Luke Abruzzo
Music Program Director
215.571.3528
laa24@drexel.edu
BiographyLuke Abruzzo received his M.M. in jazz studies from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts in 1998, and a B.A. in music from the University of Pittsburgh in 1996. He is currently a full-time auxiliary instructor of music at Drexel University teaching music theory, composition and arranging, as well as guitar. Luke Abruzzo resides in the Philadelphia area and maintains an active career as a freelance guitarist and composer.
He is nationally recognized for his jazz big-band arrangements and original compositions. His work has been performed at jazz festivals in Colorado, California, and Philadelphia as well as at national conferences for the College Music Society. Locally, Luke Abruzzo is the staff arranger for Up Front, a Philadelphia based big-band. He has also brought his music to Drexel University through a series of commissions by the Drexel University Keyboard Ensemble. In the spring of 2008 he premiered his first piece for concert band, “Reflections of Prague”, written exclusively for the Drexel University Concert Band.
In December of 2008, with his band Up Front, some of Luke Abruzzo’s arrangements will be featured in a live radio broadcast in Philadelphia. He is currently working on another commissioned piece for the Drexel University Keyboard Ensemble, planning to be premiered in 2009. Also premiering in spring of 2009 is a concert band arrangement of Astor Piazzolla’s “Libertango”, to be performed by the Drexel University Concert band.
Luke Abruzzo is an active member of the College Music Society, National Association of Music Education, and the Society of composers.
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Scott D. Bacon
Director; All-College Choir, Advisor for Pi Nu Epsilon
215.895.4915
sdb33@drexel.edu
BiographyScott D. Bacon is an Associate Teaching Professor in Music at Drexel University. Mr. Bacon has developed and taught courses in Rock Music, American Popular Music, Class Piano 1 and 2, Class Percussion, Applied Percussion, Introduction to Music, and a course on the Music of The Beatles. He founded and directs The All College Choir. Mr. Bacon is the author of two textbooks: The History of Rock and Roll: Part 1 (1865-1970) published by Kendall Hunt in 2016 and Modern Rock: From the 1960s On published by Cognella in 2019.
Prior to joining Drexel University, Mr. Bacon taught choral and classroom music in k-12 public schools for 10 years in Maryland and Pennsylvania. His high school choirs traveled extensively and received excellent and superior ratings at festivals in the United States and Canada. He was nominated twice to be included in The Who’s Who of American High School Teachers.
Mr. Bacon received his Master of Science in Higher Education from Drexel University in September of 2008 and his Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Elizabethtown College in 1992. Mr. Bacon is the faculty advisor for Pi Nu Epsilon, an honorary student performing arts fraternity and 8 to the Bar, an a cappella student vocal organization. Mr. Bacon is active as a choral adjudicator in the Mid-Atlantic region and conducts a church choir in his home town of Lititz, Pa.
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Karen Banos
Director; Chamber Strings Ensemble
215.895.2451
kmb53@drexel.edu
BiographyKaren is violin and viola instructor at Drexel University. She attended Carnegie-Mellon University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the New School of Music, where she studied with Jascha Brodsky. She also studied with Sally Thomas at the Meadowmount School for Strings, and had additional chamber music studies with Charles Castleman at the Quartet Program.
Karen is currently a member of the orchestras of the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Key West Symphony and the Philly Pops. She toured with the NYC Opera, National Company, and is also currently a regular substitute for Broadway musicals. She is a founding member and first violinist of the Rittenhouse String Quartet, and spends her summers playing with the Lake George Opera Company in Saratoga Springs, NY and the Endless Mountain Music Festival in Wellsboro, PA.
Committed to the education of the underprivileged, Karen has worked for the Institute for Arts in Education (trained by the Lincoln Center Teaching Artists) as well as the PA Arts in Education Partnership. These residencies in the city schools of Philadelphia provide music education to students who attend schools that no longer offer general music
In addition to classical performing, Karen has enjoyed performing with headlining stars like Bob Hope, Tony Bennett, Vic Damone, Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach and Bernadette Peters, to name a few. She has performed with the Trans Siberian Orchestra, and on Broadway has played in the pits for Secret Garden, Tommy, Ragtime, Boy from Oz, and West Side Story.
