2010 TN ALL-STATE CONDUCTORS
Z. Randall Stroope
Oklahoma State University
Z. Randall Stroope is one of the most active choral conductors and composers working today, with recent conducting engagements at the American School in Singapore, Canterbury Cathedral, England, Salzburger Dom in Salzburg, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Vancouver Symphony (British Columbia), and two performances at the Vatican in the past year. His compositions sell over 200,000 copies a year, and are performed regularly by esteemed ensembles throughout the world, including professional ensembles in France, Holland, Hong Kong, Spain, Japan, Australia, the Czech Republic, and Canada. Stroope has personally conducted/recorded 13 professional compact discs, and recordings of his music are heard frequently on radio and television broadcasts, including National Public Radio.
Stroope studied conducting at Arizona State University and with Margaret Hillis, Chorus Master of the Chicago Symphony. He is the Director of Choral Activities at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, where he conducts the Concert Chorale and Chamber Choir and coordinates the undergraduate and graduate choral conducting program at the University. Stroope is also the Artistic Director of a summer international choral festival in Rome, Italy. Choral groups under his direction have taken 15 international tours, including China, Russia, Japan, Sweden, and South Africa.
Stroope studied composition with Cecil Effinger and Normand Lockwood, both students of Nadia Boulanger (who was a student of Gabriel Faure'). Stroope has published 90 musical works with Alliance Music Publishers, Colla Voce Music, Heritage Music Press, MorningStar, and Walton Music.
Stroope was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and received a Master of Music degree in voice performance from the University of Colorado and a doctorate in choral conducting from Arizona State University.
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Judy Bowers
Florida State University
Professor of Choral Music Education
Judy Bowers, professor of Choral Music Education at Florida State University, teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in choral music and music education, as well as conducting the Women’s Glee Club, a performing group that also provides Adopt-A-Choir and Study-Buddy partnerships with area secondary public school choirs. She has received a University Award for Excellence in Teaching at FSU.
As a choral educator, she is an active conductor of all-state and honor choirs across the United States, and in 2005 was awarded the Wayne Hugoboom Distinguished Service Award from the Florida ACDA Chapter. Bowers frequently presents workshops and clinics for teachers, and her research interests include developmental choral groups, the adolescent voice change, learning partnerships, and voice use of music teachers and students. She has published in the Journal of Research in Music Education and the Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, was a contributing author to the MENC publication Music at the Middle School Level, as well as contributing a chapter to The School Choral Program: Philosophy, Planning, Organizing, and Teaching (GIA), by Holt and Jordan. Bowers was co-editor of another MENC publication, Strategies for Teaching Elementary and Middle-Level Choir.
Bowers holds music degrees from Louisiana State University (Ph.D.) and Texas Tech University (B.M.E.). From 1990-2000, she led the Capital Children’s Choir program at FSU and more recently has developed a community service partnership with an urban middle school. Since 2000, this collaboration has provided additional music ensembles for the middle school students (a jazz band, steel drum ensembles, and a world music choir) while also enriching the teacher preparation experiences for Florida State University students.
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David Dickau
Minnesota State University, Mankato
Director of Concert Choir and Chamber Singers
David Dickau is a choral conductor and composer residing in Mankato, Minnesota, where he has been serving as Director of Choral Activities at Minnesota State University, Mankato since 1991. As a part of his duties, Dr. Dickau conducts the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers and teaches conducting and composition. He recently received the Distinguished Faculty Scholar award from his university.
Dickau holds advanced degrees in Choral Music from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA.) He has taught choral music on both the high school and college levels and has conducted community and church choirs. He also served for thirteen years as music director of Magnum Chorum, a Twin Cities-based chamber choir.
Dickau has been an active member of the American Choral Director's Association, serving as a national Repertoire and Standards Chair from 1987 to 1991. He has appeared as a clinician at ACDA national and regional conventions and has conducted several regional festivals. He also served a term as President of ACDA of Minnesota. Dickau has performed at four national ACDA conventions. His choirs have performed at regional conventions in Omaha and Minneapolis and at a national convention at Orchestra Hall in Chicago.
Dickau’s published compositions appear in a number of catalogues. He has filled commissions for choral festivals, colleges and universities, community choirs, churches, and schools. Significant commissions have included “Dresden Canticles,” composed in honor of the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche in Dresden, Germany and “View from the Air” commissioned by the Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation in honor of the seventieth anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s historic trans-Atlantic flight.
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Gary Green
Director of Bands
Frost School of Music
University of Miami
Gary Green is Professor of Music and Director of Bands in the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. In addition to supervising all band activities at UM, he is the conductor of the Frost Wind Ensemble and Chairman of Instrumental Performance. In addition, he supervises all graduate conducting students in the wind and percussion area.
