Wind Conducting Workshop

Jason K. Fettig is an internationally recognized conductor of wind band and orchestra and a highly sought-after educator and clinician. Performances under his baton have occurred in forty-nine U.S. states as well as Japan, the Czech Republic, Austria and The Netherlands, and live concerts have been regularly heard on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” and on national television broadcasts from the White House, on “The Today Show,” the “David Letterman Show” on PBS, NBC and CBS. He has worked with an incredibly wide array of artists from across the entire musical spectrum, from internationally renowned classical artists such as pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, violinist Joshua Bell, and the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, Broadway luminaries Norm Lewis, Jessica Vosk, and Lea Salonga, to pop superstars including Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks and Lady Gaga.

Fettig served as the 28th Director of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band and Chamber Orchestra, where he was the music adviser to the White House and regularly conducted the Marine Band and Marine Chamber Orchestra at the Execu­tive Mansion. He led the musical program for the Inaugurations of President Donald Trump and President Joseph Biden and the State Funeral of George H.W. Bush. He also served as music director of Washington, D.C.’s historic Gridiron Club, a position held by ev­ery Marine Band Director since John Philip Sousa.

Fettig has conducted featured performances at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, the international conference of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, the Texas Bandmasters Association, and the national conventions of the American Bandmasters Association and the Music Educators National Conference. He has led concerts at prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Severance Hall in Cleveland, and Boston Symphony Hall, and has twice partnered with the National Symphony Orchestra and their Music Director Gianandrea Noseda for special joint performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He has also collaborated on numerous occasions with legendary composer and conductor John Williams, most recently sharing conducting with Maestro Williams of a gala concert of music at the Kennedy Center in July, 2023. In May 2019, Fettig and the Marine Band, in partnership with the All-Star Orchestra conducted by Gerard Schwarz, won an Emmy at the 62nd Annual New York Emmy Awards for a program entitled “New England Spirit.” Fettig also represented the Marine Corps at the White House when military bands were awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Trump in 2019.

Throughout his career, Fettig has been deeply committed to music education. He began an interactive Young People’s Concert series in 2006 and authored, hosted, and conducted this popular annual event until 2015. He has launched innovative new digital programs for world-wide audiences, including a video series entitled the Digital Rehearsal Hall, which provides viewers a behind-the-scenes view into the working rehearsal process of professional musicians. Fettig has served as a clinician or guest conductor at more than three dozen universities and colleges. He frequently teaches at conducting symposia both in the U.S. and internationally, and he has appeared as conductor for numerous national Honor and All-State festivals around the country, leading both bands and orchestras. He has presented at the Midwest Clinic on multiple occasions and has served as adjudicator for major competitions, including the Thailand International Wind Symphony Competition and at the World Music Contest in Kerkrade, The Netherlands.

In addition to his many live performances, Fettig has conducted or served as lead producer for over 20 publicly-released albums of both traditional and contemporary band and orchestra repertoire. In 2014, Fettig launched an ambitious project to re-record all of the marches of John Philip Sousa and provide free performance and educational materials online to schools and ensembles worldwide. His steadfast focus on preserving and celebrating historic band repertoire and performance practice is complemented by a fervent advocacy for contemporary American music. He has commissioned and/or conducted the world premieres of more than forty works, including substantial new pieces by James Stephenson, Jacob Bancks, Jennifer Higdon, David Rakowski, Stacy Garrop, Narong Prangcharoen, Peter Boyer, Zhou Tian, Jessica Meyer, Michael Gilbertson, Dominick DiOrio, Donald Grantham, and Jonathan Leshnoff.

Fettig holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in both clarinet performance and music education, and a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the University of Maryland, College Park. In 2014, he was elected as a member of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association. He serves on the board of directors for several national organizations and is the current President-Elect of the National Band Association.

Dr. Courtney Snyder is Associate Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Conducting at the University of Michigan, where she conducts the Concert Band, teaches conducting, and conducts the Michigan Youth Symphonic Band. Under her artistic leadership, the Concert Band was invited to perform at the College Band Directors Association North-Central Division Conference.

Previously, Snyder served as the assistant director of bands and director of athletic bands at the University of Nebraska-Omaha where she conducted the “Maverick” Marching Band, conducted the Concert Band, served as associate conductor of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and taught courses in conducting, music education, and brass methods. While in Omaha, Snyder also served as music director for the Nebraska Wind Symphony, which, under her direction, was invited to perform at the Nebraska State Bandmasters Association annual conference. Prior to teaching at the collegiate level, Snyder taught high school and middle school band and orchestra in the Michigan public schools.

Dr. Snyder is an active guest conductor and clinician. She has presented at national and international conferences including the Midwest Clinic, World Association of Symphonic Band Ensembles, College Band Directors National Association, College Music Society, and Women Band Directors International. Her current projects include research in conducting movement kinesiology, promoting equity through programming and commissioning works by women and minority composers, and building a strong community of women band directors. She is President of Women Band Directors International and serves on the editorial board for The Woman Conductor journal.

Snyder is published in Music Educators Journal, The Instrumentalist, several volumes of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, School Band & Orchestra Magazine, The Woman Conductor, and Association of Concert Bands Journal. Her chapter “Trailblazers: Five Pioneering Female Band Directors Recount Their Journeys Over the Last 50 Years” in the book The Horizon Leans Forward…Stories of Courage, Strength, and Triumph of Underrepresented Communities in the Wind Band Field will be published in December 2020. In 2018 she received Tau Beta Sigma’s Paula Crider Award. She earned 2nd Place of the 2017-2018 American Price in Conducting, Band/Wind Ensemble Division Competition and was given a Citation of Excellence award by the National Band Association.

