Brad
Amidon, percussion, was born in Erie, PA and has been a member of 3Bop
since
2001. He currently performs with the Erie Philharmonic and
the Dave
Stevens Big Band. He has performed with Doc
Severinsen,
Steve Allen, Dudley Moore, and Paul Winter. He teaches
privately
in addition to teaching at Edinboro University.
Jacqueline
Black, cellist, holds degrees from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University, and the University of Notre
Dame. Her teachers have included Laurien Laufman, Hans Jorgen
Jensen, and Karen Buranskas. She has also participated in
masterclasses given by Frans Helmerson and Janos Starker.
Ms. Black’s accolades have included an Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Michiana Arts and Sciences council. She has appeared in recital on the Ancilla College Visiting Artist Series and the Musica Viva series at Joliet College. Ms. Black has performed with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the South Bend Symphony.
In 1995 Ms. Black began performing with The Savane Trio, a piano trio. The trio toured Japan twice, receiving critical acclaim in Japan’s Ongakugendai and Ongaku no tomo music magazines. The “trio wept of grief and sang for passion…they are truly extraordinary,” wrote Yoshiko Honobe in September of 1997. The Savane Trio was a participant in Chamber Music America’s Rural Residency program during the 1998-99 school year. They served as artists-in-residence in Safford, AZ, enhancing the musical life of the community.
Jacqueline Black is active in Erie, PA as a cellist in the Erie Philharmonic, and she maintains a private studio. She has also taught at Mercyhurst College and Allegheny College and performed with the Erie Chamber Orchestra. In 2003 she joined the faculty at Edinboro University.
Tim Cordell, a Professor of Music for 28 years at Edinboro, has degrees from East Carolina University and Catholic University of America. He completed the Ph.D. in Musicology in 1992 with a specialty in the operas of Verdi. Prior to his tenure at Edinboro, Dr. Cordell taught in public schools in South Carolina and Maryland. He is also a Vietnam-era veteran with service in Washington, D.C. and Fulda, Germany.
Dr. Cordell has worked with students and for students in many different ways at Edinboro and beyond. He is a past director of the University Honors Program, a past President of District 2 of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, and he recently served a two-year term as Associate Provost for Student Centered Initiatives. He is also a former director of several student musical ensembles, including the EUP Marching Band, the EUP Symphonic Band and the University Orchestra.
Dr. Cordell has been awarded numerous grants for his innovative use of technology in teaching, and he has given presentations on an international stage. He is the founder of two study abroad initiatives, Edinboro @ Edinburgh and Edinboro in Florence at the British Institute of Florence. He was coordinator for the University’s World Cultures Week at Edinboro in 2002-2004. His latest scholarly accomplishment is the completion of a book with a group of authors on the literary sources of Verdi operas (publication date by Toccata Press in London is set for 2007). Dr. Cordell recently signed a contract with Kendal-Hunt Publishing to complete a book, tentatively titled “Liberal Arts Listening.”
Ian
Crane has been the Piping Instructor and Director of the Edinboro
University Pipes and Drums since the spring of 2002. Mr. Crane is a
successful solo and band competitor and plays with the current grade II
North American Champion, the North Coast pipe band based in Cleveland,
Ohio. He has also played with the grade II 87th Cleveland pipe band as
well as with the grade I City of Washington pipe band.
David
Denton is an Assistant Professor of Music at Edinboro University of
Pennsylvania, where he teaches music theory. Previously, he served on
the faculties of Mercyhurst College and Fort Hays State University in
Kansas.
Kristine
West Denton, DMA, is an associate professor of music at Edinboro
University of Pennsylvania where she teaches piano and accompanying.
She is currently on the artist faculty of the Summer Music Festival at
Allegheny College. She was previously on the faculties of Fort Hays
State University and Coe College. She has been on heard on live radio
broadcast from WKSU (Kent, OH), WCLV (Cleveland) and WQLN (Erie) and
plays keyboards with the Erie Philharmonic Orchestra. She performed the
Schumann Piano Concerto with the Erie Philharmonic in November 2005.
Dr.
Gary S. Grant, Chair of the Music Department, Director of Bands, and
Professor of Music Education, has been a faculty member at Edinboro
University of Pennsylvania since August, 1993. He received an
undergraduate degree in Music Education from the University of
Illinois, and a Masters in Conducting and Ph.D. in Music Education from
the University of Missouri – Columbia. His responsibilities
at Edinboro include directing the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Jazz
Ensemble, and teaching conducting. He is the founder and administrator
of the annual EUP Jazz Clinic (currently in its eleventh year).
Before joining the Edinboro faculty, Dr. Grant was the Assistant Director of Bands at the University of Missouri-Columbia where he conducted the Large Symphonic Band, Studio Jazz Ensemble, and taught conducting. Dr. Grant is active as a clinician and adjudicator for Concert, Jazz, and Marching Bands throughout the United States and Canada.
Professional activities, experiences, performances, and honors include guest conducting in Canada 10 times in the past ten years, guest conductor for honor concert and jazz bands, conductor of concert, jazz, and marching bands at Edinboro University which have performed over 100 times in the past five years. Dr. Grant has also been nominated to “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers” two times in the past five years. And recently, he was selected as a finalist for “Educator of the Year” at Edinboro University. On April 1, 2005, Dr. Grant received the Edinboro University “Advisor of the Year Award” (recognition for contributions toward a student-centered learning environment).
Allen
Howell is originally from Portland, Oregon. He currently is associate
professor of music education at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. He
teaches music education courses, supervises music student teachers and
field students, conducts the University Women's Chorus, and the
University Orchestra. He writes journal articles, leads workshops, and
serves as guest conductor for instrumental and vocal festivals.
