OBA Concert Band Festival - 2007 Adjudicator Bios
Dennis Beck
Dennis Beck holds degrees in music and in education from the University of Western Ontario, as well as a graduate diploma in conducting from the University of Calgary. In addition to teaching experience at the junior and senior high school levels, he is a sessional lecturer in the Faculty of Education of the University of Toronto, was a wind ensemble conductor at Alberta College Conservatory in Edmonton for several years, and was formerly a clarinettist with the Edmonton Wind Sinfonia and the CBC's Edmonton Wind Ensemble. Mr. Beck is active as an adjudicator, guest conductor, and clinician, both in Canada and the United States. A chapter past president of Phi Beta Mu and a member of the College Band Directors National Association, he is also the Canadian chairman of the international Tri-M Honour Music Society. He served as a vice-president of the Alberta Band Association, was a founding director of the Ontario Band Association and is now the past president. His articles on music education have appeared in several professional journals, including The Instrumentalist. He is a regular contributor to the highly regarded series of music texts, Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, published by GIA in
Chicago.
Colin Clarke
Colin Clarke is the founder and Artistic Director of the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra, and oversees the continuing growth of the Wind Orchestra, TYWO Chamber Winds, Symphonic Brass and the Toronto Youth Concert Winds. Under his direction, the multi-award winning Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra has developed its reputation nationwide as one of the leading performance wind bands in Ontario, specializing in music from the traditional through to the newest works for wind band. Premiere performances and new composition readings have been an integral part of the Wind Orchestra's continuing program.
Though he is best known for his work with the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra, Colin's popularity as a conductor, clinician, adjudicator and educator has captured the attention of instrumental and choral ensembles, schools and music festivals all across Canada. A recent recipient of the Clifford Evans Award for Conducting, Colin's credits include collaboration with groups such as the United States Air Force Band of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, the University of Western Ontario Symphony Orchestra, UWOpera, the Woodstock Strings and the International Symphony Orchestra in Port Huron, Michigan.
Mr. Clarke's creative adaptation of Gustav Holst's The Planets was featured by the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra in a special world premiere at the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts in May, 1995 and recorded the following season. This complete orchestration for winds and chorus has gained national attention, and has been performed by many notable ensembles including the Calgary Wind Orchestra, the Kwantlen University College Wind Ensemble in B.C., and was debuted in Montreal under the baton of Rolph Bertch and members of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Colin's formal training stems from the University of Western Ontario in London, where he studied orchestral conducting with Jerome Summers and Jim McKay, and worked alongside artists such as Timothy Vernon, Robert Reisling and Susan Haig. He furthered his studies at the University of North Texas where he participated in workshop for wind band conducting and rehearsal techniques led by famed wind conductor Dr. Eugene Corporon and renowned composer Jack Stamp. He also studied briefly in New York at the Manhattan School of Music, participating in a special masterclass for orchestral conductors. The masterclass featured a session at Carnegie Hall with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Sibelius Orchestra of Findland. Colin has since branched out to the world of operatic conducting. His debut with Orchestra London Canada and the UWOpera Division featured a presentation of Gian Carlos Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors. Colin served as Assistant Music Director of the UWOpera's production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro (the Marriage of Figaro) and in 2001 served as Music Director of the UWOpera's Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck.
With a passion for the music education and outreach, Colin maintains a commitment to working with young people and the community. He has conducted several all-city and honour bands and orchestras across Southern Ontario. He is the Symphony Orchestra conductor at the Toronto District School Board Music Camp, a position he has held for the past seven years, and is the youngest conductor to hold this post in the history of the camp. Since his appointment as Artistic Director of the Guelph Concert Band in 1999, the band's membership has tripled in numbers, and has grown from what was once just a small town band to what is quickly becoming one of the leading community ensembles in Canada.
