2009 High School State Honors Project Conductors
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William LaRue Jones
William LaRue Jones is one of the most active and versatile symphonic conductors in America today, possessing a unique ability to work effectively with musicians at all levels of performing capability and experience. His conducting schedule includes a wide array of professional, festival, collegiate and student ensembles throughout North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia, ranging from the Minnesota Orchestra and the Minneapolis Pops to the Penang (Malaysia) Symphony, the Antofagasta (Chili) Symphony to the Symphony Orchestra of Lucerne (Switzerland). Engagements for 2008/09 include return performances in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Lioning Symphony (China), Brisbane (Australia) plus concerts in Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and Nevada.
Jones has conducted over 80 all-state orchestras with additional festival/clinics in most of the 50 states and Canadian provinces. He has served extended conducting residencies at the North Carolina School for the Arts, the University of Miami, Interlochen Academy for the Arts and Kansas City Conservatory. In addition, he is presently serving a three year term as guest conductor at Shenyang Normal University (China).
Recognition of Jones' outstanding gestural skills and score analysis has made him a sought-after teacher of conducting. He was a member of the conducting faculty with the International Workshops for 15 years where he also served as conductor of the International String Orchestra, and is the founding artistic director of the critically acclaimed Conductors Workshop of America. In addition, Jones serves as a guest clinician for numerous conducting seminars for professional and educational associations internationally.
In 1972, Jones founded the Greater Twin Cities' Youth Symphonies (MN) which he guided to international acclaim during a 25-year tenure. An independent organization comprised of eight full orchestras involving over 1000 students annually, GTCYS became a model for youth orchestra structures worldwide. For his untiring work on behalf of music and arts education, he was honored with the David W. Preuss Leadership Award, the American String Teachers Associations Exceptional Leadership and Merit Award, the Sigma Alpha Iota Musician of the Year Award, WCCO Radio "Good Neighbor Award" and the State of Minnesota Governors' "Proclamation of Dr. William LaRue Jones Day." He is listed in the International Who's Who in Music and holds the titles of Founder and Conductor Laureate of Greater Twin Cities' Youth Symphonies and Conductor Emeritus of the 3M Symphony. A Texas native, Jones holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin, University of Iowa and Kansas State University, with additional studies at The Juilliard School of Music and the University of North Texas. Jones is currently Music Director/Conductor of the Oshkosh Symphony Orchestra, Director of Orchestral Studies and Graduate Conducting at the University of Iowa, and the artistic director of the Conductors Workshop of America.
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Scott Jones
Scott A. Jones is assistant professor of music and director of bands at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. In addition to conducting The Concordia College Band, his teaching responsibilities include courses in Instrumental Conducting and Instrumental Music Education. Prior to his appointment at Concordia College in 2005, Dr. Jones garnered 15 years of teaching experience in the public schools of Apple Valley, Minnesota and Ashville, Ohio.
An ardent supporter of the “composers of today," Jones has commissioned more than 20 new compositions for wind band and chamber winds in the past decade. Commissioned composers include David Gilligham, Augusta Read Thomas, Libby Larsen, Clark McAlister, Michael Weinstein, Adam Gorb, Daniel Kallman, Scott McAllister, Timothy Mahr, Rolf Rudin, Lowell Liebermann, Elliott Schwartz, and Shelley Hanson.
A firm believer in creating opportunities for students to interact with great artists of our time, musicians under Jones’ leadership have collaborated with artists Frederick Fennell, Eiji Oue, Aaron Jay Kernis, Frank Battisti, Seiji Ozawa, David Gillingham, Augusta Read Thomas, Eddie Daniels, Frank Ticheli, and a host of other distinguished musical figures.
A native of Fairfax, Virginia, Jones received his undergraduate degree in Music Education from The Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio), a master’s degree in music education from the Vander Cook College of Music (Chicago, Illinois), and a Ph.D. in Music from the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minnesota).
Jones was named “Music Educator of the Year” by the Minnesota Music Educators Association in 2002, and was one of three school band conductors from the United States selected to participate in the 2004 National Band Association International Conducting Symposium in Rome, Italy. He is creator of the “Wind Band Institute,” a summer workshop for wind band conductors held annually on the campus of Concordia College.
His professional affiliations include MENC: The National Association for Music Education, Minnesota Music Educators Association, Wisconsin Music Educators Association, North Dakota Music Educators Association, South Dakota Music Educators Association, Iowa Bandmasters Association, Minnesota Band Directors Association, College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, Chamber Music America, and Phi Beta Mu.
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Chris Vadala
One of the country's foremost woodwind artists, Chris Vadala is in demand as a jazz/classical performer and educator. He has appeared on more than 100 recordings to date, as well as innumerable jingle sessions, film and TV scores, performing on all the saxophones, flutes, and clarinets. A native of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., he graduated from the Eastman School of Music, earning the honor of the Performer's Certificate in saxophone as well as a B.M. in Music Education, received an M.A. in clarinet from Connecticut College, and pursued postgraduate study in woodwinds at Eastman.
