Calgary Festival 2010
ADJUDICATORS
Grade 2 – 6 FestivalJazz Band Adjudicators*We are very excited to announce that the Grade 1 Adjudicators |
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JAZZ BAND ADJUDICATORS
JAZZ BAND ADJUDICATOR
Mr. Raymond Baril
We are very excited to announce that the Senior High Jazz Honour Band will be conducted by Mr. Raymond Baril.
RAYMOND BARIL is Section Head of the Wind and Brass Department at Grant MacEwan College. He is in his tenth season as principal conductor and musical director of the New Edmonton Wind Sinfonia. He has, for the past 20 years, been the director of the University of Alberta/Grant MacEwan College Jazz Ensemble. Prior to his appointment at Grant MacEwan College, he taught at Ross Sheppard High School and W.P. Wagner High School and was conductor of the University of Alberta Concert Band. Before that period, he was the Executive Director of the Alberta Band Association, and for many years taught woodwinds, music history, and jazz studies at Grant MacEwan College as a sessional instructor. He was also a conductor for the Cosmopolitan Music Society in Edmonton for fifteen seasons.
Mr. Baril continues to work as a saxophonist and woodwind player and has performed with Doc Severinsen, the Harry James, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman Tribute Orchestras, Manhattan Transfer, Dionne Warwick and Rod Stewart. He was a regular member of the Tommy Banks Big Band for 25 years and has appeared with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions. He was a guest soloist with the Edmonton Symphony during the 2005 Symphony Under the Sky and in the past three seasons he was a guest conductor with the ESO for the Enbridge Symphony Under the Sky, the Rexall Symphony for Kids series, the Holly Cole ‘Night Before Christmas’ concert, the AlPac Country Series and the 2005 Royal Visit. In 2005 Mr. Baril’s Ensembles released two CDs: First Time Out with the University of Alberta Grant MacEwan College Big Band and Among Friends with the New Edmonton Wind Sinfonia. In addition, he has directed pit orchestras for shows such as Sweet Charity, On the Town and Candide.
Raymond attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where he received a Master of Music degree in conducting. He holds undergraduate degrees in both music and education from the University of Alberta. In 2004 Mr. Baril was honoured with the Tommy Banks Award by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts for his contribution to music and music education. In 2001 he received the Elkhorn Award for Director of the Year by the Alberta Band Association. He was also a recipient of the Best Teaching Practices Award from the Alberta Teachers’ Association, a District Service Award from Edmonton Public Schools, and an Excellence in Teaching Award from Alberta Learning. In l997 he was awarded the David Peterkin Memorial Award for contributions to music and music education in Alberta.
JAZZ BAND ADJUDICATOR
Mr. Rodney Booth
RODNEY BOOTH has been an active professional musician for over 30 years. A native of El Paso, Texas, he began his professional career at age sixteen as a trumpet player in his father’s bands. He received his degree in Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas and was a student of Don “Jake” Jacoby. Rodney was a member of the renowned North Texas State 1 O’clock Lab Band.
He traveled across North and South America and Europe with Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd Big Band. He has performed with many major recording artists such as Lou Rawls, Nancy Wilson, Wayne Newton, Michael Feinstein, Dionne Warwick, Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Hamlisch, Ray Charles, and Natalie Cole. He has recorded professionally with popular artist Al Green and country star Janie Fricke.
Rodney is very active in studio and commercial recordings. He can be heard on national commercials for the Fina Corporation, Texaco, McDonald’s Corporation, Domino’s, Miller Brewing Company, and Chevrolet. He performed on the commercial recordings for the Texas Rangers, the Boston Red Sox, CNN News, the US Postal Service, and the popular television series Wishbone. He also recently recorded the music for a national documentary, The United States and Mexican War. His various bands have been chosen to perform for companies such as Exxon, the Zales Corporation, Gordon’s Jewellers, the Merle Norman Company, and Cartier Jewellers. The Rodney Booth Big Band and his seven-piece dance band are in demand for weddings, private and corporate events, and award shows throughout the area. Rodney is also an adjunct professor at the University of North Texas where he teaches Improvisation, Ear Training and jazz trumpet lessons.
Rodney’s CD Look Over There features his own jazz quartet; this CD received a very favourable review by music critic Thor Christensen in the Dallas Morning News. His second CD, Ten and One, will feature Swing and Big Band Music and will be released November 24th, 2009. An exciting duo CD with piano great Bill Lohr will be completed in February 2010.
