MARK ALDRICH
Mark Aldrich was recently appointed to the music faculty at Salem State College in Salem, Massachusetts. In addition to conducting Concert Band, he teaches courses in Computer Music Technology and Music Education. Prior to his appointment at Salem State, he held similar faculty positions at two colleges in Maryland and West Virginia. He has also taught choral and instrumental music at high schools in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Colorado. After a tour of duty with the 33rd U.S. Army Band in Heidelberg, Germany, Aldrich went on to earn a Bachelor of Music from Keene State College in New Hampshire, a Master of Music from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Instrumental Conducting and Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Aldrich has been active as a guest conductor of high school county and all-state honor bands in the mid-Atlantic region. He is a member of College Band Directors National Association, Music Educators National Conference, Massachusetts Music Educators Association, New England College Band Association, College Music Society, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and Kappa Kappa Psi professional music fraternities.
KENNETH AMIS
Kenneth Amis was born and raised in Bermuda. He began playing the piano at a young age and upon entering high school took up the tuba and developed an interest in performing and writing music. A Suite for Bass Tuba, composed when he was only fifteen, marked his first published work. A year later, at age sixteen, he enrolled in Boston University where he majored in composition. After graduating from Boston University he attended the New England Conservatory of Music where he received his Masters Degree in composition.
An active composer, Mr. Amis has been commissioned to write for the annual Cohen Wing opening at Symphony Hall in Boston, the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble, the University of Scranton, the College Band Directors National Association and a consortium of twenty universities and music organizations. He has also undertaken commissions/residences with the Boston Classical Orchestra, the New England Conservatory of Music, the Massachusetts Instrumental Conductors Association and Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston.
Audiences around the world have enjoyed Mr. Amis’s music through performances by such groups as the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Classical Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
As a tuba player, Mr. Amis has performed as a soloist with the English Chamber Orchestra and has been a member of the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra and the New World Symphony Orchestra. His performance skills are showcased on many commercial records distributed internationally. Mr. Amis has served on the faculties of Boston University, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the Conservatory of Music at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. In 2003 Mr. Amis became the youngest recipient of New England Conservatory of Music’s “Outstanding Alumni Award.”
Mr. Amis is presently the tuba player of the Empire Brass and the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra and the assistant conductor for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Wind Ensemble. His many compositions, arrangements, and transcriptions are published by Seesaw Music Corp., Boosey and Hawkes, Inc. and Amis Musical Circle.
TREVOR BARNARD
British-born Australian pianist, Trevor Barnard, began piano lessons at the age of four and while still very young was admitted to the Royal Academy of Music, London. This was followed by several years of private study with Herbert Fryer, a student of Ferruccio Busoni. At the age of sixteen he was awarded the ARCM Diploma in Piano, and later won a full scholarship to the Royal College of Music, London. Subsequently, he undertook intensive masterclass study with Harold Craxton.
Between 1967 and 1972 Trevor Barnard lived in the U.S., where he was a faculty member of the New England Conservatory in Boston (1968-1972) and Pianist-in-Residence to Boston University Radio (1967-1971). On moving to Melbourne in 1972 he became piano tutor at Monash University. From 1974 to 1988 he taught full-time consecutively at the Melbourne State College and the Melbourne College of Advanced Education, and from 1989 at The University of Melbourne until his retirement at the end of 2003.
As a concert artist Trevor Barnard has appeared with the London Symphony, the London Philharmonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Bournemouth Symphony, and various BBC orchestras. In Australia he has toured and broadcast frequently for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on radio and TV.
His discography includes a solo album for The World Record Club, An Introduction to Piano Music. He has recorded the Arthur Bliss Piano Concerto with the London Philharmonia and Sir Malcolm Sargent for EMI, reissued on CD in 2000 by the English record company The Divine Art who have also released Trevor’s CD of the Arthur Bliss Sonata and the premiere commercial recording of the 24 Preludes, op. 37 by Busoni. Australian composers, Geoffrey Allen, Michael Bertram and Felix Werder (2), have written works especially for him. The first of the Felix Werder works appears in Trevor’s début solo CD on The Divine Art label of J.S. Bach transcriptions and modern Australian piano music. Trevor’s most recent release by the same label of Australian compositions includes the Dorian Le Gallienne Sonata and with it, appearing on commercial disc for the first time, the other Felix Werder work and the remaining Australian works that are dedicated to him.