Colin also maintains an active schedule as a clinician and adjudicator. He has lead seminars and workshops in percussion and conducting for the Toronto District School Board and the Toronto Metropolitan Separate School Board, and has adjudicated for various music festivals including the Kiwanis Festival, the Rotary Music Festival in St. John's, Newfoundland, and MusicFest Canada.
Elliot Del Borgo
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 an M.M. degree from the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, where he studied theory and composition with Vincent Persichetti and trumpet with Gilbert Johnson. In 1973, he was granted the doctoral equivalency by SUNY, and was later elected to membership in the American Bandmasters Association in 1993.
Mr. Del Borgo taught instrumental music in the Philadelphia public schools and was Professor of Music at the Crane School of Music, where he held teaching and administrative positions from 1966 to 1995. An award-winning member of ASCAP, he is a frequent consultant, clinician, lecturer, and adjudicator in the United States and abroad. Mr. Del Borgo is an internationally-known conductor of bands and orchestras.
In addition to his music for the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, he has published nearly 500 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.
Denise Grant
Denise Grant is enjoying a freelance conducting career that finds her working with diverse groups of musicians and teachers across Canada and into the US, and occasionally a little further afield, in Southeast Asia. She was formerly the director of bands at the University of Toronto and University of Regina, and most recently at Portland State University in Oregon. She has earned a reputation for her innovative programming and sensitive interpretation of a wide variety of works, eliciting performances grounded in the composer's intent.
Denise earned her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota where she studied conducting with Craig Kirchhoff. She has also studied with noted conductors at intensive workshops and audited the Tanglewood Music Center's summer conducting program. Her current professional activities are grounded in a strong conviction to support music education, likely rooted by the fact Denise started her career as an instrumental music teacher with the Halifax (NS) Regional School Board, where she taught junior and senior high for seven years. She was the 2004 musical director of the National Youth Band of Canada and will be conducting the 2007 International Concert Band and Wind Ensemble at International Music Camp in North Dakota.
Mark Heidel
Richard Mark Heidel is Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music in the Department of Music and Theatre Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he conducts the Wind Symphony, teaches courses in conducting, supervises student teachers, serves as advisor to the National Band Association-Collegiate Chapter, and coordinates the UW-Eau Claire band program. Under his direction, the Wind Symphony has performed at the Wisconsin Music Educators Association State Conference, Illinois Music Educators Association All-State Conference, National Band Association-Wisconsin Chapter State Convention as well as on annual concert tours throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota.
A native of Texas, Heidel holds the Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music in Conducting from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas as well as the Doctor of Education in Music Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to his appointment to the UW-Eau Claire faculty in 2000, Dr. Heidel served as Director of Bands at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania and as a teaching assistant in the School of Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition to his university teaching experiences, Heidel was a high school band director in Texas for nine years.
Dr. Heidel has been distinguished with memberships in numerous national and international honor societies and fraternities including Sigma Alpha Iota, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Pi Kappa Lambda, Kappa Kappa Psi, Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi, Kappa Delta Pi, Pi Nu Epsilon, and Golden Key. He was the recipient of the Outstanding Musician award at Texas Tech University in both 1985 and 1986, and in 1997, he received the A. A. Harding award at the University of Illinois for the "highest possible achievement, service, and devotion to the University Bands." Dr. Heidel was named to the "Who's Who Among America's Teachers" in 2002, and in 2003 he received the Citation of Excellence from the Wisconsin Chapter of the National Band Association. In 2005, Dr. Heidel was honored by being initiated into Sigma Alpha Iota as a Distinguished Member-National Arts Associate.