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Mark Beecher
Director; Percussion Ensemble
215.895.2451
meb26@drexel.edu
BiographyMark Beecher has over 30 years experience, playing and teaching worldwide. Mark attended Widener University, where he performed & toured with their Jazz Ensemble, directed by Woody Herman alumnus, John Vanore. Mark studied with Latin percussion masters Frankie Malabe and Jose Luis 'Changuito' Quintana, African drumming master Oscar Sulley, Eastern Indian drumming master T.N. Bala, and Frank Zappa drummers, Chad Wackerman & Chester Thompson.
Mark has recorded over 30 albums with a variety of artists, is a voting member of the GRAMMYs (Recording Academy), has authored a number of published works, including 'The Rudimental Percussionist' and the book, 'I.A.R.P. Rudimental Solos,' as well as his own instructional DVD, 'The Art of Ancient Rudimental Drumming,' which has been endorsed by members of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony.
As a drum & percussion instructor with over 30 years experience, Mark has taught award-winning high school bands and drum corps, including the Independence Fife & Drum Corps, Valley Forge Military Academy Field Music and the Washington Memorial Pipe Band (of which he is the current Drum Sgt) and has conducted a number of Drumming & Percussion clinics and seminars with the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA).
He is a member of the Percussive Arts Society, The Company of Fifers & Drummers and is the President of The National Association of Rudimental Drummers (NARD) - originally founded in 1933 and sponsored by the Ludwig Drum Company.
Mark Beecher is an endorser for Ludwig Drums, Evans Drumheads & Vic Firth Drumsticks
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Ross Browne
Gospel Choir Director
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Wanda Canfield
Adjunct Instructor: Piano
215.895.2451
wlc22@drexel.edu
BiographyWanda Canfield is a graduate of Temple University with a Master of Music in Composition and a Bachelor of Music in Composition and Piano. She is a performer, songwriter and arranger. She is also a church pianist, and accompanies vocalists, instrumentalists, and choirs.
Wanda Canfield is founder and director of the Drexel University Keyboard Ensemble, and she teaches class piano, private lessons, and piano improvisation. She has taught at Drexel since 1995 and is also piano faculty at Cabrini College.
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Brian Dilts
Adjunct Instructor: Piano
215-895-2451
bmd35@drexel.edu
BiographyBrian Dilts is an instructor of piano and music theory, and chief accompanist for the Vocal Department at Drexel University. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from West Chester University, and a Master of Music in Piano Pedagogy from Temple University.
He has taught throughout the region, including at Settlement Music School and Haddonfield School Of Music. He has taught at Drexel University since 2006.
His performance career includes recitals as a soloist and vocal accompanist, in Philadelphia and the surrounding area, as well as appearances in New York and Oxford, England.
Mr. Dilts is also an active singer/songwriter. He has performed in that capacity all over the region, including Drexel's Mandell Theatre, Milkboy Coffee, and Steel City Coffeehouse. He has produced two albums of his own material, the latest an EP called 'After The Dawn'
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Rosalind Erwin
Director; Symphony Orchestra
215.895.2451
rme49@drexel.edu
BiographyA flexible, creative and highly accomplished conductor, Rosalind Erwin is welcome on podiums both in the USA and abroad. Her credentials include performances with the Sofia Philharmonoc in Bulgaria; in concert under the auspices of NATO in Zagreb, Croatia; performances in Western Europe; and at home where, in six years, she built a fledgling regional orchestra in the suburbs of Philadelphia to one attarcting international attention, record executives and European solo artists.