Green formerly served as Director of Bands at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, where he was influential in commissioning and recording new works for winds and percussion. Since his arrival at the University of Miami, Green has continued the commissioning and performance of important new repertoire for the wind ensemble. Urban Requiem by Michael Colgrass was commissioned by the Abraham Frost Commission Series and has become a standard in the repertoire for wind ensemble.
Green is a member of the American Bandmasters Association, the College Band Directors Association, the Music Educators National Conference, the Florida Bandmasters Association, and the Florida Music Educators Association. He received The Phillip Frost Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship in the Frost School of Music in 2002.
Green is an active conductor and clinician and has appeared with international, national and regional All-State bands, as well as intercollegiate bands, in all states in the continental United States. He has conducted the Texas All-State Band frequently and premiered Lux Aurumque by Eric Whitacre with that ensemble. He is an active clinician and conductor for the Interlochen Summer Arts Academy and has recently conducted in Taipei, Taiwan, where he appeared with the Republic of China Army Band and the Taiwan National Wind Ensemble as part of the 2005 International Band Association Festival. He was conductor of the World Youth Wind Orchestra for the Mid Europe Music Festival held in Schladming, Austria. In March of 2008, Green hosted the annual convention of the American Bandmasters Association.
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Miriam Burns
Music Director and Conductor
Kenosha Symphony Orchestra
Miriam Burns is Music Director of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Kenosha Symphony, and the Orchestra of the Redeemer in New York City. She also conducts opera annually at the MasterWorks Festival and served for nine years as Associate Music Director of the Bronx Opera Company. Burns has conducted oratorio with prominent Metropolitan Opera soloists and is currently on the conducting roster of Broadway Pops International, Inc.
Burns’ international conducting includes the Bournemouth Symphony in 1999, performances at the Stadthalle in Wuppertal, the First Ladies Symphony Orchestra of Poland, and the YinQi Symphony Orchestra as well as the Shih-Chien University Orchestra of Taiwan. Guest conducting within the U.S. has included the Memphis Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, Virginia Symphony, South Carolina Philharmonic, Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, MasterWorks Festival, Skaneateles Festival, and the New York and Florida All-State Orchestras. She has been on staff with the New York Philharmonic having been appointed by Kurt Masur as a result of an audition by-invitation-only and served as the tour Assistant Conductor to Music Director Lorin Maazel on the orchestra’s tour to the Far East in 2002.
Burns has received conducting awards from the Aspen Music Festival and the Conductors Guild. In addition to her professional affiliations, she completed the Artist Diploma Fellowship in YaleUniversity’s Conductor Apprentice Program upon special invitation of Yale faculty. She also participated in master classes under the tutelage of prominent guests such as Kurt Masur, Leopold Hager and Zdenek Macal. Burns completed her Masters degree and Professional Studies in Orchestral Conducting on full scholarship at the Mannes College of Music (NY), where she studied with Yakov Kreizberg and Michael Charry. She holds both Bachelors and Masters degrees in violin performance from Mannes and is an alumna of both the New York String Orchestra Seminar under Alexander Schneider and The Quartet Program. She was an original member of what is now the Chester String Quartet.
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Dean Sorenson
University of Minnesota at Minneapolis
Director of Jazz Studies
Dean Sorenson is the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Minnesota as well as a prolific and highly sought-after composer, arranger, trombonist, educator, and clinician. He received his bachelor’s degree in trombone performance from the University of Minnesota and his master’s degree in jazz arranging and composition from the Eastman School of Music.
Sorenson is the co-author of the highly successful Standard of Excellence Jazz Ensemble Method, an innovative and comprehensive method book for young jazz ensembles. The highly anticipated follow-up book, The Standard of Excellence Advanced Jazz Ensemble Method, was released to rave reviews and continues the solid, practical techniques introduced in the first book. He is also the author of Standard of Excellence Jazz Combo Session, and composer of numerous pieces for concert band and jazz ensemble published by the Neil A. Kjos Music Company. As an advocate of jazz education and the expansion of the repertoire, he continues to develop creative materials and methods to help students and teachers better understand the art form. An outstanding clinician, conductor, and soloist, he is frequently featured at festivals and conventions around the country and abroad. He also maintains a full schedule of concert and recording dates as a Yamaha performing artist.
Sorenson has composed and arranged for numerous ensembles including the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Airmen of Note, the United States Air Force Band, and for brass ensembles Proteus 7 and the Chestnut Brass Company. He is active as a commissioned composer and arranger for jazz ensemble, concert band, and chamber ensembles, and has also written several sacred choral pieces. Sorenson holds memberships in the International Association for Jazz Education, the International Trombone Association, the American Federation of Musicians, Local 30-73, the Minnesota Music Educator’s Association, the College Music Society, the American Composer’s Forum, the Twin Cities Jazz Society and the American String Teachers Association. His web site is www.deansorensonmusic.com.
Dean Sorenson is the composer of the 2010 All-State Commission supported by New Horizons Tour and Travel, Inc.
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