Amongst other activities, Trevor has contributed several papers to the U.S. keyboard magazine Clavier, and served as a regular contributor and reviewer for the (Australian) Music Teacher Magazine. He is an examiner for the Australian Music Examinations Board, an adviser on the piano performance requirements for the Victorian Certificate of Education, and an adjudicator at numerous competitions.
FRANK L. BATTISTI
Frank L. Battisti is conductor of the Wind Ensemble and Director of Wind Ensemble Activities at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. Under Mr. Battisti’s leadership, the Ensemble has established a national and international reputation for being one of the premiere ensembles of its kind in the United States. It has performed often at music conferences, in live radio concert broadcasts over the National Public Radio (NPR) Network and recorded for Centaur and Golden Crest Records.
During the past 40 years Frank L. Battisti has been responsible for commissioning and premiering many works for wind ensemble by distinguished American and foreign composers including Warren Benson, Leslie Bassett, Robert Ceely, John Harbison, Robin Holloway, William Thomas McKinley, Vincent Persichetti, Michael Colgrass, Daniel Pinkham, Gunther Schuller, Robert Selig, Sir Michael Tippett, Ivan Tcherepnin, Robert Ward and Alec Wilder. Critics and colleagues have praised Battisti for his commitment to contemporary music and his outstanding performances.
Battisti is a very active guest conductor, having directed many professional, university, college, military and high school ensembles in the United States, England, Europe, Middle East, Scandanavia, Australia, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Russia.
He has held numerous national offices in various wind band/ensemble associations including President of the U.S. College Band directors National Association (CBDNA). Battisti is a member of the American Bandmasters Association (ABA) and founder of the National Wind Ensemble Conference, World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE), Massachusetts Youth Wind Ensemble (MYWE) and co-founder of the New England College Band Association (NECBA). He has served on the Standard Award Panel of ASCAP and been a member of the Music Panel of Arts Recognition and Talent Search (ARTS) for the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts. Battisti is presently a consulting editor for The Instrumentalist magazine and in the past has been a consulting editor for music publishers G. Schirmer and E.C. Schirmer.
Battisti constantly contributes articles on wind band/ensemble literature, conducting and music education to professional journals and magazines and is considered on of the foremost authorities on wind music literature. He is co-author, with Robert Garofalo, of Score Study for the Wind Band Conductor published in 1990 by Meredith Music Publications.
From January through July in 1986 and in 1993 he was a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge University, England. Battisti has received many awards and honors including the Edwin Franko Goldman Award from the American School Band Directors National Association in 1989 and an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from Ithaca College in May 1992.
John H. Beck was a member of the United States Marine Band for four years before joining the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as principal percussionist in 1959 and becoming principal timpanist in 1962. A recipient of B.M. and M.M. degrees from the Eastman School of Music, he currently heads its percussion department and is conductor of the Eastman Percussion Ensemble.
Mr. Beck has made solo appearances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Eastman Wind Ensemble, Syracuse Wind Ensemble, Chatauqua Band, Memphis State Band, Rochester Chamber Orchestra and Filharmonia Pomorska in Poland.
A composer whose works have been published by several leading houses, Mr. Beck can be heard on CRI, Turnabout Records, Mark Records and Heritage Records. He has recorded Bartok’s Sonata for two Pianos and Percussion, Verne Reynolds’, Concertare I for Brass Quintet and Percussion Set of Five by Henry Cowell and the Alan Hovhaness Suite with Carroll Glen and Eugene List. He is the conductor on Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra with Carroll Glenn as soloist on At The Edge for percussion and tape by Allan Schindler.
In addition to numerous articles on percussion, he has contributed articles to the Grove Dictionary of American Music and the World Book Encyclopedia. Recently, Garland Publishing introduced his Encyclopedia of Percussion Instruments.
John Beck was the recipient of the Mu Phi Epsilon Musician of the Year award for 1976. In 1977 he toured South America with the Aeolian Consort as percussion soloist. His New York City conducting debut was at the Abraham Goodman House in 1980. His latest New York City engagement was at the Alice Tully Hall performing works of Warren Benson and Sydney Hodkinson with the Eastman Chamber Players. In 1986 he was guest soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra performing Raymond Premru’s Celebrations Overture for Solo Timpani and Orchestra.