JAZZ BAND ADJUDICATOR
Mr. Fred Stride
FRED STRIDE finds himself writing many forms of music. Although he is principally known for his many compositions and arrangements for jazz ensemble, he has also written countless arrangements for various entertainers and performers for almost every musical setting, from chamber ensembles to big bands, concert bands, theatre orchestras and symphony orchestras. In addition to his many jazz compositions, Fred has also been commissioned to write concert works for the CBC Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, several Canadian Armed Forces Bands, the Brampton Concert Band, the Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble (CD — Trajectories: The Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble plays the music of Fred Stride 2007), the University of Victoria Wind Symphony (CD — Impressions), as well as several elementary and high school concert bands.
Fred is also active as a band leader and guest conductor. He currently leads his own Fred Stride Jazz Orchestra which, besides playing his own work, also performs classic jazz repertoire such as the Stan Kenton/Johnny Richards Cuban Fire Suite, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s arrangement of The Nutcracker Suite, Ron Collier’s arrangement of Oscar Peterson’s Canadiana Suite and Duke Ellington’s major opus Black, Brown and Beige. Several of these performances have been recorded and broadcast on CBC radio. The Fred Stride Jazz Orchestra has also recently released the CD Forward Motion (Cellar Live) containing 6 compositions by Fred, including the multi-movement Machina: A Concerto for Jazz Orchestra.
Fred Stride was also the winner of the 2007 International Jazz Arranging Competition for his arrangement of Michael Brecker's Peep. He also received the 2008 SOCAN/IAJE Phil Nimmons Established Composer Award. The commissioned work for this award, By All Accounts, was premiered in Toronto at the 2008 IAJE Conference. As well as his very busy professional writing career, Fred also finds time to direct a jazz ensemble and teach jazz theory and arranging at the University of British Columbia School of Music. He also works as a clinician, adjudicator and teacher at various music festivals, summer camps and jazz workshops across the Canada and the US.
Fred Stride is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers. Many of his jazz compositions are published by Sierra Music Publications.
CONCERT BAND ADJUDICATORS
CONCERT BAND ADJUDICATOR
Mr. John Bremis
JOHN BREMIS has been employed by the Morgan Hill Unified School District for 33 years. From 1979 until 1997 he taught instrumental music at Martin Murphy Middle School. During his tenure there, Murphy groups earned 72 unanimous superior ratings at concert band and jazz festivals throughout California and Nevada. In addition, DownBeat magazine named the school's Saxophone Ensemble (1992 and 1993), Advanced Band (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996), Jazz Combo (1997) and Jazz Band (1997) as the best junior high groups in North America. From 2001 until 2007 he served in a similar capacity at Lewis H. Britton Middle School, where his bands received 23 command performance ratings at large group festivals, and honours from DownBeat for winning the Blues Band (2004), Advanced Band (2004 and 2005) and Blues Soloist (2005) divisions.
His jazz groups also completed twelve international tours; five to Canada and seven to Europe, including a combined seven appearances at the famed North Sea and Montreux International Jazz Festivals. The most prestigious venue, though, was certainly the Rheingau Musik Festival, where his Murphy students shared the 1994 and 1996 programs with such distinguished professional organizations as the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, German National Philharmonic and Houston Chamber Players, and his Britton musicians performed on the 2004 series, which featured the Dave Brubeck Quartet and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
In 1994 Mr. Bremis was chosen Teacher of the Year at Martin Murphy, and in 1997 was given an achievement award for Excellence in Jazz Education by DownBeat; and in 2006 the San Jose Jazz Society selected him as its Educator of the Year.
He is in demand as a clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor and is a member of the California Band Directors Association, Northern California Band Association, Music Educators National Conference and the California Music Educators Association. Mr. Bremis currently teaches U.S. History at Britton School.
CONCERT BAND ADJUDICATOR
Dr. Quincy Hilliard
QUINCY C. HILLIARD’s compositions for wind band are published by a variety of well-known publishers. He is frequently commissioned to compose works, including one for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and a score for a documentary film The Texas Rangers. In 2008 he was commissioned by the Library of Congress in celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. For many years, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) has recognized him with annual awards for the unusually frequent performance of his compositions. Hilliard is regularly invited to conduct, demonstrate effective techniques, and adjudicate festivals throughout the world.
Because Hilliard, the composer, conductor, and educator, is also a scholar of Aaron Copland’s music and life, Copland's estate administrators authorized Hilliard to publish the educational performance edition, Copland for Solo Instruments (Boosey and Hawkes, 1999). To train school band students, he wrote Superior Bands in Sixteen Weeks (FJH Music Company, 2003), Chorales and Rhythmic Etudes for Superior Bands (FJH Music, 2004), Theory Concepts, Books One and Two and is the co-author of the Skill Builders, Books One and Two (Sounds Spectacular Series, Carl Fischer, 1996). He is also the co-author of Percussion Time (C.L. Barnhouse Company) which is a collection of music written specifically for the beginning percussion ensemble. He has presented scholarly papers on music theory and analysis at meetings of the College Music Society and the Central Gulf Society of Music Theory (of which he is past president). He has published articles in Opera Journal, The Instrumentalist, School Musician, Bandworld, American Music Teacher, Florida Music Director, and Tennessee Musician.