Rosalind Erwin received her Bachelor's Degree in Clarinet Performance from the New School of Music in Philadelphia where she received an NEA Fellowship, and her Masters in Performance from Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University where she studied with Anthony Gigliotti, Principal Clarinet of the Philadelphia Orchestra and was appointed Resident Conductor of the Composition Department. Rosalind Erwin is an accomplished instrumental performer, having appeared as clarinet soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony and having performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has studied with and been mentored by some of the great names in the conducting world, including Loren Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Leonard Slatkin and David Zinman. She has been honored by the Leopold Stokowsky Memorial Conducting Competition sponsored by the Rittenhouse Square Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Rosalind Erwin was the founder and creative force behind Musica 2000 – The Symphony Orchestra (2000 - 2005). Erwin commissioned works by emerging American composers, presenting world premieres both in the USA and abroad. Unique to Musica 2000, Erwin developed effective educational outreach programs, introducing not only instruments and music styles, but also involving students in the art of composition .
During her tenure as Music Director of the Pottstown Symphony Orchestra, Rosalind Erwin elevated this regional orchestra to exceptional artistic heights, expanded educational outreach, and brought contemporary music into the mainstream of concert programming. Among other works, Erwin commissioned and premiered the overture simple by Guggenheim Fellow and internationally respected composer, Robert Maggio; Alabanza by Philadelphia composer Kile Smith; and conducted the regional premiere of Joan Tower’s ASOL/Ford Foundation commissioned work, Made in America. Beginning in 2005, Erwin and the Orchestra’s concerts were regularly rebroadcast on Philadelphia NPR station WHYY’s Symphony Space. During Erwin’s tenure the PSO was offered a rare recording opportunity with American independent label Newport Classics. Her guest conducting engagements have included orchestras in Portugal, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, as well as throughout the USA. She was featured conductor in 2003 during American Music Week with the Sophia Philharmonic in Bulgaria. In 2009 Erwin guest conducted Sinfonijski orkestar Hvratska vojske, performing the Croatian premier of David Gillinghams’ Marimba Concerto No. 2 with renowned soloist Ivana Bilic.
Rosalind Erwin has been highly acclaimed as a conductor and educator by the legendary composer and author Samuel Adler of the Eastman School of Music. Erwin has been invited by Pennsylvania and New Jersey Music Educator Associations to guest conduct All-State, Regional and District Festival Orchestras to great acclaim. Erwin is the former Music Director and Conductor of the Delaware County Youth Orchestra, Luzerne Music Center Orchestras and Settlement Music School Advanced Studies Chamber Orchestra and Ensemble, with which she performed at The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and Independent Study Proffesor of Conducting at The College of New Jersey. Erwin has served as guest lecturer for Arcadia University's Community Scholars program, and Guest Lecturer and Celebrity Guest for the Philadelphia Orchestra Lecture/Luncheon Series.
Rosalind Erwin was hired by the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra organization in 2014 as Director and Conductor and Artistic Staff for the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra, feeder orchestra to the renowned Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, now under the administrative umbrella of the PYO Music Institute. Erwin currently teaches conducting at the Bryn Mawr Conservatory and was hired as adjunct professor of Advanced Conducting at Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance in 2019.
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Chris Farrell
Adjunct Faculty - Dance & Music; Director, New Music Ensemble, Rhythmic Study for Dance, Private Lesson Instructor: Guitar
215.895.2451
cbf27@drexel.edu
BiographyChristopher B Farrell is an award-winning composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and founder of the critically acclaimed instrumental ensemble, the Rit Mo Collective. Christopher has scored music for over 100 multi-media productions including film, television, dance, and spoken word poetry. He averages over 150 live performances a year and has performed on five continents during his 30-year career as a musician.
Samples of his work can be found at the following sites –
Mud: Bodies of History, Red Earth Calling, Sound Cloud and Trombo.
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Dennis Fortune
Adjunct Instructor; Piano
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Dr. Eve Friedman
Director; Chamber Winds Ensemble
215.895.2451
eaf79@drexel.edu
BiographyEve Friedman is a modern and historical flutist. She has recently performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Philly Pops, the Delaware Symphony, Opera Philadelphia, American Bach Soloists, and Tafelmusik. She is the flutist and president of The Halcyon Consort, Inc., a mixed chamber ensemble based in Philadelphia. She can be heard on recordings with Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra Tempesta di Mare and the world music ensemble EZUZ. Her performances have been broadcast on NPR and the CBC.