Dr. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Michigan (DMA – conducting), Baylor University (MM – conducting) and Indiana University of Pennsylvania (BME). She is a member of College Band Directors National Association, World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, Women Band Directors International, National Band Association, National Association for Music Education, College Music Society, Kappa Kappa Psi, Tau Beta Sigma, and Pi Kappa Lambda.

An international conductor, author and lecturer, Dr. John D. Pasquale is the Donald R. Shepherd Professor of Conducting at the University of Michigan where he serves as Director of the Michigan Marching and Athletic Bands. In this position he directs and oversees the athletic band program, is the conductor of the University Band, guest conductor with the Symphony Band, Concert Band, and teaches classes in rehearsal and ensemble pedagogy. In addition, Dr. Pasquale is a faculty associate within the African Studies Center in the International Institute of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and is the Chief Marshal to the university. Outside of the university, he is a Conn-Selmer Educational Clinician.

Prof. Pasquale’s research interests span the intersection of the conductor as an artistic leader and ensemble pedagogue, the codification of instrument and ensemble pedagogy, and the teaching of aural analysis skills to conductors. His scholarship, culminating in the publication of “Probenmethodik Blasorchester: Geführtes Hören in der Ensemblearbeit,” is published by Helbling Verlag in Esslingen, Germany, and has been further disseminated globally through its English edition, “The Directed Listening Model: A Rehearsal Guide for Ensemble Musicianship.”

Currently, Prof. Pasquale is a primary lecturer in a multi-year wind band pedagogy residency in Africa in conjunction with the University of Cape Coast in Cape Coast, Ghana. This project involves working with over 700 university, amateur and professional conductors and musicians from universities, national defense ensembles, government ensembles, primary schools, church and community ensembles in thirteen African, Middle Eastern and European countries.

An ardent advocate for international education, Dr. Pasquale previously held an affiliate lectureship within the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. In this capacity, he taught study abroad classes in Austria titled “Art and Music in Vienna.” In 2012, Dr. Pasquale led a cross-cultural performance and pedagogy project in China titled “Instrumental Music Education in China: Cross-Cultural Performance and Pedagogy,” leading a team of American conductors and researchers in fostering international musical collaboration and understanding.

Receiving the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting from the University of Oklahoma in 2008, Dr. Pasquale served as a conducting associate to the Wind Symphony, Opera Orchestra, “The Pride of Oklahoma” Marching Band, New Century Ensemble, Faculty Composer Concert Series, Symphony Band, Concert Band, and the Weitzenhoffer Family Department of Musical Theatre. In addition, he was an adjunct instructor and graduate teaching assistant within the Music Education Department. He holds a Master of Music degree in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Oklahoma and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Texas Christian University.

In the genre of marching and pageantry arts, Dr. Pasquale served as an ensemble music consultant with the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps from Boston, Massachusetts, the Associate Brass Caption Manager of the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps from Santa Clara, California, and taught ensemble music with the Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps from Rosemont, Illinois. Through his teaching at the Cavaliers, Pasquale was a contributor to the instructional DVD entitled, The Cavaliers Brass: From the Concert Hall to the Football Field, which has been met with international acclaim. During his tenure from 2002-2009, the Cavaliers were named Drum Corps International World Champions three times and were the recipient of two Jim Ott Awards for “Excellence in Brass Performance.”

Dr. Pasquale is in demand as a conductor, clinician, lecturer, pedagogue, and adjudicator in band and orchestra programs throughout North America, Africa, Europe and Asia.

Dr. Richard Frey is a member of the conducting faculty at the University of Michigan, and the associate director of bands. He is the associate director of the Michigan Marching and Athletic Bands, director of the Men’s Basketball Band, conductor of the Campus Bands, and guest conductor of the Symphony Band Chamber Winds. He teaches conducting and coordinates the non-major chamber music program.

Frey was previously the associate director of Bands at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. While he was there the CSU Marching Band expanded its national and international reputation, performing at the St. Patrick’s Festival Parade in Dublin, for Denver Broncos halftimes, and at bowl games around the country. In 2015, CSU hosted the College Band Directors National Association’s Athletic Band Symposium, the first non-Power Five conference school to do so.

Frey’s research has centered on opera transcriptions for winds in the eighteenth-century, specifically Johann Went’s transcription of Le nozze di Figaro. He has given presentations on this work at universities around the country and at the 2016 CBDNA Southwest Division conference. In July 2014, Frey led the Colorado State Faculty Chamber Winds on a performance tour of Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary that included his performance edition of Figaro and a new edition of the introduction to Rossini’s Zelmira. His modern harmonie performance edition (Sedlak) of the overture to Semiramide was premiered by the Gateway Chamber Orchestra at the 2015 CBDNA National Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

As a conductor, Frey has led world and consortium premieres by composers Steven Bryant, Eric Nathan, David Maslanka, James David, and Matthew Peterson, and his concerts often feature multimedia and interdepartmental collaborations. He has presented on expressive conducting and Laban terminology, wind band repertoire, and modern performance practice at state and national conferences, and as a guest lecturer for undergraduate and graduate classes at universities nationwide.

He has performed as a freelance percussionist with the Oregon Symphony, Oregon Ballet Theater, Tacoma Symphony, and Bellevue Philharmonic, and in recitals as a collaborative pianist and accompanist. As a music arranger and drill designer for marching and athletic bands, Frey has been regularly commissioned by university and high school ensembles, resulting in performances of nearly 100 of his musical arrangements.

In 2011 Dr. Frey received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Wind Conducting at Michigan State University. In 2008 he received a Master of Music degree in Wind Conducting from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. From 2002-06 he taught instrumental music in the public schools of Salem, Oregon. Frey received a Bachelor of Music degree in Percussion Performance from the University of Puget Sound in 2002.