Mr. Beck served on the faculty of the Grand Teton Orchestral Seminar for four years, served as pops conductor of the Penfield Symphony and was performer, clinician, teacher and conductor during several summers at the International Workshops for Percussion in Bydgoszcz, Poland. In 1989 and 1992 he was the American adjudicator for the International Percussion Competition in Luxembourg. His most recent solo engagement with orchestra was the premier performance of Claude Baker’s Three Pieces for 5 Timpani and 5 Roto-toms with David Effron and the Eastman School of Music Philharmonia. In September of 1990 he toured Russia with 14 percussionists from the Percussive Arts Society and in that same year served as adjudicator for the Japan Music Education and Culture Promotion Society in Tokyo, Japan. In 1993 he was percussionist in residence at the Interlochen Center for the Arts Summer Program . In 1994 he was percussionist in residence at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, clinician for the international Foundation for Performing Arts Medicine and clinician , soloist and instructor at the Encontro Latino Americanos De Percussao in Santa Maria, Brazil.
Fred Begun has been principal timpanist of the National Symphony Orchestra since his graduation in 1951 from the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied with Saul Goodman. He has appeared under the batons of Barbirolli, Bernstein, Dorati, Fiedler, Fruhbeck de Burgos, Gould, Leinsdorf, Mitchell, Reiner, Rostropovitch, Rudolph, Steinberg, Stokowski, Stravinsky, Walter and many other conductors. He holds the distinction of having given three world-premier concerto performances for timpani: in 1958, the Concerto for Five Kettledrums and Orchestra, written especially for him by Robert Parris; the Concerto for Five Timpani and Orchestra by Jorge Samientos; and the Concertante for Timpani and Chamber Orchestra by Blas Atehortua. Mr. Begun's book, 21 Etudes for Timpani, is used in music conservatories throughout the world. He is in demand for seminars, workshops and clinics and he presented a timpani symposium/masterclass at the Kennedy Center in 1988.
A founding member of the percussion ensemble Nexus and a virtuoso on xylophone, marimba and tabla, Bob Becker received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music where he studied percussion with William Street and John Beck and composition with Warren Benson. He also did post-graduate study in the World Music program at Wesleyan University. For several yeas Becker was percussionist with the Paul Winter Consort and a regular member of the ensemble Steve Reich and Musicians. Becker is also a founding member of the Flaming Dono West African Dance and Drum Ensemble in Toronto. He also appears regularly as an independent soloist and clinician. Becker’s compositions and arrangements are performed regularly by percussion groups worldwide, and he has a long association with dance and has created music for the Joffrey Ballet in New York among others.
Warren Benson has distinguished himself in the world of contemporary music as a composer, conductor, lecturer and writer; he is a musician who is as interested in writing music for orchestras, singers, chamber players and children as he is in exploring the complexities of the world of the artist.
In his compositions and international recordings, Benson is most noted for his song cycles and pioneering work in behalf of percussionists and wind ensembles. He has been invited to conduct his works in Australia, Canada, Europe, Great Bitain, Mexico, Scandinavia and South America. As an author and lecturer, Benson has also been in demand worldwide. His writings have been translated into Spanish and Japanese and he has lectured in Spanish and Greek. He also sits on the Board of Directors of numerous musical organizations, including the Minuscule University Press, the Chestnut Brass company, the American Wind Ensemble Library and the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE).
Born in 1924, and a professional performer by the age of fourteen, Benson, early in his career, played timpani in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, graduated from the University of Michigan, organized the first touring percussion ensemble in the eastern United States (1953), received four Fulbright grants, and was the author and director of the first pilot project of the Contemporary Music Project (funded by the Ford Foundation). More recently, he has been commissioned by over 80 major artists and ensembles, including the United States Marine Band, the International Horn Society, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York Choral society, the Bishop Ireton Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the Kronos Quartet. He has received numerous distinguished international awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Composer Fellowship, three National Endowment for the Arts composer commissions and the Diploma de Honor from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Argentina. After fourteen years at Ithaca College, Benson became a Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music where he was honored with an Alumni Citation for Excellence, the Kilbourn Professorship for distinguised teaching and was named University Mentor. In 1994 he was appointed Professor Emeritus, completing a fifty year teaching career which began in 1943 a the Univeristy of Michigan. As a freshman there, he was the major teacher for undergraduate and graduate percussionists and played third horn in the University Orchestra. He is listed in the first edition of Who's Who in the World of Percussion, 1980 to the present, as well as thirty other biographical dictionaries including Who's Who in America and Groves Dictionary of Music.
