Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - For the second year, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and the 132nd Army band out of Madison collaborated on the annual Band Conductor's Workshop, an intensive three-day boot camp for maestros of the baton to work on their craft. The workshop ran June 13 through 15.

In 2006, Chief Warrant Officer Bradley Anderson, the Army band director, preformed in a jazz ensemble with UWP director of bands and professor of music Barry Ellis. The two talked about the desire to have a professional level conductors' workshop and Anderson was familiar with the quality of the music department at UWP. "We are not strangers to UWP," said Anderson, "we've had a number of band members who went to school there."

Prior to this, the workshop had been held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but Anderson was interested in moving the program and found that his and Ellis' schedules matched up. Ellis liked the idea and thought that the UWP campus and Platteville were the perfect location for such a workshop.

"The workshop is our favorite time as far as coming together as an ensemble," Anderson said, "we get together as an entire concert band and learn what we can from professional musicians. Everyone benefits from it - it's a win-win situation."

Since it is considered part of their training, band members are paid for their time and the Army pays for their housing.

The workshop consisted of lectures and conducting sessions facilitated by Ellis and associate director of bands at UWP, Matthew Gregg.

Student conductors were videotaped as they conducted the Army band. During the rehearsal, instructors spoke into a microphone attached to the recording equipment, providing a real time critique of each student's performance. Conductors were then given DVDs of their "podium time" with the feedback already incorporated.

"We give them something they can use immediately," said Ellis of the process, "they are being critiqued in front of us, in front of the entire ensemble, and on the tape."

Every year a national caliber guest instructor is invited to UWP specifically for the occasion. This year's guest was Russell Mikkelson, director of bands and associate professor of music at Ohio State University.

Mikkelson is a native of Wisconsin and one-time director of bands at Stevens Point Area Senior High School. Among his many distinctions, Mikkelson is an internationally recognized conducting coach, a former president of the Big Ten Band Director's Association, and a recipient of OSU's Music Distinguished Scholar Award. This was his first time as an instructor at the workshop.

“The amount of time actually conducting the band is one of the fantastic characteristics of this particular workshop," says Mikkeslon, "not to mention the actual performance, and [the Army band] is a very good band, by the way. In my experience, these aspects of the UWP workshop are unique and help to make it attractive and effective for me as a clinician as well as for the participants.”

"We wanted to attract a national caliber of guest instructors,"says Ellis, “and so far we've been really successful."

Last year's guest instructor was W. Francis McBeth, a former professor of music and resident composer at Ouachita University in Arkansas. As well as being an accomplished conductor and teacher, McBeth is a nationally known composer. His compositions have won awards from the American School Band Director's Association and the prestigious Eastman School of Music in New York. In 1975, McBeth was appointed as the state of Arkansas's Composer Laureate. He has been a conductor in 49 of the 50 states, conducted former president elect Bill Clinton in an all-state high school band, and has subsequently been invited to the White House and slept in the Lincoln bedroom there.

Student conductors are primarily secondary school teachers from the area looking to improve their style. Each conductor chose one score from a pre-selected list of pieces from 20th century composers. Some scores were from famous orchestral composers, such as Leonard Bernstein and Gustav Holst, and others were from composers more familiar to band and wind ensembles, Percy Aldridge Grainger.

"I select music of varied technical levels," says Ellis. "We select music that a junior high ensemble could perform with music that would challenge a college band. This is another aspect of the workshop - exposure to a wide range of serious literature that instructors may be able to program with their own ensembles."

This year's workshop included a composition by student conductor Joel Blahnik entitled "Easter Sunrise."

Blahnik, a Wisconsin native, is a graduate of Lawrence University Conservatory of Music. He taught as an instrumental music educator in the Wisconsin Public Schools from 1961-1993 and has lectured and conducted in over 200 secondary schools across the state. Blahnik is also an active composer of band music and has a number of pieces published and recorded.

Written in 2002, "Easter Sunrise" is an eight movement suite for woodwind instruments based upon an ancient Gregorian chant, the liturgical music sung by medieval monks. The composition symbolizes the mystical stages of Easter, the Mystery of Christ from Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Holy Saturday Easter Vigil.

For Blahnik, the workshop was a way to explore his own music while honing his craft as conductor. "I was highly impressed by the teaching of Barry Ellis and Matt Gregg. Both were very perceptive and coached the student conductors very well," says Blanhik. "They were gentle with an 'old-timer' like me and very encouraging to the young conductors who participated in the endeavor."

On the second day of the workshop, the band and the conductors performed a full-dress concert open to the public.

In addition to preparation for the performance, each participant did a detailed musical analysis of one other score from the list, and on the third day conductors had one last chance to use what they learned and conducted a second piece with the band.

Even though the workshop is only in its second year at UWP, the number of participants is growing. Nine student conductors participated this year, up from seven in 2007.

"We're just about maxed-out," said Ellis, "too many participants would limit the amount of time each conductor would have with the band."

Despite the long hours of rehearsal, members of the Army band are already anticipating next year's workshop. Anderson said, "We look forward to continuing this and we'd like to make it a tradition."

Anyone wanting information about the workshop may contact Ellis at (608) 342-1017, ellisb@uwplatt.edu.

Contact: Barry Ellis, director of Bands, UWP Department of Performing and Visual Arts, (608) 342-1017, ellisb@uwplatt.edu Written by: Russ Brickey, writer, UWP Department of Public Relations, (608) 342-1194, brickeyr@uwplatt.edu