About the Authors
Dr. Evan Feldman
Dr. Evan Feldman is Conductor of the Wind Ensemble and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also directs the UNC Youth Wind Ensemble, an honors band for North Carolina high school musicians, and the Greensboro Concert Band, in Greensboro, N.C. Prior to his arrival in North Carolina he was Director of Bands at the College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, where he directed the Wind Symphony and Jazz Ensemble, served as music director of the Williamsburg Youth Orchestra, and hosted a weekly radio show called "Colonial Classics."
Dr. Feldman's research on the wind music of Sergei Prokofiev, Antonin Dvořák, and George Enescu has been presented at the national and international conferences of CBDNA (College Band Directors National Association), WASBE (World Organization of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles), and IGEB (International Society for the Promotion and Investigation of Wind Music).
His arrangements and editions of works by those same composers are published by Tierolff Muziekcentrale (Netherlands). Dr. Feldman is also a contributing author toA Composer's Insight, volume 3 & 4, published by Meredith Music, which includes his chapters on the wind music of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and David Bedford. His chapter on composer Adam Gorb is forthcoming in Volume 5. His writings have also been published inThe Instrumentalist, the Iowa Bandmaster Journal, the MENC Music Educators Journal, and the IGEB Alta Musica.
Dr. Feldman earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Donald Hunsberger and Mendi Rodan, and served as an assistant conductor for the Eastman Wind Ensemble. He completed his Masters in Music from the Ithaca College School of Music, studying with Rodney Winther, and his undergraduate music degree at Duke University, studying with Michael Votta.
A native of Long Island, Dr. Feldman previously taught at Central College, in Pella, IA, and high school in Hicksville, New York (Long Island). He is an active clinician and guest conductor.
Ari Contzius
Ari Contzius is the Director of Bands at Washingtonville High School, located 60 miles northwest of Manhattan, where he conducts the Wind Ensemble and teaches brass and percussion lessons. Mr. Contzius' bands have consistently earned Gold with Distinction ratings at the New York State School Music Association's Majors Festival Evaluations. He is in demand as a guest conductor and clinician and has worked with junior high and high school honor bands in Iowa and New York. Mr. Contzius is the founder and Artistic Director of the Orange County Music Educators’ Association Summer Music Institute, a summer camp for elementary through high school band, orchestra and chorus students.
Originally a native of Parsippany, New Jersey, he started his training as a music educator at Indiana University's Jacob School of Music, where in 1993 he earned his Bachelor's Degree in Music Education. At the beginning of his career he taught elementary and middle school band in the Elkhart Community School District, Elkhart, Indiana. In 1997 he moved to Long Island, New York to serve as a band director at Hicksville High School, in Hicksville. During this time he worked towards his Masters in Fine Arts from Hofstra University, where he studied wind conducting with Dr. Peter Loel Boonshaft. As an active trumpet player he maintains a small private studio and performs with the Greater New York Wind Symphony.
Beyond music, Mr.Contzius is a passionate prestidigitator and is a member of the Society of American Magicians. He has also been a sponsored, nationally and internationally ranked aerial sport-kite pilot. He resides in Middletown, New York with his lovely wife Ashley, who is also a high school band director, along with their menagerie of feline enigmas.
Mitchell Lutch
Mitchell Lutch is Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Central College in Pella, Iowa, and also directs the Grinnell College Symphonic Band and the Central Iowa Wind Ensemble. He earned his doctorate in instrumental conducting from the University of Washington, where he studied with Timothy Salzman and Peter Erös. He earned his Master of Music degree from New England Conservatory, studying with Frank Battisti, and his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from the University of Lowell.
His dissertation research focuses on the contributions to the wind ensemble medium by Norman Dello Joio, Warren Benson, and Samuel Adler, including extensive in-person interviews with each composer. Other artists he has collaborated with in his twenty-four years of teaching include Donald Hunsburger, Eric Ewazen, Dana Wilson, Ellis Marsalis, Frank Foster, Slide Hampton and Marian McPartland.
