New ERA Music Festivals Presents

Since Professor McMurray’s arrival in 1978, the University of Colorado Bands have distinguished themselves with performances at major conferences and conventions, including The First International Conference for Symphonic Bands in Manchester, England; the All-Japan Band Conference in Nemo Nu Sato, Japan; the College Band Directors National Association Convention (twice); and the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles in Hamamatsu, Japan.

With a strong commitment to new music, Allan McMurray has been a leader in commissioning numerous compositions by American composers. He has won praise for his interpretive and expressive conducting by many composers including Pulitzer Prize winners John Harbison, Joseph Schwanter, Karel Husa, Michael Colgrass and George Crumb. Professor McMurray has performed with the St. Louis Symphony, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Debut Orchestra and has guest conducted the Colorado Symphony in performance at the 50th Anniversary of the Colorado Music Educators Convention in Colorado Springs. He recently completed his third season with the Colorado Ballet Orchestra as principal guest conductor of “Dracula”

Allan McMurray is a Past-President of the College Band Directors National Association and a member of numerous professional organizations including the American Bandmasters Association. In addition, he is a recipient of the Bohumil Makovsky Award for Outstanding College Band Directors from the National band fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi, and has been recognized by California State University Long Beach as “Distinguished Artist in Classical Music.”

Professor McMurray’s first DVD on the Art of Conducting entitled “Conducting from the Inside Out: Gesture and Movement” was released in December of 2002 and has received international acclaim. His second DVD, “Conducting from the Inside Out: Conductor and Composer with Frank Ticheli” is published by Manhattan Beach and was released in 2004 at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago.

In December 2004, the Board of Regents designated Allan McMurray as “Distinguished Professor”. He is one of only 25 faculty in the history of the University of Colorado to receive this honor, the first in the College of Music and is the only one from the Arts to hold the title.

Don Owens(concert band and jazz band) - Don Owens, Coordinator Emeritus of the Jazz Studies and Pedagogy Program, Director Emeritus, Contemporary Music Ensemble, and the National High School Music Institute at Northwestern University, began his tenure at Northwestern University in 1979. Before coming to Northwestern, he taught for twelve years at Evanston (Illinois) Township High School where his duties included directing band, brass ensembles, and jazz band, as well as teaching classes in music theory, popular music, and composition. He created the Electronic Music Studio at ETHS in 1971. Many of his ETHS students went on to become music majors at many of the major Schools of Music in the United States and Canada.

Owens received the Bachelor of Music Education degree from North Texas State University, where he also studied Composition and Jazz. His Master of Musical Arts degree is from the University of Illinois, where he majored in Composition. He studied composition with Morgan Powell, Merrill Ellis, Samuel Adler, and Salvatore Martirano. He has won several grants and awards, and is regularly commissioned for new works.

In his first few years at Northwestern, Mr. Owens conducted the Nationally renowned Jazz Ensemble, directed the "Wildcat” Marching Band and Symphonic Band, and taught advanced Method classes for undergraduate Music Education Majors. He eventually was appointed Coordinator of the Jazz Studies and Pedagogy Program, teaching courses in Jazz Writing, Seminar in Jazz Pedagogy, Jazz in the Public Schools, and conducted the Jazz Ensemble. Under his leadership, the Northwestern Jazz Program grew to offer the B.M. in Jazz Studies and the M.M. in Jazz Pedagogy.

In addition to Owens' responsibilities in the Jazz area, he served as Director and Primary Conductor of the internationally acclaimed Contemporary Music Ensemble for over 20 years. This group performed over 200 world premiers, as well as the standard 20th century repertory. In 1991, the Northwestern CME served as the primary chamber music ensemble for the John Cage Now World Festival. In the spring of 1995, the NUCME served as one of two visiting Artist Ensembles for the National Meeting of the Society of Composers at the University of Iowa. In 2002, the CME played a major part in the Stephan Wolpe Festival, sponsored by the School of Music.

During the summers, Owens served as Director of the National High School Music Institute, from 1991 to 2004. Under his leadership, the enrollment increased by 100%. NHSMI continues to thrive as a Pre-Collegiate Music Major Experience for high school-aged students. With a curriculum that requires the attending students to declare a Major - Classical Guitar, Composition, Jazz Studies, Music Education, Piano, Strings, Voice, or Winds and Percussion- NHSMI has consistently attracted students from all 50 states, as well as many foreign countries.