Her solo playing has been called “particularly fine” by the Washington Post. About her book, Tone Development on the Baroque Flute, the journal Early Music America wrote, “This carefully researched, imaginative book should be on every baroque flutist’s bookshelf.”
Dr. Friedman served for many years on the National Flute Association's Historical Flutes Committee, and has also been a judge/guest artist for the American Musicological Society, San Francisco Conservatory, and the Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia.
She received her Master of Music from Boston University (as a student of Boston Symphony Orchestra principal flutist Doriot Anthony Dwyer) and holds a Doctor of Music from Indiana University. Her current faculty appointments include Rowan, Drexel, and Temple Universities.
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Bruce Kaminsky
Director; Mediterranean Ensemble
215.895.2451
bk46@drexel.edu
BiographyBruce attended West Chester College for Music Education and Gratz College for Jewish Liturgical Music, earned both an M.M. and B.M. degrees from Combs College of Music, Philadelphia. He studied double bass with Dr. Irving Cohen, Mr. Albert Stauffer and Mr. Eligio Rossi.
Since 1990, Bruce, has been on the music faculty of Drexel University, where he teaches Music History and Bass Studies along with directing the Drexel Mediterranean Ensemble performing music from the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans. He is also on the faculty of Montgomery County Community College, teaching Music History.
Bruce Kaminsky is the designer and president of the KYDD Products, Inc., manufacturer of KYDD Basses sold internationally and used by the bassists with John Legend, Lou Reed, Katy Perry and the Emmy Awards. He is also the designer of the KYDD Bass Lab made in conjunction with the Roland Corporation. He is a member of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) and holds two U.S. patents.
Bruce Kaminsky has been a bassist on more than fifty recordings. He has performed at the United Nations for the signing of the Israeli/Jordanian Peace Accord, the Jewish Music Festival - Berlin, Germany, Faro Chamber Ensemble Festival-Faro Portugal and the World Café in Philadelphia. Bruce has performed with international artists, including Simon Shaheen (Palestinian), Samuel Heifetz (Latvian), Edmond Joseph (Iranian), Geoffrey Williams (British), Boaz ben Moshe (Israeli), Hamit Golbasi (Turkish), Henrik Goldschmidt (Danish) and Adib Rafela (Egyptian). Maurice Chedid (Lebanese). Bruce Kaminsky has also performed with The Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra. In the jazz world, he has performed with Tal Farlow, Jimmy Knepper, Larry Coryell, Eddie Daniels, and Jimmy Bruno. As a production member of the International Association of Jazz Education (IAJE), Bruce worked directly with Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea and Dave Holland.
Bruce has authored articles including, “Converting Rock Musicians to Play Jazz,” Downbeat Magazine November 1982 and “Tips From the City Of Brotherly Bass,” Bass Player Magazine June 2004.
Radio and television appearances include: WHYY: “Fresh Air with Terry Gross,” WRTI: “Crossroads with Jill Pasternak and Jack Berkel,” ABC: “Good Morning Philadelphia,” NBC: “AM Philadelphia,” and NJN: “New Jersey Live with Mary Cumming.”
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James McKinney
Assistant Professor, Music and Music Industry
jcm472@drexel.edu
BiographyJames McKinney is an experienced creative professional having spent nearly 20 years as an executive manager with various media and music companies. He is also an accomplished engineer, producer, songwriter, arranger, film-scorer, keyboardist, vocalist, musical director, educator and philanthropist. In James’ experience as producer and music director he has worked with Doug E. Fresh, Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, , Faith Evans, Chuck Brown, Wale, Rachell Ferrell, Kenny Lattimore, Raheem Devaughn, Bankie Banx, Kenny Burrell, James Moody, and more. His performance, co-writing and co-production also contributed to two Grammy Nominated Performances in the Urban Alternative category.
In addition to these accomplishments, James has scored for film, television and web and most recently contributed to the score and sound-track for the award winning films “My Last Day Without You” and “S.O.U.L Of A Black Woman.” His scoring credits also include commercial scores for Discovery Channel and Johnson & Johnson to name a few.