Dr. Lutch is Past President of the New York State Band Directors Association and has been a guest speaker at several educational institutions, including the New England Conservatory and the Shenandoah Conservatory. Conducting appearances include concerts throughout the United States, Quebec, London, Japan, The People’s Republic of China and the former Soviet Union. In 2008 he was a guest speaker at the International Wind Music History Conference in Echternach, Luxembourg, and in 2010, at the Reunion of the United States Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra in Columbus, OH. His publications through Meredith Music Publishing include contributions to A Composer's Insight, volume 2, 3 & 4. Prior to his college teaching, he taught public school instrumental music for 15 years in New York and Massachusetts.
Katarzyna (Kasia) Bugaj
Katarzyna (Kasia) Bugaj is an Associate Professor of Music Education at The Florida State University. At FSU, Dr. Bugaj teaches string techniques, string methods courses and historical research; she also teaches at the FSU Summer Music Camps. Her research interests include music teacher education, string pedagogy, and historical research of many stripes. In 2018-2019 she was a Fulbright Scholar at the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Poland. She has presented at state, national, and international conferences and—in addition to academic articles—has published articles about music for the general audience. She is a frequent guest speaker and clinician throughout the United States. Bugaj is a member of the national board of the American String Teachers Association, as well as the Florida Orchestra Association. In 2018 she was selected as the Collegiate Educator of the Year by the Florida Music Education Association.
Prior to her appointment at Florida State University, Bugaj was the director of the Attica Violin Project, a curricular elementary school violin program in Attica, Indiana. She was also the assistant director of the Fairview and Highland Park string programs in Bloomington, IN, and taught violin and viola on the faculty of the Indiana University String Academy. She was adjunct faculty at Valparaiso University, a member of the viola section with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, and also played with the Grand Rapids and Louisville Symphony Orchestras.
She received her Ph.D. in Music Education from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She also has degrees from Western Michigan University, The Peabody Conservatory, and is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy. She has a minor in writing from Johns Hopkins University and pursued a certificate of literary translation at Indiana University.
About the Contributors
Cynthia Krenzel
Cynthia Krenzel regularly appears throughout the U.S. and abroad as a soloist, recitalist and clinician. International appearances include performances at the European Clarinet Festival in Belgium; solo performances in Merida, Mexico, with the Cuidad Orquesta de Cámara; chamber music performances in Tuscany, Italy; and giving master classes at the National Conservatory of Music in Romania. Additionally, Dr. Krenzel has performed recitals and master classes throughout the Midwest, and she regularly judges high school competitions in Iowa. A dedicated pedagogue, Cynthia helped found the annual event Iowa Clarinet Day to further the education of clarinetists statewide. Dr. Krenzel is associate professor of music at Central College. She earned her doctoral and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin, and her master’s degree from Kent State University. Her primary teachers include Håkan Rosengren, Linda Bartley and Andrea Splittberger-Rosen.
Lisa Bost-Sandberg
Flutist, composer, and improviser Lisa Bost-Sandberg is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of North Texas as a recipient of the Master’s and Doctoral Fellowship Award. From 2007–2010 she served on the faculty of Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, as Adjunct Instructor of Flute and World Music, as well as performing as principal flute of the Ottumwa Symphony, substitute with the Cedar Rapids Symphony, substitute with the Dubuque Symphony, and flutist with the Wild Prairie Wind Quintet.
Bost-Sandberg travels regularly to perform, teach master classes, adjudicate competitions, and present her lecture-recitals, “The Alto Flute,” “Luciano Berio’s Sequenza I,” and “Dear Composer-Friend...” Guest appearances include the rarescale Premiere Series (London), the Royal Holloway University of London, the Rindal Museum Summer Concerts (Norway), the University of Louisville, the University of North Texas, Delta State University, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Vassar College, Iowa State University, the University of Evansville, New York University, National Flute Association Conventions, and Iowa Flute Festivals.