Currently busy writing books, he is a commissioned and published poet and writer of humorous fiction. Almost an even dozen commissions for songs, chamber music and large ensembles keep him "retired to, not from," as he likes to put it
Peter Loel Boonshaft holds Bachelor of Music (Summa Cum Laude), Master of Music Education in Conducting, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. Dr. Boonshaft was also awarded a Connecticut General Fellowship for study at the Kodály Musical Training Institute, from which he holds a Certificate. He is currently on the faculty of Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, where he is Professor of Music and Director of Bands. He is Conductor of the Hofstra University Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band, professor of conducting and music education, and Director of the graduate wind conducting program. Prior to this appointment, Boonshaft was on the faculty of Moravian College and the University of Hartford. He was Founder and Music Director of the Pennsylvania Youth Honors Concert Band and the Connecticut Valley Youth Wind Ensemble. In addition, he held the post of Music Director and Conductor of the Metropolitan Wind Symphony of Boston.
Peter Boonshaft has been a consultant or recorded for Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers, Southern Music Publishers, Kendor Music Publishers, Daehn Publications, and C. Allen Music. Active as a proponent of new literature for concert band, he has commissioned and conducted over thirty world premieres by such notable composers as W. Francis McBeth, Johan de Meij, Fisher Tull, H. Owen Reed, Vaclav Nelhybel, David Gillingham, Philip Sparke, Andrew Boysen, Robert W. Smith, David Holsinger, Robert Washburn, Elliot Del Borgo, Herbert Deutsch, Robert Hawkins, Larry Lipkis, Ian McDougall, Reber Clark, Gregory Sanders, Roland Barrett and Jared Spears. Boonshaft is also the author of Vaclav Nelhybel: His Life and Works, the only authorized biography of the composer, and articles for Instrumentalist Magazine, the National Band Association Journal, MENC's Teaching Music and Band Director's Guide. In addition, he holds the post of Band/Wind Ensemble Editor for the School Music News. Among the soloists who have appeared in performance with him are John Marcellus, Harvey Phillips, Ed Shaughnessy, Lynn Klock, Don Butterfield, Dave Steinmeyer and the United States Air Force "Airmen of Note," Chester Schmitz, and the Vienna Schubert Trio.
Boonshaft has been awarded membership in Pi Kappa Lambda and Alpha Chi, as well as twice receiving the University of Hartford Regent's Award and that University's Outstanding Music Educator Award. He has received official proclamations from the Governors of four states and a Certificate of Appreciation from President Ronald Reagan, as well as performing for President and Mrs. George Bush, and for Margaret Thatcher, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. His honors also include being selected three times as a National Endowment for the Arts "Artist in Residence", three times awarded Honorary Life Membership in the Tri-M Music Honor Society, and being selected for the Center for Scholarly Research and Academic Excellence at Hofstra University. Extremely active as a guest conductor and clinician for festivals, concerts, and workshops nationally and internationally, he was chosen to conduct the All-Eastern Band for the MENC Eastern Division Conference in Baltimore, Maryland; as a clinician for the National Convention of the Canadian Music Educators Association in Halifax, Nova Scotia; as conductor of the All-Eastern Directors Band for the MENC Eastern Division Conference in New York City; as guest conductor and clinician for the European Music Educators Convention in Heidelberg, Germany; as a clinician and speaker for the National Convention of the American School Band Directors Association in Honolulu, Hawaii; as a clinician for the MENC Northwest Division Conference in Spokane, Washington; was named conductor of the MENC National High School Honors Band for the National Convention in Nashville, Tennessee; as guest conductor of the Goldman Memorial Band; as conductor of the All-Northwest Band for the MENC Northwest Division Conference in Portland, Oregon; and recently received invitations to conduct in China and Brazil.
