Everything Band Podcast

A legend in the state of Oregon, Patrick Vandehey joins me to discuss believing in music education with passion.

Topics:

• Pat's background, including his time as a rock and roll musician and an anecdote about a very bad school administrator
• The importance of a strong performance background and how experience as a player was his most valuable asset for his success.
• His high school programs and then his time at George Fox University and his move to Portland State.
• Thoughts about the future of music education
• The marching arts and competition in music education

Links:

• Portland State University
• George Fox University
• Phillip Sparke: A Savannah Story
• David Maslanka: Symphony no. 4

Biography:

Patrick Vandehey is an Associate Professor of Music at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. Prior to the PSU position he taught 14 years at George Fox University, a small private liberal arts college in Newberg, Oregon and 23 years teaching in area public high schools. Mr. Vandehey received his Bachelors of Art and Bachelors of Music from the University of Washington, and a Masters of Teaching Music at Portland State University.

Mr. Vandehey is a Past-President of the Oregon Band Directors Association and serves as chairman of the Adjudication Training Board of OBDA. He served for two years as the Band Liaison to the Oregon Schools Activity Association. He has served twice on the Oregon Music Education Association’s Board as Band Chair and served on the OMEA Executive board as President in 2005-2006.

In 1993 Mr. Vandehey was the State, Regional and National recipient of the ASBDA- Stanbury Award for Outstanding Young Band Director. In 2000 he was inducted into the Band World Legion of Honor by the John Philip Sousa Foundation. Also in 2000 he was named one of Oregon’s top ten Music Educators by the Oregon Music Educators Association in the Teaching Music Magazine. In 2002 Mr. Vandehey received the Citation of Excellence from the National Band Association. He is a founding member of the Oregon Chapter of Phi Beta Mu, and in 2006 was inducted into the Northwest Bandmaster’s Association. Mr. Vandehey was named the Oregon’s Outstanding Music Educator in 2010 by the Oregon Music Educators Association.

Mr. Vandehey is married to Kristin, his wife of 40 years and they have two daughters, both of whom are educators.

Texas composer Carol Brittin Chambers talks about writing marching band shows and the twists and turns of herfascinating musical career.

Topics:

• Carol's background as a trumpet player and pianist
• Teaching good fundamentals and skills and teaching in Texas
• Moving from being a full time band director to a full time composer
• Writing marching shows
• Carol's concert band music and her creative process

Links:

• Aspenwood Music
• Texas Lutheran University
• Carl Fischer
• Grainger: Lincolnshire Posy
• Copland: Appalachian Spring
• Valley Concert Band

Biography:

Carol Brittin Chambers is currently on the music faculty at Texas Lutheran University. She lives in San Antonio, Texas, where she is the owner and composer of Aspenwood Music. She also maintains an active performance schedule, including appearances with the Mid-Texas and San Antonio Symphonies.

Chambers is commissioned each year to compose and arrange works for concert band, marching band, and various other ensembles. She has arranged and orchestrated marching shows for numerous high school bands across the country, as well as The Crossmen Drum Corps. Her concert works are published under Carl Fischer, RBC, and Aspenwood Music.

Before coming to TLU, Chambers taught middle school and high school band for many years in the North East Independent School District, San Antonio, TX. She also taught private lessons in NEISD.

Chambers received a Master of Music in Trumpet Performance from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Music Education from Texas Tech University. She studied under Vincent Cichowicz, John Paynter, Arnold Jacobs, James Sudduth, and Will Streider.

My special guest for my first Fourth of July episode is Michael Colburn, former director of the United States Marine Corps Band ("The President's Own") and current band director at Butler University. Mike joins me to discuss his time in the Marines, his current position at Butler, and the importance of being ready for any opportunity that might come your way.

Topics:

• Mike's background as a euphonium player and son of a high school band director
• Performance vs music education degrees and the need for musicians to be entrepreneurial
• A deep discussion into the Marine Band including auditions, requirements, it's mission, and a few anecdotes from Mike's time as director
• Mike's transition to becoming a conductor and the lessons he's brought to Butler University from his time in the Marines.
• Working with composers and his thoughts about the future of music education.
• His favorite work and performing Stars and Stripes Forever thousands of times.