An advocate and sought-after performer of new music, she has premiered over twenty-five pieces and actively collaborates with composers, maintaining a particular interest in new works for alto flute. She has performed at the SEAMUS Festival, Spark Festival, Electronic Music Midwest Festival, Society of Composers Inc. Conference, Electroacoustic Juke Joint Festival, Vassar College’s ModFest, and Brown University’s Pixilerations (v. 3). Her compositions have been performed across the country and have been selected for the Society of Composers Inc. Region V Conference, the 44th Annual Iowa Composers Concert, and the North American Saxophone Alliance Conference.
A Montana native, Bost-Sandberg received her undergraduate education as a Presidential Scholar at the University of Iowa, graduating in 2004 with her Bachelor of Music degree in Flute Performance with Highest Distinction and Honors in Music. In addition, she was selected from her graduating class at the University of Iowa to be the student speaker at the commencement ceremony of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She then moved to New York to pursue graduate studies at New York University where she performed frequently on flute, piccolo, and alto flute in both traditional and new music settings and worked with such conductors as Gunther Schuller and Tania León. She received her Master of Arts degree in 2006 and continued her freelance work in New York as a teacher, performer, and studio musician in the City and on Long Island, where she was on the faculty of the Great Neck Arts Center.
Her primary flute instructors include Terri Sundberg, Robert Dick, Tadeu Coelho, and Tamara Thweatt; and she has also studied with Betty Bang Mather, Christina Smith, and Keith Underwood. She studied the Alexander Technique with Käthe Jarka of New York City and Pedro de Alcantara of Paris, France. Bost-Sandberg’s primary composition instructors include Robert Dick and Lawrence Fritts.
Stanley E. Dahl
Stanley E. Dahl is Assistant Professor of Music at Central College in Pella, Iowa, where he is director of the Percussion Ensemble and the Flying Pans Steel Band. He received his Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Iowa State University where he studied with Michael Geary and Dr. Barry Larkin and his Master of Music in Percussion Performance from Arizona State University where he studied with Dr. J. B. Smith and Dr. Mark Sunkett.
As a clinician/artist, he has appeared at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, International Association of Pan Convention, Iowa Bandmasters Association Conference, and the Iowa Music Educators Association Conference. He has also given numerous percussion lectures and performances at colleges/universities, high schools, and elementary schools throughout the United States and Mexico.
Dahl is the interim president of the Iowa Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society, host of the 2010 Iowa Days of Percussion, and a member of the Percussive Arts Society World Percussion Committee. He is also the front ensemble percussion instructor at Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill, IA, director of the Des Moines, IA steel band Tropical Steeland performs steel pans/vocals with the Caribbean-Funk band Jumbies. Stanley E. Dahl is a Pearl/Adams Regional Education Artist.
Cynthia Johnston Turner
Cynthia Johnston Turner is Director of Bands, Professor of Music, and co-Artistic Director of Rote Hund Muzik at the Hodgson School of Music, University of Georgia. Turner conducts the Hodgson Wind Ensemble, leads the MM and DMA programs in conducting, and oversees the entire band program including the 400+ member Redcoat Marching Band. She is "VIP Educational Clinician" with Conn-Selmer.
Before her appointment at the Hodgson School at the University of Georgia, Cynthia was Director of Wind Ensembles at Cornell University. Earlier in her career, Cynthia was a high school music educator, taught middle school beginning instrumental music in Toronto and choral music in Switzerland.
A Canadian, Cynthia completed her Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Education degrees at Queens University and her Master of Music in music education and conducting at the University of Victoria. Touring with her ensembles inspired her master’s thesis on the musical and personal transformations that occur on tours, and her D.M.A. thesis at the Eastman School of Music centered on the music of William Kraft, one of this generation’s leading composers. At Eastman, Cynthia was the recipient of the prestigious teaching award in conducting. She received the National Leadership in Education Award (Canada), the Excellence in Education Award (Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation), and the Marion Drysdale Leadership Award (also from OSSTF). She is also the recipient of the Donald A. Reick Memorial Award for research with wearable technologies and music pedagogy, grants from the UGA Willson Center for Creative Activities, multiple awards from the UGA career center, and the American Prize for innovative programming with wind bands.