Harry Breuer was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 24, 1901. He began his musical study with the violin but, at age thirteen, the xylophone caught his interest and he made his musical debut as soloist at the New York Academy of Music in 1919. The twenties found him as a pioneer radio broadcaster and soloist at the Roxy Theatre and other movie palaces. When Radio City Music Hall opened in the thirties he performed as soloist using an instrument of his own design—a combination of marimba, vibraphone and xylophone.
His career in music was multi-faceted as a composer of mallet solos, appearances in film shorts and educational films, soloist on recordings, staff percussionist at NBC and composer and performer of electronic music for European radio, television and films.
Michael Burch-Pesses is Director of Bands at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, where he conducts the Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band, and Jazz Choir, and teaches courses in conducting, music education, and MIDI technology. He holds Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in conducting from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Since coming to Pacific University in 1995 he received the Junior Faculty Award (1998) and was named a Wye Fellow of the Aspen Institute (1999). In 2006 he received the S.S. Johnson Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching.
He enjoyed a distinguished career as a bandmaster in the United States Navy before arriving at Pacific University, enlisting as a hornist and working his way up through the ranks to become the Navy's senior bandmaster and Head of the Navy Music Program. During his Navy career he served as Leader of the Naval Academy Band in Annapolis, Maryland. Under his direction the Naval Academy Band received the George Howard Citation of Musical Excellence from the John Philip Sousa Foundation, the highest civilian award for a military band. He also served as Assistant Leader of the Navy Band in Washington, DC, and Director of the Commodores, the Navy's official jazz ensemble. He is listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in American Education.
An internationally active adjudicator, lecturer and clinician, he has conducted festival and honor bands throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. In 2000 he conducted the British Columbia All-Province Honour Band, and in 2002 he adjudicated the National Concert Band Festival of New Zealand.
Dr. Burch-Pesses also is the Conductor and Musical Director of the Oregon Symphonic Band, Oregon's premier adult band. The Oregon Symphonic Band is composed primarily of musicians from the Portland/Vancouver area. Men and women of many professions are represented in the ensemble, which performs three concert series annually and has appeared in concert at numerous state, regional, and international music conferences , including the All-Northwest MENC conference, the Western International Band Clinic, and the prestigious Midwest Clinic in Chicago. His performance at the Midwest Clinic resulted in his being awarded the Citation of Excellence from the National Band Association.
His professional affiliations include the Oregon Music Educators Association, Music Educators National Conference, and Oregon Band Directors Association. He also is the Oregon Chair of the College Band Directors National Association and a charter member of the Oregon chapter of Phi Beta Mu.
Bill Cahn has been a member of NEXUS, the Toronto-based percussion group since its formation in 1971, performing on concerts, films, recordings, and broadcasts all over the world. He was principal percussionist in the Rochester (NY) Philharmonic Orchestra from 1968 to 1995.
Born in Philadelphia in 1946, Bill has concretized with conductors, composers, ensembles, and popular artists representing diverse musical styles – among them, Chet Atkins, John Cage, Carman Caballero, Carlos Chavez, Aaron Copland, Andrew Davis, Jimmy Durante, The Chick Mangione Orchestra, Marian McPartland, Mitch Miller, New Music of Toronto, Seiji Ozawa, Steve Reich, Doc Severensen, Leopold Stokowski, Richard Stoltzman, Igor Stravinsky, Edgar Varese, The Paul Winter Consort, and David Zinman.
His chamber and orchestral compositions featuring percussion are performed worldwide and recorded on CDs, including two with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Bill has written books and articles about music and percussion, and he is active in presenting lectures and workshops on the subjects of percussion performance, careers in music, the business of music, and composition.
Jim Campbell has received worldwide recognition as a performer, teacher, arranger, and author and is a respected figure in the development of the contemporary percussion ensemble. He has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Sweden, Japan and Singapore. Currently, Professor of Music and Director of Percussion Studies at the University of Kentucky, he also holds the position of Principal Percussionist with the Lexington Philharmonic and serves as President of the Percussive Arts Society.