Links:

• Butler University
• The United States Marine Band, "The President's Own"
• Dan Perantoni
• Adam Frey
• Percy Grainger: Lincolnshire Posy

Biography:

Michael Colburn joined the faculty of Butler University as Director of Bands in August, 2014. In addition to conducting the Butler University Wind Ensemble, he offers instruction in conducting, euphonium, and the history and literature of the wind band. Before coming to Butler, Colburn served for 27 years in “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, where he held a variety of positions including Principal Euphonium (1991-1996), Assistant Director (1996-2004), and Director (2004-2014). As Director, Colburn was music advisor to White House and regularly conducted the Marine Band and Chamber Orchestra at the Executive Mansion and at Presidential Inaugurations. He was promoted to Colonel by President George W. Bush in a private Oval Office ceremony in 2007, and in 2014 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by Gen James Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps, and the Medal of Honor by the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic Board of Directors.

Colburn is an active guest conductor and clinician. He regularly conducts bands at numerous state and regional festivals and has guest conducted several professional and university bands and wind ensembles. Committed to the creation of new music for winds, Colburn serves as the Co-Chair of the Sousa-Ostwald Award, a prize sponsored by the American Bandmasters Association in order to promote new works for wind band/ensemble. He has served as an adjudicator for the Sudler Award, the Barlow Endowment, Music for All, and the Col. George S. Howard award for excellence in military bands. Colburn is a member of Washington D.C.’s prestigious Gridiron and Alfalfa Clubs, the American Bandmasters Association, and a board member of the John Philip Sousa Foundation

Recording ofStars and Stripes Forever by John Phillip Sousa (http://www.marineband.usmc.mil/) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Common

Retired band director Blair Smith joins the podcast to discuss building relationships and finding balance.

Topics:

• Blair's background
• Commissioning composers, Sean O'Loughlin's pants, and the David Holsinger bedroom
• Networking and advice about how to properly use your state conference to build relationships
• Advice for young band directors
• Digital Performance Gear
• Parallels between golf and music

Links:

• Digital Performance Gear
• Mahler/Reynolds - Finale from Symphony No. 3
• Claude T. Smith - Entrada, Adoration, and Praise

Biography:

Blair Smith recently retired after 30 years of service to the North Carolina public education system. His final 25 years was at Central Cabarrus HS and Jay M. Robinson HS. Blair is from Mechanicsville, VA. He began his 30-year teaching career at Chaloner MS in Roanoke Rapids. He moved to Central Cabarrus in 1991.

Mr. Smith’s concert bands have performed under numerous national educators. His bands have received Superior ratings at all grade levels as well as commissioning and premiering several compositions. His Wind Ensemble performed at the NC Music Educator’s Conference in 1997. More than 20 of his former students have continued to become music educators.

His marching bands have received Superior and 1st place ratings. As a prominent BOA participant, his bands were consistent finalists. His 1991 Central Cabarrus Band was the last NC band to make finals at BOA Grand Nationals.

He is a member of ASBDA, PAS and NBA. Mr. Smith is past-president for the NC Chapter of the National Band Association, He is the past chairman of the SC District Bandmasters Assoc. Mr. Smith received the Award of Excellence from the NC Bandmasters Association in 2007. He is an active clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor.

Blair currently work for Digital Performance Gear which specializes in designing uniforms and equipment for the pageantry arts. Mr. Smith is married to Linda Smith and they have two sons Aaron and Drew. Mr. Smith is a solid 23 handicap golfer, but he is getting better.

Patrick Burns from Bandworks Publications joins me in a great conversation about his career, Bandworks publications, and he offers numerous insights for composers and teachers.

