About the Authors
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Dr. Evan Feldman
Dr. Evan Feldman is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Wind Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he conducts the Wind Ensemble and teaches courses in conducting and music education. He also serves as music director of the Triangle Wind Ensemble and Greensboro Concert Band. He is an active guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. Under his direction, the UNC Wind Ensemble has been invited to perform at the North Carolina Music Educators Association annual convention and the College Band Directors National Convention. He has been described in the press as “...the real thing - a conductor with evident ensemble-building skills who knows his way around the podium...”
In addition to Instrumental Music Education, he is the author of the first MOOC (massive open online course) dedicated to conducting and rehearsal technique. Over 20,000 students have enrolled through Coursera.org. He is also a contributing author to three volumes of the series A Composer's Insight, including chapters on the wind music Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, David Bedford, and Adam Gorb. His writings have also been published in The Instrumentalist, the Iowa Bandmaster Journal, the MENC Music Educators Journal, and the IGEB Alta Musica.
Dr. Feldman has appeared nationally and internationally, with engagements in Romania, Belgium, Spain, and Tanzania, as well as all-state, all-district, and all-county honor bands in the United States. His arrangements and editions of music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, George Enescu, Antonin Dvořák, Ariel Ramirez, and Sergei Prokofiev are published by Tierolff Muziekcentrale, and his research on wind music has been presented at the national and international conferences of CBDNA (College Band Directors National Association), WASBE (World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles), and IGEB (International Society for the Promotion and Investigation of Wind Music).
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 and Eastman Wind Orchestra. He received his Masters in Conducting from Ithaca College and his BA in Music from Duke University.
A native of Long Island, Dr. Feldman previously taught at Central College (Pella, IA) the College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA) and Hicksville High School in Hicksville, New York (Nassau County).
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.
A native of Parsippany, New Jersey, he began 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 earned 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 New York Wind Symphony. He resides in Wallkill, New York with his lovely wife Ashley, who is also a high school band director, along with their son, Cole.
Mitchell Lutch
Mitchell Lutch is an Associate Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Central College where he directs the wind ensemble and pep band, and teaches courses in instrumental conducting, music education and music appreciation. He has also served as the Director of Intersections, the first-year orientation and seminar course. In 2014 he was presented with Central’s Hutch Bearce Award for Community Building and Faculty Leadership and in 2012 he was awarded The John Wesselink Outstanding Performance Award. In 2013 he was selected as one of ten faculty members to represent Central College at a Global Education Conference in Spain and Morocco. Dr. Lutch also directs the Central Iowa Wind Ensemble and the Grinnell College Symphonic Band.
He received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Instrumental Conducting at the University of Washington and earned his Master of Music degree from New England Conservatory where he studied with Frank Battisti serving as the graduate assistant for the NEC Wind Ensemble and assistant conductor of the Massachusetts Wind Ensemble. His Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education is from the University of Lowell.
Artists he has collaborated with in his teaching career include Frank Battisti, Donald Hunsburger, Eric Ewazen, Dana Wilson, Keith Brion, 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 New England Conservatory, Shenandoah Conservatory, Western Washington University, the College of William and Mary, and Denison University. Conducting appearances and research presentations include concerts and conferences throughout the United States, Quebec, London, Japan, The People’s Republic of China, the former Soviet Union, Luxembourg, and Mexico.