Jim received both his B.M. in Music Education and M.M. in Percussion Pedagogy and Performance from Northern Illinois University where he studied with G. Allan O’Connor and members of the famed Blackearth Percussion Group. He also was a student of the late James Lane of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Well known for his long association with the internationally renowned Rosemont Cavaliers Drum and Bulge Corps, Jim has served as their principal instructor, arranger, and program coordinator. He was Percussion Director for the McDonald’s All-American High School Band and has performed at the International Society of Music Education World Conference, MENC National In-Service Conference, Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, Texas Bandmasters Association, Bands of America World Percussion Symposium, and at several Percussive Arts Society International Conventions.
Jim is an endorsee for Innovative Percussion, Evans Drumheads, and is a member of the Latin Percussion Educational Advisory Board. He is a clinician for the Avedis Zildjian Cymbal Company and a Performing Artist for Yamaha Corporation of America.
Gerald Carlyss was principal timpanist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1967 - 1988. During his tenure with the orchestra he was also Chairman of the Percussion Department at the Curtis Institute of Music. Prior to Philadelphia, he was principal timpanist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra from 1965 - 1967. He officially joined the Indiana University School of Music percussion faculty in 1988.
Mr. Carlyss is a 1965 graduate of the Juilliard School of Music where he studied with Saul Goodman and Morris Goldenberg while earning a M.S and B.M degree. While a student in New York, he freelanced and played percussion with the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York City Opera and New York City Ballet Orchestras plus numerous other musical organizations. Since 1989, he has substituted on timpani with the Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony and the Indianapolis Symphony.
Many of Mr. Carlyss's students have gone on to very successful careers in symphony orchestras, major military bands, various educational institutions and freelancing in the United States, Europe and Australia.
William Stuart Carson began the study of instrumental music in the public schools of Big Rapids, Michigan and continued his musical education at the Ferris State College Summer Music Camp, the National Music Camp at Interlochen, and the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. In 1975 he entered Macalester College in St. Paul Minnesota as a National Merit Scholar.
While at Macalester, Carson completed an internship with the Minnesota Opera. He also conducted the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as a student in the ensemble’s Young Conductors’ Workshop. Carson was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in music, with honor, in 1978. In 1979 he became a graduate assistant for the bands, orchestra and musical theatre at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale where he earned a Master of Music degree in 1981.
After graduation, Carson was hired to direct the high school music program in Carbondale, Illinois where students under his direction won the coveted Illinois High School Music Association Music Sweepstakes Award in 1982. The following year Carson was hired as high school band director and music coordinator for the public schools of West Lafayette, Indiana. In 1984, Carson moved to Arizona to pursue his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Arizona State University where he was a graduate assistant for the band program and an intern with the orchestra. He completed his doctorate in 1992, and two years later was awarded the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Council for Research in Music Education. The dissertation was also selected as a runner-up for the Fritz Thelen Prize sponsored by the Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung und Forderung des Blasmusik.
In 1990, Carson was appointed Director of Bands at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Carson’s conducting duties at Coe College have included the concert band, wind ensemble, honor band and the top jazz band. He has taught conducting, clarinet, and music history. He is now serving as Chair of the Department of Music.
Anthony J. Cirone received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the Juilliard School of Music. Upon graduation, he was offered the position of percussionist with the San Francisco Symphony under Josef Krips and also an Assistant Professorship of Music at San Jose State University where he has served since 1965. During his Symphony tenure, he has performed under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, Edo DeWaart, Herbert Blomstedt, and Michael Tilson Thomas as Music Directors and noted guest conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Eugene Ormandy, Kurt Mazur, Rafael Kubelik and James Levine.
As Professor of Music at San Jose, he heads the Percussion Department and teaches the Manuscript Preparation/Computer Engraving section of the Music Technology course. Cirone has also been on the faculty of San Francisco State University and Stanford University. His students have gone on to hold positions in major orchestras and universities internationally.
A prolific composer, he has over 60 published titles including textbooks, 3 symphonies for percussion, 4 sonatas, a string quartet, and 5 works for orchestra. He is the Percussion Consultant/Editor for Warner Bros. Publishing Co. and is the author of Portraits In Rhythm, a collection of 50 studies for snare drum, used worldwide as a standard text for training percussionists at the university level.