Mr. Owens is an internationally recognized clinician/conductor. He has served as an adjudicator and has conducted Festival and All-State Concert and Jazz Bands in Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, Canada, Greece, Germany, and Norway. As a conductor, he has shared in the art of music making with world famous figures from both the Jazz and Contemporary Classical idioms. His compositions have been performed across America, as well as in Canada, England, Greece, Germany, Japan, Norway, and South America.

Mr. Owens is the composer/arranger of over 100 works, including those for band, jazz band, orchestra, choir, and chamber music. His music is available from the composer via Phramus Music Publications. Owens is the author of several articles dealing with contemporary music. He is a member of M.E.N.C, Illinois Music Educators Association, International Association for Jazz Education (Past President for the Illinois State Unit), Pi Kappa Lambda (Past President of Alpha Chapter), and Phi Mu Alpha.

Wendy J. Grasdahl (concert bands) - Wendy Grasdahl is well known across Canada as a conductor, teacher, and trumpet performer. Her professional experience encompasses teaching at university and college levels, as well as provincial workshops, clinics, festival adjudication, private teaching and military band work. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta, teaching brass and conducting the Concert Band.

As an officer in the Canadian Naval Reserve, Wendy conducted military bands in Alberta, B. C., and Ontario. She is in demand as a clinician and guest conductor for school programs, as well as summer music programs, including the International Music Camp at the Peace Garden on the Manitoba/U.S. border. She received the prestigious Distinguished Service Award from the International Music Camp for ten years of conducting and promoting band in North America. Previous awards include the Faculty Association Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of P.E.I.

Wendy has appeared as a trumpet soloist and in professional ensembles throughout Canada. She is a clinician for Yamaha Canada, is a founding member of the brass quintet "Five of a Kind", and has played Solo Cornet with the Mill Creek Colliery Brass Band. Wendy is the Trumpet Instructor at Concordia University College of Alberta. Wendy is the founder, Artistic Director and principal conductor of Festival City Winds Music Society, a comprehensive adult community band programme which is comprised of three Concert Bands.

Ms. Grasdahl holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Music History from the University of Alberta, a Master of Music degree in Trumpet Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Calgary, and a graduate level Fine Arts Diploma in Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble Conducting and Literature from the University of Calgary.

WILLIAM STREET (concert band) - joined the University of Alberta in 1988 as saxophone and chamber music professor and wind band conductor. Formerly Wind and Percussion Coordinator of the Department of Music and Conductor of the University Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Professor Street is now Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies of the Department of Music. He has presented concerts throughout Europe, North America, Japan and Thailand and has recorded héliosaxo, twentieth century music for axophone and piano, My Very First Solo (Arktos - SRI- CD 200367), - with Roger Admiral featuring works by Heider, Jan Bach, Swerts, Albright, Fisher and Denisov and Westwind a recording of new works for saxophone - solo and in duos with piano, organ and percussion - by Western Canadian composers. He recorded with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, a CBC 5000 compact disc recording Electra Rising by Malcolm Forsyth. This disc
was awarded a JUNO: Best Classical Recording of 1997. Tre Vie, Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra was runner up for Best Classical recording of 1998. His teachers and mentors include George Etheridge, Frederick Hemke and Jean-Marie Londeix. He performs frequently with pianist Roger Admiral and saxophonist Jean-Marie Londeix and tours bi-annually. He has presented master classes (and was a 2004 adjudicator) at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, The Royal College of Music in London, Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand and he has been a member of the European Saxophone University faculty. He adjudicated for the 2007 music examinations at the Conservatoire National de Musique de Bordeaux. Street performs regularly with the Edmonton Saxophone Quartet and Edmonton's Improvisation Group Flux and tours internationally annually with the Quatuor International de Saxophones, composed of colleagues from France, the USA and Japan. He is a past president of the North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA) and just completed his third term as Secretary of the World Saxophone Congress. He is a member of the advisory committee of the World Saxophone Congress to be held in 2009 Bangkok, Thailand.

During the 2006-2007 academic year, he performed a concert tour in the US with Roger Admiral and a concert tour in Japan, Thailand and France with the Quatuor International de Saxophones. Mr. Street has a Selmer clinician with a strong interest in music education and appears frequently as recitalist, adjudicator and conductor throughout Asia, North America and Europe. He has recently adjudicated at Festivals around the world including Belgium, Canada, France, Russia, Thailand, the United States of America and the Ukraine.

