2006 All State Conference and Festival
May 18, 19, and 20
UMO, Orono, Maine

Chorus

Dr. Jerry Blackstone

Professor Blackstone, Director of Choirs and Chair of the Conducting Department, conducts the Chamber Choir, teaches conducting at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and administers a choral program of eleven choirs. In addition to his choral conducting work at the University, he has conducted operatic productions with the University of Michigan Opera Theatre, including a 2002 production of Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen.

From 1988-2002, Professor Blackstone led the Men’s Glee Club touring extensively throughout Australia, Eastern and Central Europe, Asia, South America, and the United States. The recently released UM Men’s Glee Club CD, I Have Had Singing, is a retrospective of his tenure as conductor of the ensemble.

Professor Blackstone is considered one of the country’s leading conducting teachers, and his students have received first place awards and been finalists in both the graduate and undergraduate divisions of the ACDA biennial National Choral Conducting Awards competition. Professor Blackstone has appeared as festival guest conductor and workshop presenter in twenty-eight states as well as Hong Kong and Australia. His publications include an educational video, Working with Male Voices, and Jerry Blackstone Choral Series.

In April 2004, Professor Blackstone was named Conductor and Music Director of the University Musical Society Choral Union, a large community/university chorus that frequently appears with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and presents yearly performances of Handel’s Messiah and other major works for chorus and orchestra including a recent performance and recording of William Bolcom’s monumental Songs of Innocence and of Experience, led by American conductor Leonard Slatkin.

Professor Blackstone serves as Director of the University of Michigan’s All-State Summer Programs and Michigan Youth Ensembles. He conducts the All-State High School Choir and Chamber Singers, at Interlochen, each summer.

Professor Blackstone has served on the music faculties of Phillips University, Westmont College, and Huntington College.

CHORUS
Conductor: Dr. Jerry Blackstone

Veni Sanct Spiritus - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
O Schone Nacht (O Lovely Night) - Johannes Brahms

Orchestra

Federica Cortese

From the moment of his debut in September 1998, stepping in at short notice to conduct Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in place of an ailing Seiji Ozawa, Federico Cortese’s work as Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony was widely praised. Serving in that position from 1998-2002, Mr. Cortese led the Boston Symphony several times in Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood. His conducting of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly was particularly heralded. Additionally, he has served as Music Director of the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras since 1999. Other appointments include Music Director and Associate Conductor of the Spoleto Festival in Italy; Assistant Conductor to Daniele Gatti at the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and Assistant Conductor to Robert Spano at the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

Federico Cortese has conducted operatic and symphonic engagements throughout the United States, Australia and Europe. Recent engagements in the US include the Dallas, Atlanta, San Antonio and New World Symphonies plus conducting operatic productions of Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Boston Lyric Opera and Puccini’s La Boheme with Opera Theater of St. Louis. In Europe, his opera experience includes conducting productions of Verdi’s Il Trovatore in Parma, Italy as part of the Verdi’s Centennial Festival; Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Spoleto Festival in Italy; Niccolò Piccini’s La Bella Verità at the Teatro Comunale with the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Florentino and a new production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte with the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki. Also he has had recent successes guest conducing the BBC Scottish Symphony and the Slovenian Philharmonic. In Australia, he has conducted the Tasmania and Queensland Orchestras, Madam Butterfly for Opera Australia in Melbourne; dates with the West Australia Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony. His most recent success was conducting at the Washington Opera(Previn’s Streetcar named Desire); other future and recent-past engagements include the Oslo Philharmonic, the Zagreb Philharmonic, the Toledo Symphony and the Aspen Music Festival to name a few.

Federico Cortese studied composition and conducting at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome and subsequently studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. In addition, he has been a conducting fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. In addition to music, Mr. Cortese studied literature, humanities and law, earning a law degree from La Sapienza University in Rome.

ORCHESTRA
Conductor: Federica Cortese

Overture to Nabucco - Giuseppe Verdi
Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Band

Dr. Andrew Boysen, Jr.

Andrew Boysen, Jr. is presently an assistant professor in the music department at the University of New Hampshire, where he conducts the wind symphony and teaches conducting, composition and orchestration. Previously, Boysen served as an assistant professor and Acting Associate Director of Bands at Indiana State University, where he directed the Marching Sycamores, conducted the symphonic band and taught in the music education department. Prior to that appointment, he was the Director of Bands at Cary-Grove (IL) High School and was the music director and conductor of the Deerfield Community Concert Band. He remains active as a guest conductor and clinician, appearing with high school, university and festival ensembles across the United States and Great Britain.

Boysen earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in wind conducting at the Eastman School of Music, where he served as conductor of the Eastman Wind Orchestra and assistant conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble. He received his Master of Music degree in wind conducting from Northwestern University in 1993 and his Bachelor of Music degree in music education and music composition from the University of Iowa in 1991.

He maintains an active schedule as a composer, receiving commissions from the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Orchestra Festival, the Iowa All-State Band, the Rhode Island All-State Band, the Nebraska State Bandmasters Association, and many university and high school concert bands across the United States. Boysen won the International Horn Society Composition Contest in 2000, the University of Iowa Honors Composition Prize in 1991 and has twice won the Claude T. Smith Memorial Band Composition Contest, in 1991 for I Am and in 1994 for Ovations. Boysen has several published works with the Neil A. Kjos Music Company, Wingert-Jones Music and Ludwig Music, including pieces for band, orchestra, clarinet and piano, and brass choir. Recordings of his music appear on the Sony, R-Kal, Mark, St. Olaf and Elf labels.

BAND
Conductor: Dr. Andrew Boysen, Jr.

An Original Suite - Gordon Jacob
Endurance - Timothy Mahr
Fantasy on a Theme by Sousa - Andrew Boysen, Jr.

Directors Orchestra

Dr. Peter Martin

Peter Martin is a Professor of Music at the University of Southern Maine and conductor of the Portland Youth Wind Ensemble and the Casco Bay Concert Band. A native of Bensenville, Illinois, he holds a Ph.D. degree in music education from Northwestern University. His principal teachers include Charles Baker, John Boyd, John Paynter, Bennett Reimer and Alan Stout.

Dr. Martin maintains an active conducting schedule and has recently conducted performances in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and at the Barbican Centre in London, England. In the U.S. he has conducted in over 30 states including California, Vermont, Texas, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Illinois, Massachusetts, Indiana, Minnesota, Florida, Colorado, Georgia and Washington, D.C., as well as throughout his favorite state of Maine.

Peter Martin is a published author in the United States and in England, has edited and arranged compositions for wind band, and appears in Who's Who in America and the International Who's Who in Music. He has been cited for excellence as a distinguished educator and was selected for inclusion in Who's Who Among America's Teachers and is the recipient of a University of Southern Maine Outstanding Teacher/Scholar Award.

DIRECTORS ORCHESTRA
Conductor: Dr. Peter Martin

Procession of the Nobles - Nicolas Rimsky-Korsakov
Concerto in D minor - Antonio Vivaldi

Allegro-Adagio-Allegro
Largo e spiccato
Allegro

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