High School Band Clinic Festival

Each spring The University of Akron School of Music and University Bands host this annual event. The one-day festival includes opportunity to perform on stage at E.J. Thomas Hall, followed by a clinic session with a guest clinician, master-class sessions with UA Applied Faculty, and concert performances by the UA Bands ensembles.

Monday, February 12, 2024

Concerts will be presented throughout the day and are free and open to the public.

Additionally, the UA School of Music applied wind and percussion faculty will present masterclass sessions for the attending musicians throughout the day.

At 6:30 pm, The University of Akron Bands will host a closing concert in E.J. Thomas Hall, featuring the UA Concert Band, Symphony Band, and Wind Symphony.  A highlight of the concert will include a performance of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, featuring recently retired Emeritus Professor of Piano at The University of Akron, Philip Thomson.

The performance is especially poignant as the premiere of Rhapsody in Blue occurred one hundred years ago on February 12th, 1924, as part of a concert titled "An Experiment in Modern Music," organized by renowned jazz band leader, Paul Whiteman.

Schedule of Events:

MONDAY FEBRUARY 12, 2024:
E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall - All Concerts FREE and open to the public

Parking Permits can be purchased here.

• 9:45 - 10:15 am
  Hudson High School - Katharine Reed, conductor
• 10:30 - 11:00 am
  Madison High School - Brett Tomko, conductor
• 11:15 - 11:45 am
  Firestone CLC - Matthew Kennedy, conductor
• 12:45 - 1:30 pm - Clinic Sessions with UA Applied Wind & Percussion Faculty (Locations TBA)
• 1:30 - 2:00 pm
  Berne Union High School - JD Latorre, conductor
• 2:15 - 2:45 pm
  Hoover High School - Ronald Varn, conductor
• 3:00 - 3:30 pm
  TBA
• 3:45 - 4:15 pm
  Northwest High School - Stephen Imler, conductor
• 5:15 - 6:00 pm - Clinic Sessions with UA Applied Wind & Percussion Faculty (Locations TBA)
• 6:30 pm - UA BAND CLINIC FESTIVAL CLOSING CONCERT
  • UA Concert Band - Galen S. Karriker, conductor
  • UA Symphony Band - Gretchen Pohlman-Bassett, conductor
  • UA Wind Symphony Band - Galen S. Karriker, conductor

Featuring Emeritus Professor of Piano - Philip Thomson

100^th Anniversary of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue

Guest Clinicians

Dr. David T. Kehler, Director of Bands (Kennesaw State University)

Since 2009, David Kehler has served as Director of Bands and Professor of Music at Kennesaw State University. There, he oversees all aspects of the University’s quickly expanding band program while serving as Music Director and Conductor of the KSU Wind Ensemble. An advocate of new music, Professor Kehler has commissioned leading composers to write new works for wind ensemble. In addition, the KSU Wind Ensemble has been featured on 90.1 FM (WABE- Atlanta public radio), and continues to garner praise from composers including Steven Bryant, Karel Husa, David Lang, David Maslanka, Scott McAllister, Joel Puckett and others. Dr. Kehler’s ensembles have performed at the CBDNA Southern Division conferences in 2012 and 2016, and won the American Prize for best university wind ensemble/concert band recording in 2013. 

Previously, David Kehler served The University of Texas at Austin as a Graduate Conducting Associate receiving a Doctor of Musical Arts degree. From 2001-2009, Dr. Kehler served as Associate Conductor of America’s Premier Windband: The Dallas Winds where he was the director of the Dallas Winds International Fanfare Project. In addition, Dr. Kehler conducted the Dallas Winds throughout Texas, including the annual Labor Day Concert at the Dallas Arboretum, various Chautauqua festivals, holiday concerts, and a formal gala presented by the United States Armed Forces with all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in attendance.

While in Texas, Dr. Kehler was also Founder and Conductor of the GDYO Wind Symphony, an ensemble affiliated with the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestras, Inc. During his ten years of service, the GDYO Wind Symphony established itself as one of the premier youth wind ensembles in the United States. They were a featured ensemble at the Texas Bandmasters Association/National Band Association Convention in San Antonio, Texas, and were heard internationally on “From the Top”, a syndicated radio program featuring the finest young classical musicians in the country. In addition, the GDYO Wind Symphony participated in exchange concerts with the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony and performed with Jeff Nelson, former horn of the Canadian Brass. In the summer of 2008, the GDYO Wind Symphony embarked on an extensive two-week tour of China, performing at all of the major music conservatories throughout China and Hong Kong.

