James Dreiling, DMA in conducting and band graduate teaching assistant, has had his clinic session selected for the 2015 World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) conference in San Jose, California, next July.
The topic of his clinic is the wind music of British composer Guy Woolfenden. His session is titled "Guy Woolfenden: A Composer's Musical DNA."
Woolfenden spent 37 years as the head of music for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon where he composed more than 150 scores of incidental music and is the only composer known to have composed music for every Shakespearean play. Woolfenden has also composed 14 pieces for band and nine pieces for various chamber ensembles, much of which is based on his music for Shakespeare.
Dreiling received a Hixson-Lied Graduate Student Scholarly and Creative Activity Grant from the College to help cover the cost of a trip this past May to England to interview Woolfenden. While in England, he interviewed him three times, guest conducted the Birmingham Wind Symphony and interviewed renowned band conductor Timothy Reynish at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
WASBE is the only international organization of wind band conductors, composers, performers, publishers and friends of wind music. WASBE is completely dedicated to enhancing the quality of the wind band throughout the world.