beauty and brokenness, confinement and freedom, chaos and order, spiritual and physical, life and death. 

Nicole holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition and a Master of Music degree in theory pedagogy at Michigan State University. Her composition teachers were Ricardo Lorenz and Charles Ruggiero. She earned a Master of Music degree in composition at Central Michigan University, studying with David Gillingham. She has also worked with Jason Bahr, David Ludwig, and Tony Zilincik. Nicole earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Ohio Wesleyan University, where her emphasis was on trumpet. She has performed with the Central Ohio Symphony Orchestra and appeared as a soloist with the Ohio Wesleyan University Chamber Orchestra. Her music has recently been performed by the Principal Brass Quintet of the New York Philharmonic, Athena Brass Band, University of Akron Faculty Brass Quintet, and the Michigan State University Symphony Band. Her music has also been performed at the Orvieto Musica TrumpetFest in Orvieto, Italy, the OWU/NOW Festival of New Music, the Women in Music-Columbus concert, the SCI Student National Conference, and multiple International Trumpet Guild Conferences.

An instrumental music educator at Patrick March Middle School in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, Chris Gleason was the 2017 Wisconsin Middle School Teacher of the Year, a finalist for the 2017 National Teacher of the Year and a semifinalist for the 2017 GRAMMY Music Educator Award. He joins the show to talk about his career, his commissioning program, and share some teaching wisdom.

Topics:

• Growing up as the son of a band director, the lessons that he learned from his parents, and the story of applying for, and being selected as Wisconsin's "Teacher of the Year."
• The story of his high school band experience and the importance of the literature that we select as our curriculum.
• Anecdotes from some of the composers who Chris has commissioned.
• The value of commissioning new works and tips for educators to find funding.
• Chris' philosophy of "lighting fires" and his thoughts about what makes a good teacher including tips for young teachers and getting "beyond the notes."

Links:

• Chris Gleason
• Erickson: Ballad Aire
• Ticheli: Portrait of a Clown
• Mackey: Lightning Field
• Shapiro: Rock Music
• Balmages: Sun Cycles
• Hazo: Blue and Green Music
• Chesnokov: Salvation is Created

Biography:

Chris Gleason is an instrumental music educator at Patrick Marsh Middle School in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.  He is the 2017 Wisconsin Middle School Teacher of the Year, a finalist for the 2017 National Teacher of the Year and a semifinalist for the 2017 GRAMMY Music Educator Award. Chris earned his BME at UW-Eau Claire in 1997 and his Masters Degree from UW-LaCrosse in 2002. He has taught band in the East Troy School District and the LaCrosse School District. Mr. Gleason's bands have performed at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin State Capitol Rotunda, the "New Wisconsin Promise Conference", and the 2006 and 2009 Wisconsin State Music Conferences. The Patrick Marsh Middle School Band has commissioned composers such as Samuel R. Hazo (Blue and Green Music -2009), Brian Balmages (Sun Cycles – 2012), Michael Sweeney (Particles - 2013), Erik Morales (One Giant Leap - 2014), John Mackey (Lightning Field – 2015), Alex Shapiro (Rock Music- 2016), Brian Balmages (Twittering Machine – 2017), Andrew Boysen Jr (TBA – 2018).  In 1992 Mr. Gleason was selected as the Wisconsin Governor’s Scholar to Interlochen Arts Camp in Interlochen, Michigan. Mr. Gleason has performed professionally at Disneyland, Valleyfair, and the Mall of America. He has been guest conductor of numerous camps and festivals including the Tarleton Invitational Band Festival (Texas), National Band Association –Wisconsin Chapter Junior High All-State Band, Tri-State Honors Band, UW-Milwaukee Honors Band, UW-Whitewater Band Camp and numerous regional honor bands across Wisconsin and Illinois. He is the past-chair of the Wisconsin Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) Committee and the Wisconsin State Middle Level Honors Band.  Currently, he is chair of the Wisconsin State Middle Level Honors Project. He has taught CMP Workshops at VanderCook College of Music, the Los Angeles Unified School District in California, The NAfME National In-Service Conference, numerous school districts in the Midwest, and recently in Hong Kong. He has presented clinics at the Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin State Music Conventions. Mr. Gleason is the recent recipient of the Melvin F. Pontious Sparks in Music Education Award (2016), Michael G. George Distinguished Service Award (2016) and the Vi Miller Award for Excellence (2013) by Dane Arts and had a feature interview in the March 2015 Instrumentalist Magazine. Mr. Gleason is the founder and organizer of the Band Festival at the Kalahari in Wisconsin Dells that has to date inspired more than 23,500 young musicians. Mr. Gleason is a member of NBA, WMEA, and NAfME.   ​

Just the fourth person to hold the position as conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, Mark Scatterday joins the show to discuss that ensemble and his career, and to share advice about conducting and teaching.

Topics:

• Mark's early years growing up as a musician and his path to becoming a music educator and conductor. 
• The importance of being prepared and how, as a high school band director in Ohio, a chance meeting with Donald Hunsberger changed his life and his career.
• A lengthy discussion of the program at Eastman including the challenge of programming up to 85 pieces of music every year.
• Practical tips for score study.

Links:

• Mark Scatterday
• Eastman School of Music
• Husa: Music for Prague 1968

Biography:

Mark Davis Scatterday is professor of conducting and chair of the Conducting and Ensembles Department at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. As only the fourth conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, Scatterday joined a prestigious line of conductors – Donald Hunsberger, Clyde Roller, and Frederick Fennell – in the past 65 years of the famed ensemble. Since his appointment, he has led the EWE on tour to Japan, Taiwan, and China and conducted the EWE in highly acclaimed performances at Carnegie Hall, Canadian National Musicfest, and the Midwest Clinic. He has recorded five new CDs with the EWE, Eastman Virtuosi, and  Eastman Music Nova and led the Eastman Harmonie on a highly acclaimed tour of Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic.

Having received a doctor of musical arts in conducting at the Eastman School of Music, Scatterday has directed wind ensembles and orchestras throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Previous to his appointment at Eastman, he was professor and chair of the Department of Music at Cornell University. Scatterday maintains an active guest conducting schedule as well as researching and writing articles involving score analysis, performance practices, and conducting. 

Scatterday has conducted the premiere recording of Roberto Sierra’s Cancionero Sefardi with members of the Milwaukee Symphony (2001), Judith Weir’s Consolations of Scholarship with Ensemble X (2005), Danzante with James Thompson and the EWE (2006), Barcelonazo with Musica Nova (nominated for a 2008 Latin Grammy), and Manhattan Music with the EWE and the Canadian Brass (2008, nominated for a 2009 JUNO). In 2012, he recorded with the EWE and the Eastman Virtuosi featuring Stravinsky’s music and celebrating the EWE’s 60th year (2013, AVIE, London) and most recently released a new live recording of Roberto Sierra’s music with the EWE (Summit, 2017).