Cynthia has commissioned numerous new works for wind band, contemporary music ensembles, and orchestra, and she continues to actively promote commissions by today’s leading and emerging composers around the world. Under her direction, the Cornell Wind Ensemble was invited to perform at the College Band Directors National Association’s Eastern Division Conference in 2007 and 2012, and the Hodgson Wind Ensemble performed at GMEA in 2015 and CBDNA National in Kansas City in 2017. In 2008, the Merrill Presidential Scholars at Cornell recognized Cynthia as an outstanding educator, and in 2009, she was awarded the Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellowship. Her performances have been praised by such composers as Steven Stucky, William Kraft, Steven Bryant, Marc Mellits, Nancy Galbraith, John Mackey, Peter Lane, Eddie Mora Bermudez, Dana Wilson, Roberto Sierra, and Karel Husa.
From January 2006, Cynthia led the Cornell Wind Ensemble on biennial performing and service tours to Costa Rica that included performances across the country, conducting masterclasses with Costa Rican teachers, instrument master classes for Costa Rican musicians, and the donation of over 250 instruments to music schools across the country. She led the Hodgson Wind Ensemble to Panama in January 2016 to teach, perform, and donate instruments.
Among other recent engagements, Cynthia has guest conducted the Thornton Wind Ensemble at the University of Southern California, Pacific Conservatory Wind Ensemble, National Youth Wind Ensemble of Great Britain, the Syracuse Symphony (“Symphoria”), the National Youth Band of Canada, Concordia Santa Fe, the Ithaca College Wind Ensemble, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Latin American Honor Band, the National Band of Costa Rica, the National Orchestra of Heredia, and numerous state honor bands and intercollegiate ensembles. Cynthia has been invited to present her research with teaching and technology, innovative rehearsal techniques, and service-learning and music performance at numerous conferences nationally and internationally. She is published in such journals as Interdisciplinary Humanities, International Journal of the Humanities, Music Educators Journal, NAfME "Teaching Music," NewMusicUSA.org, Journal of the World Association of Bands and Ensembles, Fanfare Magazine, and Canadian Winds, and has recorded CDs with the Innova and Albany labels.
Cynthia has served as a board member with WASBE and is an active member of CDBNA, Conductor’s Guild, College Music Society, Humanities Education and Research Association, the National Association for Music Education, and National Band Association. She currently serves on the board of the Western International Band Clinic (WIBC) and faculty at WIBC University. She is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi and a National Arts Associate member of Sigma Alpha Iota.
Dr. Lynn Hileman
is Assistant Professor of Bassoon and Music Theory at West Virginia University, co-director of the WVU Double Reed Ensemble, and a member of the Laureate Wind Quintet. She is also principal bassoonist of the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra, one half of the bassoon duo Tuple, and a member of the contemporary bassoon collective Dark in the Song. She has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Syracuse and New Haven Symphony Orchestras, New Music New Haven, the June in Buffalo Festival Orchestra, and at the 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 International Double Reed Society conferences.
Dr. Hileman is dedicated to reinvigorating concert music through the performance of post-classical contemporary and experimental music, orchestral and chamber music, as well as electronic music and interdisciplinary arts. As a soloist she is in demand throughout the United States as a recitalist specializing in contemporary music, performing at such venues as the Musica no Museu Festival in Rio de Janeiro, the Washington State University Festival of Contemporary Music, and the Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival. She also co-founded and is former president of A\V, a gallery and performance space in Rochester, New York specializing in multimedia and experimental works.