Previous academic appointments were at Southern Methodist University, the University of Rhode Island, and Bay City Western High School, in Bay City, Michigan. Growing up in Michigan, Dr. Kehler received his Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music in Conducting degrees from Michigan State University, followed by his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in instrumental conducting from the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Kehler currently serves as Vice-President for the College Band Directors National Association-Southern Division, and has memberships in many musical organizations including CBDNA, NAfME, Phi Beta Mu, GMEA, Conductor’s Guild and others. David Kehler continues to be active as a guest conductor and clinician for both high schools and universities throughout the United States, including recent engagements at Florida State University, McNeese State University, University of Georgia, University of Missouri, and the University of Rhode Island.

Dr. William Staub, Director of Bands (East Carolina University)

William Staub is in his eleventh year at East Carolina University and third year as Director of Bands. He oversees the band programs at ECU, conducts and directs the ECU Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and teaches conducting and music education courses. Since arriving at ECU, Staub has conducted multiple world premieres including works by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Melinda Wagner and Grawemeyer winning composer Lei Liang. Dr. Staub and the ECU Symphonic Wind Ensemble were invited to perform at the NCMEA convention in 2022.

Prior to becoming director of bands, Staub served as the Associate Director of Bands and Director of Athletic Bands at ECU. Under his direction, the ECU Marching Pirates performed at a Carolina Panthers football game, the Superdome and Tropicana Field in addition to many exhibitions throughout North Carolina.

Dr. Staub came to ECU from Iowa State University where he served as Assistant Director of Bands with duties including assisting with the Cyclone Marching Band and conducting the Symphonic and Concert Bands. Staub has also taught public school in Austin, Texas at Grisham Middle School. While there, he co-conducted the Grisham Middle School Symphony Orchestra at their performance at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention.

In addition to his formal teaching positions, Dr. Staub is highly in demand as a clinician, adjudicator and conductor. His residencies have included Michigan State University, New Mexico State University, UNC-Wilmington, Duke University, the University of Georgia, Western Washington University, and the University of Puget Sound. In 2010, he participated in the West Point Conducting Workshop where he guest conducted the West Point Band in concert. In 2017, Staub served as one of the conductors for the World Youth Wind Orchestra Project in Schladming, Austria. Since 2015, Dr. Staub has served as conductor of the Symphonic Band at the New England Music Camp in Sidney, Maine.

Staub received his Doctor of Musical Arts from Northwestern University, where he was a conducting student of Mallory Thompson; his master’s degree in conducting from Michigan State University, where he was a student of Kevin Sedatole; and his undergraduate degree from Arizona State University, where he studied euphonium with Sam Pilafian and conducting with Gary Hill. In 2018, Dr. Staub received the ECU Alumni Association Outstanding Teaching Award. In 2019, he received the East Carolina Creed faculty award for Integrity. Staub is a member of NCMEA, CBDNA, Pi Kappa Lambda, and Phi Kappa Phi and is an honorary member of Tau Beta Sigma, Kappa Kappa Psi and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

Guest Artist

Dr. Philip Thomson, Emeritus Professor (The University of Akron)

Philip Thomson was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. He began piano studies in his home town at the age of five with Carol O'Neil, who remained his teacher until he entered the University of Toronto as a student of Swiss pianist Pierre Souvairan. His graduate studies were at The Juilliard School with the renowned pianist Abbey Simon; there, he won the Juilliard School's Liszt concerto competition, and performed Liszt's Concerto #1 in E-flat in Alice Tully Hall. While still a student, he was already concertizing widely in Canada. He has also performed in Hungary, Austria, England, Ireland, France, the U.S., the Netherlands, and Belgium. Since 2010, he has appeared as a soloist numerous times in China and in Korea, including in concerts for the prestigious Seoul Spring Festival.

Mr. Thomson came to world-wide attention when he recorded the world premiere of Franz Liszt's “De Profundis” with the Hungarian State Orchestra, which was released on the Hungaroton label in 1990. Its universal critical praise secured for him the opportunity to perform the Hungarian, Italian, American, and Canadian premieres of the work. “De Profundis” is a 40-minute tour de force for piano and orchestra, whose manuscript had lain in archives in Weimar for 160 years – astoundingly, without serious musicological study.

Philip Thomson was subsequently invited by Naxos Records to record many of Liszt's solo works. He released three CDs of Liszt, all of which received excellent reviews from the major musical journals throughout the world.

In the 1990s, Mr. Thomson became interested in the music of the Russian composer Felix Blumenfeld. In his time (1863-1931), Blumenfeld was renowned as a pianist, composer, teacher, and conductor. His students included Vladimir Horowitz, Simon Barere, and other pianistic titans of the age. For unknown reasons, his music fell out of the repertoire and out of print after his death. Mr. Thomson was able to obtain most of it from archives around the world, and recorded Blumenfeld's complete preludes and impromptus on the Ivory Classics label. Released in 2000, it has garnered, as have Mr. Thomson's other recordings, wide critical acclaim.

Philip Thomson joined the piano faculty at The University of Akron in 1994, and since 2003 was the Head of Piano Studies. He retired in 2023.