Topics:

• Pat's background and music education
• Finishing an music education degree and not getting a doctorate in composition
• Pat's compositional inspiration... the alto clarinet.
• The Bloomfield YouthBand and the founding of Bandworks Publications
• What Pat looks for when selecting music for publication
• Advice for young composers

Links:

• Bandworks Publications
• Montclair State University
• Bloomfield Youth Band
• Ronald Lo Presti - Elegy for a Young American
• Gordon Jacobs - An Original Suite
• James Syler - The Hound of Heaven
• David Holsinger - Liturgical Dances

Biography:

PATRICK J. BURNS (b. 1969) has served as Adjunct Professor of Music at Montclair State University in New Jersey since 1994, where he teaches courses in music theory, orchestration, and composition, and has also taught instrumental music in the Caldwell-West Caldwell Public Schools since 1998. As a clarinetist, Mr. Burns has performed with many professional ensembles in the New York metro area including the Metropolitan Opera Summer Ballet Orchestra, the pit orchestra for the Broadway revival production of Camelot starring Robert Goulet, and with the New Jersey Chamber Music Society in broadcasts for National Public Radio and New Jersey Network Television. In September 2011, Mr. Burns began his tenure as Director of the Symphony of Winds and Percussion at New Jersey City University. More recently, he has signed on with Ackk Studios as orchestrator/composer/conductor for the company’s video game projects being produced for the Nintendo and Sony Corporations.

In 1986, at the age of seventeen, Mr. Burns founded the Bloomfield Youth Band, a community wind ensemble of some 55 secondary school and collegiate musicians which he continues to direct today. The Youth Band has been recognized for its outstanding artistic achievements and service to the community by the United States Congress, the New Jersey Legislature and the Mayor and Town Council of Bloomfield. His compositions for symphonic band are performed by bands of every level throughout the country. The United States Army Band, “Pershing’s Own”, has performed his music in Washington, D.C. and at Carnegie Hall. His music has also been performed by conservatory and military bands in Sweden, Russia, Japan and China. Mr. Burns is former director of the Montclair State University Youth Orchestra and the Imperial Brass. He has been featured as guest conductor and clinician with public school, community, university, region and all-state bands in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Ohio and has recorded albums and concertized with world-renowned brass artists Philip Smith, Warren Vaché, Roger Webster and Chris Jaudes.

Patrick Burns’ music for symphonic band is published by G. Schirmer, Daehn Publications, Grand Mesa Music Publishers, FJH Music, Wingert-Jones Music, and TRN Music Publisher. His music has appeared on Bandworld magazine’s Top 100 list of band compositions five times. The Instrumentalist and School Music News have printed numerous favorable reviews of Mr. Burns’ band music and The Classical New Jersey Society Journal has praised his chamber music. His music for symphonic band has been performed at The Midwest Clinic in Chicago and has been recorded for the educational series Distinguished Music for the Developing Band. He has received commissions from many organizations including the Goldman Band/Harvey Phillips Foundation, Ohio Northern University, the Bel Air (Maryland) Community Band, the SoundTree Corporation and Westlake Village High School Wind Ensemble (California) for the band’s performance at Carnegie Hall.

From 2003-2010, Mr. Burns served as president of the Bloomfield Federation of Music and in March 2010, he founded his own publishing company, Bandworks Publications.

Gary Gackstatter is a composer, conductor, and artist with a wealth of teaching experience. He joins me this week to discuss his career and offer his thoughts about teaching and music education.

Topics:

• Gary's background and teaching experience
• Advice for young teachers
• His career as a composer and thoughts about commissioning new works for band
• Creativity and being published
• Gary's forthcoming book The Spark: Notes from the Podium
• Band competitions and what we should be judging
• Thoughts about the current state of band literature

Links:

• Gary Gackstatter's Website
• Gary's YouTube Channel
• St. Louis Community College Meramec Campus
• C. Alan Publications
• Grainger: Lincolnshire Posy
• Holst: First Suite in E-flat

Biography:

Gary Gackstatter is an active artist, composer, conductor, clinician, performer and teacher, teaching at STLCC Meramec as Coordinator of Music and conductor of the Symphonic Band and Meramec Orchestra since 2007. He has served as conductor at Cowley College, Southwestern College and Wichita State University, and has 12 years of public school teaching experience. He holds a BME from Southwestern Oklahoma State and a MMP/Conducting from Wichita State University. His groups have been featured at Missouri Music Educators Association, Kansas Music Educators Association and Kansas Bandmasters Association state conventions, and have won many regional and state awards. Gackstatter has served as a state and regional MENC Composition Chairman.