Dr. Hileman holds degrees from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (BM), Yale University (MM), and the Eastman School of Music (DMA), where she was awarded the Andrew G. Bogiages Memorial Prize in Bassoon in 2004. Her teachers include John Hunt, K. David Van Hoesen, Frank Morelli, Christopher Millard, and Richard Beene. Before coming to WVU, Dr. Hileman served on the faculties of Hamilton, Hartwick, and Houghton Colleges, Binghamton University, and the Hochstein School of Music and Dance. Dr. Hileman spends her summers practicing, traveling, baking vegan pastries, and performing at the Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival.
Randy Hoepker
Randy Hoepker is the founding director of the Central Iowa Youth Band, a premier organization of Central Iowa's finest high school wind and percussion players, now in its sixth season. Mr. Hoepker also serves as Director of Bands at Hoover High School in Des Moines, Iowa, where he directs the Wind Ensemble and Jazz Combo and serves as chair of the Fine Arts Department. Prior to his position at Hoover, he served as Director of Bands at Southeast Polk High School, where he directed the Wind Ensemble, concert bands, jazz band, pep band, and marching band, and served as music department chairperson.
He founded commissioning programs that have lead to 18 new works for bands and percussion ensembles by award-winning composers from the United States, Japan, England, Canada, and the Netherlands, including Jun Nagao, Bernard Van Beurden, Bruce Carslon, Jeremy Beck, Eseld Pierce, William Dougherty, Daniel Bukvich, Gregory Yasinitsky, Tracey Rush, Reber Clark, David Resnick, Chrispoher Salerno, Bill Park, and Peter Hamlin.
Mr. Hoepker is the founder and former director of the Altoona Community Band, designated as a “model of quality service” by the Corporation for National Service, and the Central Iowa Youth Jazz Band. Bands under his direction have received Major and Mini grant awards from the Iowa Arts Council, Arts Midwest, and CommServ Iowa.
Mr. Hoepker has taught saxophone at the Drake University Community School of Music and maintains an active private studio. Prior positions include Assistant Band Director with the Oskaloosa Community Schools, 5–12 Band Director with the Martensdale-St. Marys Community Schools and Graduate Assistant with the University of Northern Iowa Marching, Symphonic, and Basketball Bands.
Mr. Hoepker holds the degrees of Master of Music in Conducting, Master of Music Education, and Bachelor of Music Education with Jazz Emphasis, all from the University of Northern Iowa. His primary conducting teacher is Ronald Johnson, with additional study with Timothy Reynish, Mark Heron and Russell Cowieson.
Karey Johnson Sitzler
Karey Johnson Sitzler holds a Bachelor of Music in Instrumental Music Education with emphasis in Strings from Western Michigan University (1977) and a Master of Music in Viola Performance Pedagogy from Arizona State (1983). She has performed with professional symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras, and chamber ensembles in Michigan, Indiana, Arizona, Ohio, and now Virginia for 32 years. She has taught string classes and private lessons to students ages four–adult at beginning to university levels, and has taught in school music programs for 31 years.
In 1986, Mrs. Sitzler founded the Young Strings Academy of Kalamazoo, Michigan, a not for profit private and group lesson school. YSA worked in tandem with area musicians and community groups to provide scholarships and promote excellence in performance. The organization, which she directed until 1998, named her Director Emeritus and continues to serve west Michigan as the Crescendo Academy of Music. From 1989–2000 she was the music director of the Kalamazoo Prep String and Training Orchestras. In 1991 she guest conducted the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony in performance at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra clinic in Chicago.
