A busy week – in the stretch of a busy month of thinking… On Tuesday, I will be taking students to audition for our District Honor Band at Westminster College. It is always an anxiety filled time for them, and easy to lose site of the fact auditions are the test of our growth, not our worth (see I believe […]
Bump on over to Bandworks Publications, founded by New Jersey composer Patrick J. Burns! I have been a big fan of Patrick’s music for wind band over the past few years, and I am very excited he has launched his own publishing company. It is an honor that he asked me to write a piece for the catalogue alongside some colleagues […]
I am pleased to announce that AWM Publishing will be releasing Marshalls of the Open Range in the summer of 2010. The piece was written as a challenge from friend and colleague, Dennis Emert last spring. The result was this piece, and his students at Kerr Elementary gave the debut performance. Probably the most humorous story I have ever been […]
An abridged version of this article appeared in the January 2014 issue of Teaching Music (a publication of NAfME). For a list of works that I have completed for this level, please click here. Within today’s middle school band programs around the country, there are many directors that must develop their student’s technical performance skills within the ensemble setting. Although […]
This week I began researching interpretation and feeling as part of my work at Kent State. At first glance, they seemed unrelated. However, the more I began reading perspectives of different composers and conductors, my conclusion is that great interpretation does not just recreate the composer’s intent but rather conveys feelings that the composer intended. The sources abounded including Mark […]