Gackstatter has been the clinician/conductor for district and state festival bands, orchestras and jazz bands, as well as over 200 high school band and orchestra clinics since 1990. A two-time Kansas Governor's Arts Award recipient (as an individual artist/musician and as conductor of the Winfield Regional Symphony), he is directly responsible for many art events including symphonic debuts, band/orchestra festivals, internationally known guest artists, and projects combining multiple art forms. His published compositions (with C. Alan Publications) are performed internationally and his vision to combine the various arts genres in performances has gained national attention.

Jeff Girard, the band specialist at Midwest Sheet Music joins me to offer some thoughtsabout conducting, band music, and copyright law from the perspective of a music retailer.

Topics:

• Jeff's background as a conductor and band specialist at Midwest Sheet Music
• Band Together
• The challenges and compromises of conducting a community band
• Interactions with composers and the music publishing industry from a retail perspective
• What qualities make Jeff recommended a band piece
• Lessons learned from Jeff's surprising background as a professional wrestler

Links:

• Midwest Sheet Music
• Jerry Brubaker: A Celebration of Taps
• Jack Wilds: Showdown at High Noon
• Copyright Handbook for Music Educators
• Music Copyright Law
• Music Law in the Digital Age
• Ron Nelson: Passacaglia (Homage on BACH)
• John Paulson: Epinicion
• Frank Ticheli: Blue Shades
• Stephen McNeff: Ghosts
• Maecenas Music
• BandTogether
• Wind Band Report Archives
• Wind Band ReportSign Up

Biography:

Jeff Girard is a wind band conducting specialist at Midwest Sheet Music in St. Louis who has been working with wind band literaturefor 20 years now. He’s particularly adept at tracking down hard to find, obscure and foreign wind band titles, as well as finding the hidden gems amongst all the hundreds of new wind band works published each year. He also directs a local community band, BandTogether, during the year.

Cynthia Johnston Turner from the University of Georgia shares her thoughts about the importance of finding your authentic self on the podium, gender issues in the band world, and ideas forprogramming music.

Topics:

• Cynthia's background and the sense of belonging that band provides for young people
• Impostor syndrome and being your authentic self
• The band program at the University of Georgia
• Gender in the band world
• Working with composers
• Programming "new" music
• Technology in the band rehearsal
• Programming transcriptions

Links:

• Cynthia Johnston Turner
• Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia
• Women composers in wind band music (Google Doc)
• Women composers in wind band music (YouTube playlist)
• Candy Floss and Merry-Go-Rounds: Female Composers, Gendered Language, and Emotion
• Joni Greene: Enigma Machine
• Adolphus Hailstork: American Guernica
• Karel Husa: Music for Prague 1968
• University of Hawai'iConductor's Workshop
• New England Band Director's Institute

Biography:

Cynthia Johnston Turner is Director of Bands, Professor of Music, Area Chair of Conducting, and 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 430-member Redcoat Marching Band.

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.

Florida State University percussion professor John W. Parks IV is really passionate about the importance of teaching and learning the "right way" and this becomes a recurring theme throughout this remarkable conversation.

Topics:

• John's musical background
• Trophy hunting in music education and putting the students first
• The type of students John brings to FSU and how he disarms "problem" students
• Use the local college to find a percussion teacher to come into your band room.
• Qualities necessary to becoming a successful teacher and having a plan!
• Teach skills, not pieces
• Percussion resources for teachers
• 2000 Eastman Wind Ensemble Japan tour
• Garnet House Productions
• Why college football coaches need to stop cursing so much!