Dr. Heidel maintains a busy schedule as a guest conductor, adjudicator, clinician, guest lecturer, trumpet performer, and custom drill designer. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Band Association, NBA-Wisconsin Chapter, Shell Lake Arts Center, and the International Music Camp (Honorary Member). Dr. Heidel has presented clinics at state music conferences in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin as well as guest lectures at Texas Tech University, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Ohio University, Bowling Green State University, Oakland University, and the University of Illinois. Heidel has served as a guest conductor, adjudicator and clinician in Texas, New Mexico, Georgia, Nebraska, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C. In 2003, Heidel served as an adjudicator for the Limerick International Marching Band Competition and the 100 th St. Patrick's Day Festival in Dublin, Ireland. His summer teaching experiences include serving as a faculty member of the Shell Lake Arts Center in Shell Lake, Wisconsin, Texas Tech University Band and Orchestra Camp, Illinois Summer Youth Music Program at the University of Illinois, and the International Music Camp. His list of publications includes numerous articles in the National Band Association Journal and Teaching Music. Dr. Heidel holds memberships in the National Band Association, College Band Directors National Association, Music Educators National Conference, and the Wisconsin Music Educators Association. As a trumpet performer, Dr. Heidel is a member of Eau Claire Brassworks and has recently performed with the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra and Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra.
Paula Holcomb
Dr. Paula Holcomb became Director of Bands at the State University of New York at Fredonia in 1999 after being Director of Bands for 20 years at Central College in Pella, Iowa. Under her direction at Central College, the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the Symphonic Band toured internationally to Canada, Europe, and Mexico and performed at Alice Tully Hall of New York City's Lincoln Center. At SUNY Fredonia, Dr. Holcomb oversees an extensive band program consisting of four concert bands while she conducts the Wind Ensemble and musicals. In addition, she initiated the Master of Music in Conducting degree program and teaches graduate and undergraduate conducting.
Highly sought after as an adjudicator and guest conductor, Dr. Holcomb has conducted bands and orchestras in 39 states, Hong Kong, China, South America, Australia, Mexico, Europe, and Canada. She has presented Conducting Symposiums in Canada, South America, Australia, Hong Kong, China, and the United States. Dr. Holcomb is former assistant horn of the Des Moines Symphony and past president of the Iowa Music Educators Association. Recently, she was presented with the A. Frank Miller award from Kappa Kappa Psi, served on the Council and Artistic Planning Conference Committee for the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, and is currently serving on the board of the Conductors Guild and Northeastern Division President-elect of the College Band Directors National Association.
Rodney Hudson
Rodney Hudson is Associate Professor of Music-Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Mr. Hudson retired in 2003 after 32 years of service. His various duties at the university included conducting the Symphony Band, Concert Band, Jazz Ensemble III, Blu Gold Marching Band, University Brass Choir, University Trombone Choir, Tuba Ensemble, and teaching Brass Techniques-Methods for Music Education majors. The Brass Choir and Trombone Choir have performed at state, regional, and national events.
Mr. Hudson is active as a clinician-soloist for the Conn-Selmer Corporation. He has performed with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Glenn Miller Orchestra, and the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble directed by Norman Bolter of the Boston Symphony, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Faculty Brass Quintent and Faculty Dixieland Band. He currently performs with the International Brass Quintet, 5 by Design Big Band, Eau Claire Brassworks, Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra, Chippewa Valley Symphony, and continues to teach at the International Music Camp located on the border of North Dakota and Manitoba.
Mr. Hudson attended undergraduate school at Minot State University where he received the Bachelor of Music Education degree. He was Instrumental and Choral Music Director in the public schools of Souris and Glenburn, North Dakota, and Instrumental Music Co-ordinator in the Brandon public school system and was Instructor of Brass in the Conservatory of Music at Brandon University in Brandon, Manitoba. He holds the Master of Arts and the Master of Fine Arts Degree in Performance from the University of Iowa where he studied trombone with John D. Hill.
Clinton Marshall
Clinton Marshall is the former Coordinator of Music for the Baltimore County Public School System. In this capacity, he supervised the instrumental and vocal music programs in over 160 schools. Under Mr. Marshall's leadership, the Baltimore County Public Schools developed and implemented creative and unique curricular programs. Of particular interest is the Music Technology course, offerings in World Music, and a Kindergarten Music Program that directly links music to the acquisition of reading skills. Mr. Marshall was successful in leading a major initiative that resulted in the purchase of 3.1 million dollars of band and orchestra instruments in one year for the Baltimore County School District. This total grew to nearly five million over a three-year period.