Hilliard is Composer in Residence and the Heymann Endowed Professor of Music at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Previous teaching positions were at Nicholls State University, Florida International University, North Marion High School (Sparr, Florida) and White Station Junior and Senior High School (Memphis, Tennessee).
He holds a PhD in music theory and composition from the University of Florida where, in 1999, he was recognized as the Outstanding Alumnus of the School of Music. He holds a Master's degree in Music Education from Arkansas State University and a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Mississippi State University where he was designated College of Education 1998 Alumnus of the Year. Hilliard’s early music experience was as a trumpet player in the public elementary and high school of his native Starkville, Mississippi. Dr. Hilliard is also president of Hilliard Music Enterprises, Inc. a personal consulting firm, which has a corporate board of distinguished music educators. He and his wife Rubye have two sons.
CONCERT BAND ADJUDICATOR
Dr. Dale Lonis
We are very excited to announce that the Senior High Honour Band will be conducted by Dr. Dale Lonis.
DALE J. LONIS was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra in July of 2008 after holding a similar position with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. He received his Bachelor's and Doctoral degrees in Music Education from the University of Illinois and a Master of Music in Conducting degree from Northwestern University. While completing his Master's degree he was appointed to the conducting faculty at Northwestern University, and was also Assistant Director of the National High School Summer Music Institute. He became Director of Bands and Coordinator of Conducting and Performing Organizations at the University Of Missouri – Columbia in 1988 and while there, was Founder and Director of the Fine Arts Residential College and the Missouri Summer Music Institute. In 2001 he became Director of the School of Music at the University of Manitoba, a position later raised to Dean. While there he also continued to teach Master's and Doctoral students in conducting.
Dr. Lonis has used his research in educational psychology and international professional conducting experiences to create a strong foundation for the development of music education, conducting, and youth music programs throughout the world. His commitment to the development of collaborative efforts between community arts programs, school music programs and professional musical organizations is recognized internationally. He established two new programs with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra combining community needs with a desire to assist the profession. In January of 2008 the first professional conducting symposium of its kind in Canada was held in Winnipeg. In April of 2009 the first indigenous music festival was held in Manitoba combining efforts of the symphony and the Aboriginal People’s Television Network with local aboriginal musicians and composers. He is also the co-founder of the Israel Wind Symphony, co-founder of the Australian Young Conductors Development and Leadership Program, Artistic Director and co-founder of the Canadian Wind Conductors Development Program and former Artistic Director and Conductor of the Winnipeg Wind Ensemble.
As a conductor Dr. Lonis has led wind ensembles, brass bands, new music ensembles and orchestras across six continents, regularly appearing on stages across North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. His interpretation of new music has been noted for its “artistry and depth.” He is also a frequent keynote and motivational speaker at professional music, educational and leadership conferences throughout the world. He is considered a noted authority on conducting and pedagogy, and has been an advisor and mentor to professional conductors and music educators from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Paraguay, Singapore, Spain and Uruguay.
CONCERT BAND ADJUDICATOR
Dr. Tony Mazzaferro
DR. ANTHONY MAZZAFERRO is currently the Director of Bands at Fullerton College. Dr. Mazzaferro conducts the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Community Band, and instructs Applied Euphonium and Tuba.
Dr. Mazzaferro received his Bachelor of Music degree from San Francisco State University. After graduating with honors in 1978, Dr. Mazzaferro attended Northwestern University. He pursued a Master of Music degree in Instrumental Conducting where he studied with John P. Paynter. In 1986 he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Arizona State University.
His guest conducting and adjudication assignments have included honor bands and orchestras throughout the Western United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. As a clinician, Dr. Mazzaferro has worked with Concert Bands and Orchestras from the United States, Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and China.
CONCERT BAND ADJUDICATOR
Mr. Brent Pittman
BRENT PITTMAN graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1986 with a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education. His first three years of teaching were with the Arcola School Division and he has been with the Saskatoon Public School Division for 20 years. Thirteen of these years were spent at Walter Murray Collegiate directing a program of over 240 students; four concert bands, two jazz bands, a jazz studies class, string ensemble, klezmer band and pit orchestras for the school musicals. He has taught elementary through to high school and is currently at Aden Bowman Collegiate. Brent has been a guest conductor/clinician for several junior high bands throughout the province of Saskatchewan and was an adjudicator at the Regina Band days in the spring of 2009. He spent five summers as the director for the Saskatchewan Band Association Junior Band Camps at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, and he has been a guest conductor and trumpet clinician at both Yorkton and Saskatoon Band camps and has coordinated Saskatchewan’s Provincial Honour Band on several occasions.