From 2000–2003, Mrs. Sitzler served the Crooked Tree Arts Center in Petoskey, Michigan as Education Director for the Performing Arts and as Youth Orchestra conductor. There, she designed the arts curriculum, organized concerts featuring over 350 students from a three-county area, and coordinated cultural activities for participating schools. The orchestra was invited to open the Bayview Music Festival in June of 2003. Since moving to Virginia in 2003, she has been teaching for the Suffolk, Virginia Public Schools, where she was hired to develop a string program. Working at Forest Glen Middle and Lakeland High Schools she is able to see the students from start to graduation. Her pops arrangements are a favorite on school spring concerts. The Lakeland High Chamber Strings have been featured as guest performers for the “State of the Schools” breakfast for the past two years. This year they traveled to New Orleans for a clinic at Loyola University and a performance at Trinity Episcopal Church. Both LHS and FGMS students perform throughout the community. Since 2004 she has been directing the feeder system for the Williamsburg Youth Orchestras and most recently teaching music appreciation at Paul D. Camp Community College. She maintains a small private studio with students who are successfully auditioning for District, Regional, and State Orchestras and have most recently been receiving scholarships to colleges of choice. She has guest conducted the Virginia Beach All City 8th Grade Orchestra, District II 7th Grade Orchestra, and begun to adjudicate festivals in Tidewater.
Karey and her husband, Tommy, blended a family of six children seven years ago. Three are in college at this time. They are active in the church music scene.
Patrick J. Kearney
Patrick J. Kearney has been the Director of Bands at Johnston High School since the fall of 2000. During his tenure at Johnston the band program has doubled in size as well as developed a tradition of excellence in concert band, jazz band, and marching band performance. The 2010 Johnston High School Jazz Ensemble was invited to the inaugural Jazz Education Network conference in St. Louis. A graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, Mr. Kearney has also served as director of Drake Jazz II. He is currently the Executive Director of the Adventureland Festival of Bands and is the Advocacy Chair for the Iowa Alliance for Arts Education. His wife Cathy teaches orchestra in the Des Moines Public Schools and he is the proud father of Brogan Kearney.
David Kobberdahl
David Kobberdahl received his BME from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri in 1988 and his Master's degree at the Vandercook College of Music in Chicago. He currently works as a Jazz Ensemble Director and Instrumental Music Instructor for the West Des Moines Comm. School District. In addition, David plays trumpet professionally as a member of the Des Moines Big Band, the Latin Jazz Group, Ashanti, and the Jazz Quartet, Old School.
Michael Kris
Michael Kris (Lecturer) is the Instructor of Low Brass and Director of Brass Chamber Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also on the performance faculty at Duke University and the Eastern Music Festival. Mr. Kris is a regular performer with the North Carolina Symphony, North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra, North Carolina Theater, North Carolina Opera, and a variety of chamber music ensembles.
As a performer, Mr. Kris is currently second trombone in the Eastern Music Festival Philharmonic and has been a member of the North Carolina Symphony, serving as principal and second trombone. In addition, he has been a member of the Winston-Salem Symphony and the Greensboro Symphony and has performed with several orchestras throughout the eastern United States.
Apart from his orchestral work, Mr. Kris is an active soloist and clinician performing and teaching throughout the southeast. As a jazz musician, he has toured with groups in the United States and Europe and has worked with artists such as Tony Bennett, Clark Terry and Natalie Cole. Mr. Kris attended McNeese State University and the Cincinnati College/Conservatory of Music where he studied with Mr. Tony Chipurn, retired principal trombone of the Cincinnati Symphony. Mr. Kris has earned a Bachelor of Music Education as well as a Master of Music in Trombone Performance. Prior to his appointment at the University of North Carolina, Mr. Kris held teaching posts at North Carolina Central University, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and St. Augustine’s College.
Matthew McClure
Matthew McClure is the saxophone teacher and Assistant Director of Bands in the Department of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also coaches numerous saxophone chamber groups in the department, including the innovative “Town and Gown” saxophone quartet, which pairs his saxophone students with life-long performers and lovers of music from the community.
McClure earned his Master of Music in Conducting and undergraduate degree in Music Education from The University of Tennessee in Knoxville. McClure began his teaching career in the public schools of Russell County, Kentucky, teaching elementary, middle, and high school bands. He has studied conducting with Dr. Gary Sousa and has studied saxophone with Jay Romines, Dr. Paul Haar, and Dr. Steven Stusek. He has performed as the winner of numerous concerto competitions and at the North American Saxophone Alliance National Conference. In the Fall of 2009 he founded the North Carolina Saxophone Ensemble, which combines professional saxophonists from across the state with highly enthusiastic and talented “amateur” musicians.