Prior to this assignment, Clinton Marshall taught instrumental music at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. His concert bands earned a reputation for excellence by consistently receiving superior ratings at District, State, and National Festivals. His contributions to the instrumental music program have been recognized by both the National Band Directors Association and by the American School Band Directors Association. The Maryland State Senate honoured Mr. Marshall in a special proclamation for "his efforts and accomplishments in producing award-winning music students."
Mr. Marshall is active as a clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor. He has made frequent visits to conferences and teacher training sessions. His mixture of humor and practical suggestions has served to inform and support the efforts of music teachers across the United States and Canada. Mr. Marshall has directed numerous regional honour bands, including the Maryland All State Band and the Mid-East Music Festival Honour Band at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For nineteen years, he conducted the concert band at the Maryland Center for the Arts, a program for Maryland's gifted and talented students.
Clinton Marshall currently lives on Lake Murray in Prosperity, South Carolina. Although "life on the lake" certainly agrees with him, Mr. Marshall remains active with school bands throughout the United States and Canada.
Gillian McKay
Gillian MacKay is an Associate Professor of Music of the University of Toronto, where she conducts the wind ensemble, brass choir, and teaches conducting and trumpet. An award-winning teacher, Dr. MacKay has an active career as an adjudicator, conductor, and clinician throughout Canada and the United States. As a trumpeter, she is busy as a recitalist, orchestral player, and chamber musician. Gillian holds degrees and diplomas from the University of Lethbridge, McGill University, the University of Calgary, and Northwestern University. She has held previous faculty positions at the University of Windsor and Medicine Hat College.
Jeff Reynolds
Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds is Assistant Co-ordinator of Performance at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. He co-conducts the Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble, maintains a trumpet studio, coordinates the brass chamber music area, and teaches jazz history and music education courses. He also is the Faculty Advisor for the Advanced Certificate Programme.
Dr. Reynolds has been a trumpet performer in a wide variety of styles. He has studied trumpet with Ward Cole, Boyd Hood, Arnold Jacobs and Vincent Cichowicz. He played with the Calgary Philharmonic, the Victoria Symphony, the Hamilton Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Hannaford Street Silver Band and the Stratford Festival Orchestra. He also performed on many recordings, in shows and chamber music concerts.
As a conductor, Jeff Reynolds has directed the Toronto Festive Brass, the Northdale Concert Band, the Scarborough College Concert Band, the York Region Honour Band as well as many high school ensembles. His conducting studies were with Ward Cole, Otto Werner Mueller and Miguel Hart-Montoya.
Dr. Reynolds formerly taught at the University of Victoria, Malaspina College and McMaster University. For many years he was the trumpet instructor at the National Music Camp of Canada, also directing brass chamber groups.
Jeff Reynolds is a strong advocate for music education. He regularly contributes articles and reviews to such periodicals as "The Recorder" (Ontario Music Educator's Association) and "Canadian Winds" (Canadian Band Association), appears as a presenter at conferences and workshops, and adjudicates at music festivals across the country.
Colleen Richardson
Colleen Richardson oversees the wind band program and directs the wind ensemble at the University of Western Ontario. She teaches undergraduate music education classes as well as graduate conducting lessons and graduate conducting seminars. Prior to joining the faculty at UWO, Dr. Richardson was Assistant Professor of Music Education at Converse College in South Carolina.
After graduating from Brandon University with a Bachelor’s degree in Music (Music Education), Dr. Richardson earned a Wind Conducting Diploma from the University of Calgary in 1996. While working towards her diploma, she studied with many well respected composers and conductors, including: Craig Kirchhoff, Karel Husa, Warren Benson, David Maslanka, Eugene Corporon, Mallory Thompson, Dale Lonis, Allan Bell, Robert Reynolds, Jerry Junkin and Tyrone Paterson. Under the instruction of Glenn Price, Dr. Richardson received her Mmus in Conducting from the University of Calgary. She earned a D.M.A. in Wind Conducting with Rodney Winther at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where her research focused on wind literature, chamber wind repertoire, Messiaen’s compositional techniques, and Varèse’s connections with visual artists. While in Cincinnati, Dr. Richardson co-directed the Tri-State Chamber Players, as well as served as the Music Director and Conductor of the Cincinnati Youth Wind Ensemble.
