Confronting the Directed Attention Span Crisis: Band is the Band-Aid!
Clinic Synopsis:
Many young people spend an inordinate amount of time engaging with electronic devices, which is causing a directed attention span crisis. The constant use of technology creates an environment that lacks peripheries of sensory input, which keeps the neural pathways for integrating those peripheral senses from maturing. This clinic will recount the rise of the sensory deprivation crisis and examine ways to re-train the senses and counterbalance the effects caused by the overuse of technology.
Richard Marcus
- Biographical Information
Richard Marcus, Associate Professor of Music/Director of Bands at William & Mary, received his B.M.Ed. from the University of Iowa and graduate degrees in conducting from Butler University (M.M.) and the University of South Carolina (D.M.A.). Dr. Marcus has served on the faculties of the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina Upstate. At William & Mary, he directs the Wind Ensemble and Chamber Winds and teaches conducting, music theory, and special topics courses. In 2023, he received an Alumni Fellowship award for excellence in teaching. Dr. Marcus has served as music director of the Peninsula Youth Orchestra and the Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra and has guest conducted the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra, the Williamsburg Youth Orchestra, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and the Hendrix College Wind Ensemble, among others. He has led world premières by David Clay Mettens, Kevin Kay (W&M, ’17), Dawn Avery, and Calder Sprinkle (W&M, ’25). His research focuses on the life and work of Hans Gál (1890-1987), an Austrian composer and scholar banned under National Socialism. His edition of Paul Büttner’s Saturnalia für Blasinstrumente und Pauken (1896) was published by Maxime’s Music in 2022. Dr. Marcus has presented at the College Music Society’s International Conference (2019, 2023), and his publications have appeared in the WASBE Journal and the Journal of the American Viola Society. He currently serves as past president of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the College Music Society.
Laura Leisring - Biographical Information
Laura Leisring, Principal Bassoon of the Virginia Symphony since 2007, can be heard on more than 35 CD recordings on labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, and Auvidis Valois as Principal of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, Canary Islands, Spain 1989-2003, as Acting Principal of the Milwaukee Symphony 2003/2004, and a Principal of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. Highly praised for her work by critics in Spain, she has performed with more than 100 world-class artists, and has been a soloist under conductors Yoel Levi, Antoni Wit, Leopold Hager, JoAnn Falletta, Scott Yoo, Guillermo Figueroa, and Anne Manson, with whom she performed the European première of the Concerto for Bassoon by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. She has served as Principal with the Music in the Mountains Festival, Durango, CO, since 2002, where she was a featured soloist in 2007. Laura is the Adjunct Instructor of Bassoon at the College of William & Mary. She studied at The Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, Wichita State University, and the University of North Texas.
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