Dr. Evelyn Pfeifer (choral) - holds degrees from the University of Lethbridge, the University of Alberta, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the Director of Worship and Music at Hosanna Lutheran Church, Edmonton, is a sessional instructor at the King’s University College, is the Assistant Conductor for i Coristi Chamber Choir and is in her second year on the Alberta Choral Federation Board of Directors. Dr. Pfeifer also has memberships in the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors and the American Choral Directors Association. As part of being an active choral workshop clinician and being invited to guest conduct many fine choirs, she was the Choral Artist-in-Residence for the Saskatchewan Choral Federation, working primarily in southern Saskatchewan.

Dr. Pfeifer’s choral teachers and mentors include Dr. Fred Stoltzfus, Dr. Chester Alwes, Dr. Leonard Ratzlaff, Dr. Debra Cairns, Dr. George Evelyn. She has also worked with choral specialists Jon Washburn and Eric Ericson. Dr. Pfeifer has taught at a number of post-secondary institutions, including Hillcrest Christian College, Concordia University College, Taylor University College, Augustana University College, and the University of Alberta. In addition to singing with many choirs mainly in Alberta and Illinois, her vast conducting experience includes college/university choirs such as the HCC Chorale, the Concordia Concert Choir, Taylor’s Choristers, the Augustana Choir, the U of I Graduate Chamber Choir, and the U of A Concert Choir; community choirs such as the Richard Eaton Singers, Da Camera Singers, Concordia Community Chorus, the U of I Oratorio Society, and the Vermilion Festival Chorus; as well as numerous church choirs.

Angela Schroeder (concert bands) - A native of Calgary, Angela Schroeder completed undergraduate studies in Music at University of Calgary, majoring in Secondary Education, with performance studies in piano and trumpet. She also completed the Diploma of Fine Arts in Wind Band Conducting at University of Calgary under the supervision of Glenn Price. After 3 years of teaching at various secondary schools in the Calgary area, Angela Schroeder entered the Master's program in Wind Band Conducting at Northwestern University, completing her studies there in 2004 with Mallory Thompson. She has recently completed her thesis requirements for her doctoral degree in Wind Band Conducting at University of North Texas, under the supervision of Eugene Corporon.

Angela Schroeder is well known in the Alberta music education community, not only through her teaching and conducting both in schools and in community music organizations, but through her involvement as an executive director of the Alberta Band Association for several years.

Larry L. Schrum (concert bands) received Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees from the Dana School of Music, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio. He has also done additional studies at Berklee School of Music, Boston. Before coming to Canada, Mr. Schrum taught for 6 years at Junior High, Senior High and College levels in Ohio. Since arriving in Edmonton, Alberta, he has taught at McNally and Harry Ainlay High Schools as well as directing numerous Jazz, Concert and Marching Bands in the community. His Performing groups have been both active and successful in Regional, National and International Festivals. Awards include 3 First place finishes at the National Finals of the Canadian Stage Band festival. His concert bands have won the Outstanding Band and Senior Sight Reading Awards at the ABA festival numerous times, along with Special Adjudicator’s awards at Heritage Festivals. Individually, he was the first winner of the Tommy Banks Award and the David Peterkin Award, as well as winning the Elkhorn Award (Alberta Band Director of the Year), three Alberta Achievement Awards and two City of Edmonton Performing and Creative Arts Awards. In the fall of 2002, he was awarded the “Distinguished Band Director Award” by the Canadian Band Association. From the Spring of 1999 until it ceased publication, Mr. Schrum was a regular contributing editor to the Canadian Band Journal. His column, entitled “Mentor’s Corner”, answered submitted questions and gave advice to band directors across Canada. He served as the first Alberta director of the Alberta Provincial Honour Jazz Band in 2001. A percussionist and rhythm section specialist, Mr. Schrum is active as a clinician, composer/arranger, adjudicator and speaker. He is currently working on publishing his own works as well as other Canadian composer’s works through his publishing company, First Stroke Music Publishing. He also directs the highly recognized River City Big Band and the Grant MacEwan Arts Outreach Big Band, as well as teaching arranging at Grant MacEwan College.