Before coming to Edinboro University, he lived in Columbus, Georgia, where he served for two years as assistant professor of choral music education and coordinator of undergraduate music education at Columbus State University. He was also the conductor of the St. Thomas Children's Choir and served regularly as a guest conductor, adjudicator, and clinician for various public school ensembles and festivals.
He taught music in the public schools for eight years in grades K-8. He taught general music, choir, and band. Also during that time, he was alternately a private voice teacher at local colleges and universities and a tenor soloist for various churches, community choirs, and college choirs. He served as a guest conductor for high school honor choirs and local church and college choirs. He was assistant conductor of the Portland Symphonic Choir and was also the tenor section leader. He sang in a professional choir, "Choral Cross-Ties," for two years.
Dr. Howell received a D.M.A. in music education and choral conducting from the University of Oregon in 1993. During that time, he was a Graduate Teaching Fellow at the University and conducted the Youth Choir of the Oregon Children's Choir.
Patrick
Jones, an active soloist and clinician, has performed throughout the
United States as well as internationally throughout Europe and Canada.
Jones was awarded the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in Saxophone
with high honor by the University of Minnesota, where he studied under
the renowned saxophonist Eugene Rousseau. He initiated his degree at
Indiana University for two years and completed the requirements for a
jazz minor under the direction of renowned jazz educator David Baker.
Jones also holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music under the
direction of Dr. Ramon Ricker and the Lionel Hampton School of Music at
the University of Idaho under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Miller.
Howard
Lyon, violin, teaches violin and viola. He is the
concertmaster
of the Erie Chamber Orchestra and a member of the Erie Philharmonic.
Erik
Mann joined the faculty of Edinboro University in 2005. He teaches
Applied Guitar, Guitar Ensemble, and Beginning Guitar Class. Mr. Mann
received his Bachelor's degree from Towson University and his Master's
degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has studied with Jason
Vieaux, John Holmquist, and Ronald Pearl, and has performed in master
classes with such world-renowned artists as: David Russell, the Los
Angeles Guitar Quartet, the Brazilian Guitar Quartet, the Assads, and
many others. Further education has included participation in music
workshops across the United States on such diverse topics as: early
music performance practice on the guitar and lute; teaching youth at
risk; and technical and musical development on the classical guitar.
Mr. Matthews has received several grants and awards including four National Endowment for the Humanities grants from the Universities of Columbia, Howard, Harvard, and Yale. He is a past president of the Allegheny Chapter of the American Musicological Society.
Anne
Ortega received the Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from
Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, Oklahoma, a Master of
Arts in vocal pedagogy from Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas,
and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in vocal performance from the
University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Ortega has performed with
the University of Minnesota Opera Theater, University of California,
Santa Barbara Opera Theater, Santa Barbara Grand Opera and the Regal
Opera Company in Dallas, Texas. She has also been a featured soloist in
the SOSU Brahms Festival and a member of the Minnesota Chorale.
Dr.
Jean E. Snyder has a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of
Pittsburgh. A voice major in her undergraduate studies, she has taught
music in Oregon, Indiana, Kenya, Zambia and Pennsylvania. She has
taught Introduction to Music at Carlow College, Carlow Hill College,
Community College of Allegheny County, and Washington and Jefferson
College, and World Music at Carlow College and Carlow Hill College.
Peter
van den Honert, Professor, is Director of Choral Activities at Edinboro
University, conducting the University Singers and University Chorale,
teaching choral conducting, and serving as faculty advisor for a
student chapter of the American Choral Directors Association and the
women's music fraternity, Sigma Alpha Iota.. He is also a past member
of the ACDA–PA state Board of Directors. He has a special
interest in New England folksongs, and has published several choral
arrangements of New England folk tunes. Prior to his appointment at
Edinboro he held a similar position at Kansas Wesleyan University. He
also taught middle and high school vocal/choral music in the suburban
Chicago area before returning for his doctorate at the University of
Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. He is listed in Who's Who
Among American Educators, Who's Who Among Higher Education Fine Arts
Educators, and was the recipient of the Pennsylvania Music Educators
Association Special Citation for Teaching Excellence in 2003. He is
active as a clinician and adjudicator, and has served as an honor choir
guest conductor in several states.
LeAnne
Wistrom, flute, is the principal flute of the Erie Philharmonic
Orchestra and the Lake Erie Ballet Orchestra, and is on the music
faculty of Edinboro University. Ms. Wistrom has performed as
concerto
soloist with the Erie Philharmonic on numerous occasions. She
appeared
as guest artist with the Philadelphia Piano Quartet on the Classic
Chamber Concerts of Naples, FL and is a frequent chamber music
collaborator at the Luzerne Chamber Music Festival. Ms.
Wistrom
has
also performed with the Toledo Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic and
Akron Symphony and was visiting instructor of Flute at the Crane School
of Music, State University of New York at Potsdam. She is
recipient of
the Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association's distinguished "Teacher of
the Year" award. Her students have been prize winners at the
State, Eastern Division, and National MTNA competitions. Ms.
Wistrom received her Bachelor of Music and
Master of Music degrees from Indiana University in Bloomington,
Indiana. She has recorded works of contemporary
composers with the Edinboro Wind Quintet, and has recorded with the
Cambini Wind Quintet. Performances this season include solo
appearances with the Erie Philharmonic, the Edinboro University Chamber
Players and the Classic Chamber Concerts of Naples, FL with
harpsichordist John Kitchen of Edinburgh, Scotland.