Professor Vadala is the director of jazz studies and saxophone professor at the University of Maryland. Previous academic appointments include teaching studio woodwinds and conducting jazz ensembles at Connecticut College, Montgomery College, Hampton University, Prince George's Community College and Mount Vernon College, as well as Visiting Professor of Saxophone at the Eastman School of Music, 1995 and 2001.
Vadala's performing career has been highlighted by a long tenure as standout woodwind artist with the Internationally recognized Chuck Mangione Quartet, which included performances in all 50 states, Canada, Australia, Japan, Phillipines, China, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, England, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, and Switzerland, and performing credits on five gold and two platinum albums, plus two Grammy, one Emmy, one Georgie (AGVA) and one Golden Globe Award. In addition, he has performed and/or recorded with such greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, B.B. King, Chick Corea, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Placido Domingo, Sarah Vaughn, Natalie Cole, Herbie Hancock, Ray Charles, Henry Mancini, Doc Severinsen, Phil Woods, Joe Lovano, and many others. As one of the Selmer Company's most requested Artist in Residence clinicians and D’Addarrio/Rico Artists, Vadala travels worldwide, performing with and conducting student and professional jazz ensembles, symphonic bands, and orchestras. Within the past six years alone, Vadala has appeared with over 200 groups across the nation and Canada, and has conducted 38 all-state, as well as numerous all-county and all-district jazz ensembles. He has served three terms as president of the Maryland Unit of the International Association for Jazz Education, is a permanent member of its Executive Board (College Faculty Representative), and was a woodwind representative to its International Resource Team.
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Kathleen Rodde
Kathleen Rodde, a member of the music faculty at Iowa State University, conducts two women's choirs, Cantamus and Lyrica, accompanies the Iowa State Singers, and teaches classes in choral methods and piano skills. She received the B.S. degree in Secondary Music Education from the University of North Dakota and the M.M. degree in choral music from Arizona State University.
She recently conducted Cantamus at the 2004 ACDA North Central Convention and the 2004 MENC National Convention. Kathleen has appeared as an accompanist and presenter at regional and national ACDA and MENC conventions and is the current Iowa R&S chair for Women's Choirs.
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Robert Demaree
Demaree joined the UW-Platteville faculty in 1992. Demaree conducts the Chamber Choir, the Coro D'Angeli women's choir and Singing Pioneers men's choir, and teaches choral conducting, choral literature, and music history. Annual choral area events include the High School Choral Festival, three tours, and performances of major choral/orchestral works. Since 1992, the choral area has sponsored performances and workshops by The Dale Warland Singers, the Severacek Children's Choir, Angelica, Chanticleer (twice), the Moscow State Conservatory Choir, the Jubilate Children's Choir, the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, the Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles, and John Wustman. UWP choristers have also traveled abroad to Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, England, and Ireland since 2000. The choral program will be performing at Lincoln Center with orchestra in a performance of Haydn’s Heiligmesse in June of 2010.
Demaree completed his doctorate in choral conducting at the University of Illinois. While finishing his coursework, he conducted the Illini Women and was assistant conductor of the Concert Choir. During his tenure at Washington State University, he conducted the Crimson Company, the university’s highly acclaimed show choir. Demaree received a master of music degree in choral conducting at the University of Iowa where he was the director of the Old Gold Singers. He completed a bachelor’s degree with voice concentration at Indiana University. Professor Demaree has studied conducting under Don V. Moses, Ann Howard Jones, Fred Stoltzfus, and Robert Stoll.
Demaree is active as a clinician, church musician, and adjudicator. In 2009, he will conduct the WMEA High School Mixed Honors Choir. In 2008, he presented interest sessions at the WCDA state convention, the NCACDA regional convention in Fargo, and at WCDA’s Singspiel. In 2006-07, he conducted the North Dakota All-State Women’s Choir and provided workshops or clinics in Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota. He also is a founder, director.
and singer in the Heartland Singers, a private, professional chorus of 32 musicians from Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota.
In addition to his work for the university, Demaree served for nine years as Music Director at First English Lutheran Church. He conducted the Pioneer Summer Music Camp choir for six years. Demaree has been a frequent soloist and festival choral singer. He was baritone soloist for Bach’s Magnificat under the baton of Margaret Hillis in 1983 at the ACDA Central Division Convention. In January of 1992, he performed Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis under the direction of Robert Shaw at the Robert Shaw Choral Workshop at Carnegie Hall. Demaree has also performed as a soloist and chorus member of the Classical Music Seminar in Eisenstadt, Austria, the Oregon Bach Festival, and the American Master Chorale.