Prior to her doctoral studies, Dr. Richardson taught instrumental music in the Canadian public school system for 14 years. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she chaired the Optimist International Band Festival in Winnipeg for seven years; directed one of the University of Manitoba jazz bands; conducted the Long and McQuade All Star Wind Ensemble; and guest conducted regional bands. Dr. Richardson was the Business Manager for the Winnipeg Wind Ensemble and performed in this group for seven seasons. In 1996, Dr. Richardson was selected as "Outstanding Conductor" at Musicfest Canada.
Peter Stoll
Known for his virtuoso energy on stage as well as an easy and entertaining way of speaking with the audience, Peter Stoll was a prizewinner in the 1987 International Clarinet Society Competition, and also that year Solo Clarinetist with the World Orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales in Berlin and Vienna, which was broadcast on live television across Europe on the occasion of Berlin's 750th Jubilee as the only group allowed to cross the Berlin Wall to perform on both sides. In 1989, Peter's trio Triomphe! won First Prize in Chamber Music at the National Music Festival, for whose 50th Anniversary edition Peter was invited back as Woodwind Adjudicator and as soloist in the Gala Celebration Concert in Winnipeg.
Peter's tape "Bits 'n Pieces" was broadcast on CJRT-FM and the English and French CBC, and he has been heard in solo performance on CBC-FM's "Arts National", "Music Around Us", "Music Alive" and "DiscDrive". Summer festival performances have included the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Ottawa Valley Festival, as a Mentor at the Boris Brott Music Festival in Hamilton. Toronto engagements have included for the Mozart Society, performances over the last ten years with the contemporary music group Continuum, including a western Canada tour and each year in the Toronto Symphony's Massey Hall New Music Festival, and with the ERGO ensemble in the CBC's Glenn Gould Studio, where Peter has also made two solo recital appearances. The Ontario Arts Council awarded Peter and award-winning electro-acoustic composer Randall Smith a Commissioning Grant for a new solo bass clarinet piece "Borealis", premiered in Toronto in February 2001.
Orchestral performances have included the ensembles of Ragtime, Phantom of the Opera, ShowBoat, Miss Saigon and Mozart's Magic Fantasy, as well as with several local and regional orchestras and currently as a regular member of the Toronto Philharmonia, with whom he played the Glazounov Saxophone Concerto as soloist. Peter was featured in a showcase performance at the Ontario Arts Council's Contact conference, and now tours extensively throughout the province presenting solo and ensemble concerts. In June 1999 he travelled to Munich, Germany with the ERGO ensemble to take part in the AdeVant Garde new music festival, an invitation repeated in June 2001. Trips to New York City, Finland and Lithuania complete the recent ERGO itinerary, and in November 2004 Continuum undertook a 6-city tour of England, Holland and Belgium including broadcasts by the BBC and Radio Netherlands.
Featured on two CD releases with Continuum, as well as with the Canadian Brass and composer John Gladwell, Peter has been guest soloist with orchestras in Canada and the United States, and adjudicates bands, choirs and orchestras from across North America and Europe. He was the founding Coordinator of the University Settlement School Chamber Music Program, and teaches clarinet and chamber music privately and at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, where recent highlights have included a Christos Hatzis song cycle with Lorna McDonald, violist Scott St.John, cellist Shauna Rolston and William Aide on piano, and the world premiere of faculty composer John Hawkins' "Summerdances" for solo clarinet and wind ensemble at the retirement gala of longtime UofT conductor Stephen Chenette, with a repeat performance in Saratov, Russia in December 2001.