Links:

• Daniel's Orchestral Music
• Raynor Caroll: Symphonic Repertoire Guide for Timpani and Percussion
• Black Swamp Percussion Videos
• Vic Firth Percussion Videos
• John teaches the Porgy and Bess xylophone solo
• Percy Grainger: Irish Tune from County Derry
• Anthony Iannaccone: Sea Drift (Mvmt I)
• 2017 Orange Bowl Bet with Jonathan Ovalle
• Garnet House Productions
• John W. Parks IV

Biography:

John W. Parks IV, Professor of Percussion at The Florida State University, holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, and Furman University and has studied with Patricia Dash of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, John Beck of the Rochester Philharmonic, Michael Burritt, Paul Wertico (formerly of the Pat Metheny Group), and John Beckford. He is artist/clinician for Malletech, Avedis Zildjian Cymbals, Black Swamp Percussion, and Remo.
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Parks made his Carnegie Hall solo recital debut in Weill Recital Hall in May of 2007, and has performed with diverse performing organizations ranging from the Eastman Wind Ensemble on their 2000 tour of Japan and Taiwan and the Schlossfestspiele Orchestra of Heidelberg, Germany to the Kansas City, Alabama, Key West, Jacksonville, and Tallahassee Symphony Orchestras as well as the Florida Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, and Eastern Music Festival Faculty Orchestra.

Dr. Parks also leads the FSU Percussion Ensemble, winners of the 2007 and 2011 Percussive Arts Society International Percussion Ensemble Competitions and the subject of four critically-acclaimed recordings (Volume One, Volume Two: Not Far From Here, Volume Three: Ten Windows, and Volume Four: Unknown Kind), and has appeared as performer/clinician at the 2011 Basilica Festival in Belgium, 2009 Thailand Brass and Percussion Conference in Bangkok, three Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinics, twelve Percussive Arts Society International Conventions, NACWPI, National Public Radio, and state MENC conventions. In 2006 he won a university-wide teaching award at FSU, and in 2013 was inducted into the Engineering Wing of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences as a voting member of the Grammy Awards.

Just 23 years old, the enormously talented Jay Coles has already published several works for band through Carl Fischer, C.L. Barnhouse, and C. Alan Publications and is the author of a new novel inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement titled Tyler Jones was Here andscheduled to be released in 2018 by Little Brown, Children's.

Topics:

• Jay's musical background and his young career
• Using social media to create opportunity
• Jay's first big break with theKirankai High School Wind Ensemble in Wakayamashi, Japan
• Diversity in the wind literature and thoughts about how to lift up the marginalized in the band community
• Finding publishers as a composer
• His forthcoming young adult novel and the differences between music publishing and book publishing
• His process for writing a piece of music​

Links:

• Ball State University Music
• Orchesis: Legends of Thailand
• Galactic Episode
• Michael Markowski: Saturn Returns
• Michael Daugherty: Raise the Roof

Biography:
Jay Coles (b. 1995) is a composer, conductor, and clinician residing in the wonderful and beautiful state of Indiana. He attends Ball State University, where he studies Music, Education and English, though he currently holds an A.S. Degree in Liberal Arts. Jay has come to be known as an emerging and distinguished young composer and is rapidly making his debut on many programs across the globe. Jay’s first composition for wind ensemble, a self-published grade 5 piece entitled “Orchesis: Legends of Thailand,” was premiered in Wakayama-Shi, Japan. The piece was performed by the Kinrinkai Junior and Senior High School Wind Ensemble under the direction of Mr. Masago Hirokazu.
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Jay’s performance background is very eclectic. He’s performed in numerous jazz ensembles, wind ensembles and pep bands, and currently, Jay plays bassoon and euphonium professionally. He is also the lead pianist and residential composer for his church, where he has arranged and composed many works for small choirs and chamber orchestras. He maintains a tight and busy schedule of composing and arranging, performing, and traveling. Additionally, Jay has composed numerous works for wind band for just about every level. Jay’s music is published by Carl Fischer Music and Birch Island Co. as well as works that are self-published which can be found on his website. Jay accredits composers and mentors Brian Balmages, Larry Clark, Ryan Main, and Michael Markowski for their guidance and many lessons that continue to shape his music—all those lessons that motivate him to thrive as a composer.