Anthony Cirone is featured in a video entitled Concert Percussion - A Performers Guide distributed by Warner Bros. Pulishing Co.; he has also designed two pairs of Signature Snare Drum Sticks for Malletech Corporation; he won The Modern Drummer Magazine Reader’s Poll for Classical Percussionist five years in a row; he is an active clinician, and is involved with research and development for the Avedis Zildjian Company.
Dominick Cuccia’s drumming career began in October of 1976 when he joined the Young Colonials Fife & Drum Corps in Lake Carmel, New York. His instructors were Gary Gillotti and Mary Comer, both students of the Earl Sturtze method of drumming. He became drum instructor in 1981 at the age of 13, a position he held until 1994. From 1989 through 1992 the corps dominated, winning 4 consecutive Northeastern and New York State Championships, as well as many titles in the Connecticut, Hudson Valley, and Greater Danbury Area Drum Corps Associations. They also won many High Drum awards, including three Earl Sturtze trophies. During his high school years, Dominick studied privately with Jeffrey P. Funnell. In 1985 he attended Wilkes College (now University), where he studied percussion with Robert A. Nowak. He graduated in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in music education. In 1996 he received his master’s degree from Northwestern State University (NSU) of Louisiana in Natchitoches, under the direction of Ken Green. Upon graduation, Dominick was hired back at NSU, teaching major and minor study lessons, drumline, and percussion ensemble. From 1991-1994 Dominick played with the United States Military Academy Band’s legendary field music group, The Hellcats, stationed at West Point, New York. During this time he teamed up with Paul Murtha writing marching band charts for CPP Belwin. In 1997 and 1998 he performed with Walt Disney World’s Founders of Freedom Fife & Drum Corps in Orlando, Florida. He also has had the opportunity to study privately with rudimental master Nick Attanasio and jazz legend Joe Morello.
In 1998 he returned to New York to pursue a career in music education and marry his drum corps sweetheart, Therese Rock (they met as members of the Young Colonials). Today he works for the Paul Effman Music Service as an instrumental teacher for children in parochial schools. In addition he serves as musical director of the Civil War Troopers Fife & Drum Corps and is a drum instructor for The Regulators Fife & Drum Corps. In 2002 he performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention as part of the historic Drummers Heritage Concert and was a clinician at PASIC 2003. He is also the chairman of the music committee for The Company of Fifers & Drummers, and is music editor for the Ancient Times, the premier publication of the fife & drum world. His newest project, Dreaded Drummer Productions, is dedicated to preserving and advancing fife & drum music through clinics, recitals, concerts, recordings, and publications.
Born in Port Chester, New York, Elliot Del Borgo holds a B.S. degree from the State University of New York, an Ed.M degree from Temple University, and a M.M. degree from the Philadelphia Conservatory where he studied theory and composition with Vincent Persichetti and trumpet with Gilbert Johnson. In 1973 he was granted the doctoral equivalency by the State University of New York, and in 1993 was elected to membership in the American Bandmasters Association.
Mr. Del Borgo has taught instrumental music in the Philadelphia Public Schools and has recently retired as Professor of Music at the Crane School of Music where he held teaching and administrative positions since 1965. An award-winning member of ASCAP, he is a frequent consultant, clinician, lecturer, and adjudicator and is a widely known conductor of bands and orchestras.
In addition to his music for the 1980 Olympics, Mr. Del Borgo has published numerous compositions for a variety of media. His music reflects the aesthetics of twentieth century musical ideals through its eclectic nature and vigorous harmonic and rhythmic style.
Thomas C. Duffy (b.1955) is the Associate Dean of the School of Music and Director of Bands at Yale University, where he has taught since 1982. He received his Bachelor of Science in Music Education and Master of Musical Arts in Composition from the University of Connecticut, where he was a student of Charles Whittenberg, James Eversole and Hale Smith; and his doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from Cornell University, where he studied with Karel Husa and Steven Stucky. During his time at Cornell University, he taught jazz history and general music at the Auburn Maximum Security Correctional Facility in Auburn, New York.
Reflecting the influence of his teacher, Karel Husa, Duffy composes music that addresses significant American social and historical issues, and employs incisive extra-musical programs drawn from the disciplines of philosophy, science, physics, art, literature, etc.