Over the years, Brent has performed and conducted in numerous groups like The Saskatoon Jazz Society Big Band, Saskatoon Community Concert Band, Stone Frigate Big Band, Change-Up (blues band), and a local trumpet quartet.
Brent has a family of three; Anthony, 8; Andrew, 6; and Bronwyn, 3. He is married to Andrea Pittman who is a music educator as well.
CONCERT BAND ADJUDICATOR
Mr. Bill Wahl
BILL WAHL is a fourth generation Band Conductor. He is a graduate of the MELAB program [Music Education Laboratory] of the University of Alberta, has a Master's of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Oregon, and a Diploma of Fine Arts in Advanced Wind Band Conducting from the University of Calgary. He is a member of the Alberta Band Association, and the Phi Beta Alpha chapter of the International Music Fraternity Phi Beta Mu. The Alberta Band Association has recognized Bill as one of Alberta’s Most Outstanding Band Directors, and Phi Beta Mu has presented him with the David Peterkin Award for Outstanding Service to Band Music. He has also been nominated twice for recognition through Alberta Learning, and has most recently been given the Vondis Miller Legacy Award by the Alberta Band Association and a Paul Harris Fellowship from the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. Bill has been guest conductor and clinician at numerous band camps, and over the years has been a mentor to education practicum students from the University of Lethbridge and the University of Saskatchewan. In 2006 he was conductor of the Central Ontario Honor Band hosted at Wilfred Laurier University. In 2007 and 2009 he was a Resident Conductor of the Peterkin Ensembles of MusiCamp Alberta. Bill has been very involved with the Alberta Band Association Festival of Bands and the Alberta Adult Band Workshop program.
He is retired after completing 33 years with the Medicine Hat School District #76, 32 as the full-time music director of the Crescent Heights High School Instrumental program. Over the years, hundreds of Medicine Hat youth have experienced wind and percussion music through his teaching. His Bands have represented Medicine Hat at international festivals across Canada and have participated in seven festival and concert tours to Europe visiting England, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.
Bill is active in community music, conducts the bands of the Medicine Hat Concert Band Society and is part of the Medicine Hat Big Band.
GRADE 1 ADJUDICATORS
GRADE 1 ADJUDICATORMr. David Grimstead
DAVID GRIMSTEAD, a native Calgarian, is both a professional pianist/singer and a music educator for the Calgary Board of Education for more than 25 years. Currently in his capacity as educator, Mr. Grimstead is the Learning Leader of Fine Arts at Western Canada High School in Calgary, Alberta. As a music educator, David has experience with instrumental (Jazz and Concert Band), choral (Jazz and Concert Choir), musical theatre, Professionalism in the Arts program, technical theatre and electronic music.
As a professional pianist/singer, he performs solo piano for various hotels and for private clients. David’s performance credits include the Red Skelton Show, the Banff Film Festival, the Shaw Festival, the Premier's Dinner and the Oilmen’s Golf Tournament.
GRADE 1 ADJUDICATORMr. Rod Pauls
ROD PAULS is director of bands at John G. Diefenbaker High School in Calgary. Prior to his position at John Diefenbaker he was director of bands at Crescent Heights High School, Calgary. Rod has received numerous nominations for Pan Canadian’s Student Choice Awards. His ensembles have received many accolades for their musicality and superior performances throughout Canada and the United States.
Rod is one of the founding members of the Westwinds Music Society. Westwinds is a not-for-profit adult community music organization operated by and for its members. Currently, he co-directs Westwinds’ Green Concert Band.
Rod holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Music Education from the University of Calgary. A respected educator, he maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator.
GRADE 1 ADJUDICATORMr. Trevor Waters
TREVOR WATERS was a music teacher with the Calgary Board of Education for 33 years, having just retired in June of last year. He taught in several schools throughout the city (both junior high and high school), and at William Aberhart High School, he directed wind ensemble, concert band, jazz band, concert choir and vocal jazz. Under his direction the vocal and jazz programs showed significant growth, with a concert choir of 90 and expanding from one to two jazz bands. He also was instrumental in establishing a flourishing Musical Theatre program at Aberhart, growing to an enrolment of over 100 students. Trevor has a Bachelor of Education (Secondary Music), a Diploma of Fine Arts (Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble Conducting) and a second Diploma of Fine Arts (Kodály Music Education), all from the University of Calgary.
Trevor currently works as an accompanist with Revv52, a contemporary choir (formerly Calgary Choral) and is working in schools as a clinician with bands, choirs and musical theatre. He recognizes the importance of performance excellence, but believes it is equally as important to foster and enjoyment and love for music that will last a lifetime.