Dr. Philip McLeod
Dr. Philip McLeod completed his PhD thesis “Fast, Accurate Pitch Detection Tools for Music Analysis” in 2008 at the University of Otago, New Zealand. As part of this research he developed the open source software Tartini. This brought together his passions of Computer science, Physics and Music in the hope that he could make useful tools for musicians. The goal was not to tell people how to play, but to provide tools for visualizing what they play so one can analyze, compare, and study their music in a more object manner.
Ironically, Dr. McLeod plays drums, for which Tartini is not much use. But the reason pitch interests him so much is because he considers himself “quite tone deaf”—although he has been making progress!
Dr. McLeod’s other research interests include 3D environment reconstruction from images (computer vision), hair simulation, making computer games, and computer graphics.
He also enjoys climbing mountains, running, meditating, philosophy, and learning new things.
Currently (2010), he is lead research scientist at Areo, and has lectured at the University of Otago.
Susan Odem
Susan Odem received a BM from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and an MM from Drake University, studying with Jay Light. She is a member of the Des Moines Symphony, is an adjunct member of the faculty at Central College and Drake University, and teaches a private studio of oboe and bassoon students.
Abigail Pack joined the School of Music as Associate Professor of Horn in Fall 2008. Pack, a native of Roanoke, Virginia received her Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. in 1994 before earning a Master of Arts degree in Horn Performance and Pedagogy in 1996 from The University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA, where she was a teaching assistant and toured with the faculty brass quintet. Ms. Pack most recently received her doctoral degree from The University of Wisconsin-Madison in December of 2004. She completed her doctoral coursework there in May 2001.
She has held teaching positions at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA; Knox College in Galesburg, IL; Western State College in Gunnison, CO; and in the Gunnison Watershed School District in Gunnison, CO. She was awarded the Bolz Teaching Fellowship while in residence at UW-Madison.
Ms. Pack has held playing positions with the Barton Symphony Orchestra, Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, and with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. She currently performs regionally as a member of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Opera Roanoke, Southwest Chamber Orchestra, and with the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival. Recent performance highlights include the University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa at the International Horn Symposium, International Flute Conference, Washington D.C., The International Midwest Band and Orchestra Conference, Chicago, Illinois, and most recently at The Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts, Washington D.C. with the Montpelier Wind Quintet.
Click to visit the UNCG Horn Studio web site or email: [email protected]
Myron Peterson
Myron Peterson began his current teaching position as a Director of Bands at Urbandale High School in the Fall of 1998. An educational highlight of Mr. Peterson’s teaching career has been the development of the Urbandale All-State Protocol, which is a road map to guide students’ progress as they prepare for the Iowa All-State Auditions. In 2006, Mr. Peterson directed the Urbandale Wind Ensemble as the class 4A honor band at the 2006 Iowa Bandmasters Association Conference. Prior to his arrival at Urbandale, Mr. Peterson taught for two years in the Oskaloosa Community School District.
Mr. Peterson received his Bachelor of Music Education in 1995 from the University of Northern Iowa. There he studied trombone with John Hanson and Max Bonecutter. He also studied trombone with David Stuart of Iowa State University and Mike Schmitz of the United States of America Navy Band.
Mr. Peterson performs regularly with the Tony Valdez Large Band, the Brix Big Band, the Plymouth Brass Consort, and as a freelance trombonist in various chamber settings around the Des Moines area. He has performed in the pit orchestra at the Civic Center of Great Des Moines for national touring productions, including “The Color Purple” and “High School Musical.” He is an active adjudicator and clinician at music festivals across Iowa.
Mr. Peterson is professionally affiliated with the Iowa Bandmaster’s Association, South Central Iowa Bandmaster’s Association, where he is the president-elect, and the Jazz Educators of Iowa, where he is the founding treasurer.