How many of you address the first three of the eleven National Core Arts Standards pertaining to creating music? If teaching composition is intimidating to you, or if you avoid teaching composition because you don’t know how to teach it in the context of a large ensemble, this clinic is for you. Come join Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Michael Colgrass, Glen Adsit, Director of Bands at the Hartt School, and Jon Thomann, Associate Director of Bands for the Plymouth-Canton High School (Michigan) band program to learn how to incorporate composition into your curriculum. Students from the Plymouth-Canton High School band program will serve as the demonstration ensemble for this simple, yet effective method for teaching students of all ages to create and conduct their own music.
Glen Adsit
- Biographical Information
Glen Adsit is the Director of Bands at The Hartt School where he conducts the Wind Ensemble and guides graduate conducting. He was appointed in 2000 and was awarded the 2014 outstanding teaching Award at the University. Ensembles under his direction have performed at the Musikverein(Vienna, Austria), Benroya Hall(Seattle) Carnegie Hall’s Stern Hall(New York) the Central Conservatory(Beijing) and Harpa, (Reykjavík). The Hartt Wind Ensemble has recorded two compact discs for the NAXOS label; Passaggi and Dragon Rhyme. In reviews Gramophone Magazine describes The Hartt Wind Ensemble as “stellar” and Fanfare Magazine wrote “and on the evidence of his two Naxos CDs, Adsit is simply one of the finest conductors leading a wind ensemble today.” He is the President of the College Band Director’s National Association Eastern Division and the founder of the National Wind Ensemble Consortium Group and the institute for the Advancement of Secondary and Primary Instrumental Repertoire Excellence.
Michael Colgrass began his musical career in Chicago where his first professional experiences were as a jazz drummer. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1954 with a degree in performance and composition and his studies included training with Darius Milhaud and Lukas Foss. Colgrass has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic, The Boston Symphony in addition to other numerous organizations. He won 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Déjà vu, which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic. He received an Emmy Award in 1982 for a PBS documentary “Soundings: The Music of Michael Colgrass.” He has won two Guggenheim Fellowships and A Rockefeller Grant. He created a method of teaching children, and teachers how to write music using graphics. In April of 2009 he worked with students and teachers in Nova Scotia, and more recently in the Plymouth-Canton School District (Michigan) where students composed and performed their works.