McKinney currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of Eusonia Records, and also owns and operates Infinite Icon Enterprises, LLC, his production company. James also uses his skills to enhance the human condition through philanthropy and education globally. In fact within the last few years, James has performed concerts, educational workshops in music and music business in 7 countries including China, Taiwan, England, Papua New Guinea, Anguilla and Haiti. His work in Anguilla also garnered a 2021 Tec Award Nomination for Studio Design for AMA Recording, the studio he co-designed and built in The AMA Center, a caribean hub for technology and innovation which he also happens to co-manage. He recently completed several terms as a National Co-Chair of the Producers and Engineers Wing of the Grammys; and as a Trustee of the Board of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, (also know as The Grammy Association).
James counts his musical talents, business savvy and experience as a blessing and looks forward to continuing to use these gifts for the betterment and empowerment of people needing and seeking positive inspiration around the world, as he continues to share his and other’s music globally through live performance and recorded music.
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Roberto Pace
Adjunct Instructor: Music Theory
215.895.2451
rjp326@drexel.edu
BiographyRoberto Pace is a composer, music director, pianist and educator. He is recognized in concert music, as well as in music for theater and dance. His works have been played, and he has performed, throughout the U.S. and Europe, as well as in Canada, Brazil and Japan.
Mr. Pace studied at the New England Conservatory of Music with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Donald Martino, and the late great theorist Ernst Oster. He holds an M.F.A. in composition from SUNY Purchase, where he was the first to be awarded the Anthony Newman Prize for artistic and academic excellence.
Mr. Pace's recent commissions include the Network for New Music, American Opera Projects, The Greenwich Village Orchestra, the canonization of Padre Pio, the Viola Society of Philadelphia, the baroque/contemporary ensemble Mélomanie, which has released a commercial recording of his sextet written for them, Chamber Music Now!, the Elysian Camerata, The Gleeksman-Kohn Chorus of the Settlement Music School, and the American Composer's Forum of Philadelphia. He is currently fulfilling a joint commission of three celebrated guitarists for a solo work. His compositions have received public as well as critical success:"…a fantasm of shifting moods, featuring eloquent writing for strings" (NY Times); and "a kaleidoscope of colors wrapped in rhythms that leap with energy" (Philadelphia Inquirer). In 2011 Pace was elected to the Association for the Promotion of New Music (APNM), which will publish several of his scores through Subito Music.
He has served as music director and conductor at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's "Next Wave Festival", at La Mama Etc., and on tour throughout the United States. He has been pianist for many major dance companies and choreographers including the Dance Theater of Harlem, Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey, Suzanne Farrell, Peter Pucci, and Patrick Corbin.
A successful educator as well, Mr. Pace directed the music program of Fordham at Lincoln Center and lectured for the New York Philharmonic. He currently teaches theory and composition at the Settlement Music School of Philadelphia, and at Rowan and Drexel Universities. His summers are spent in Lubec, Maine, where he composes, and gives concerts and lectures at the SummerKeys Festival.
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Dr. Domenic Pisano
Director; Pep Band
215.895.2451
djp368@drexel.edu
BiographyDr. Pisano has been a music educator for over 25 years, starting his career right here in Philadelphia as an orchestral teacher at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. He spent five years as a 4-12 instrumental teacher at the Upper Perkiomen School District, before becoming the Music Department Chair and instrumental music teacher at Concord High School in Wilmington, Delaware, where he taught Wind Ensemble, Marching Band, Symphonic Band, Music Theory, Jazz, and Music & Film Production. He has also Directed ten honor bands through Europe with American Music Abroad.
Dr. Pisano is currently the Coordinator of Visual and Performing Arts for the Brandywine School District, serving over 60 teachers in 16 schools with over 8,000 Visual and Performing Arts students.
Dr. Pisano has written extensively about music education including, “Music Educators: Investigating the Relationship Between Undergraduate Music Education, State Certification, and Professional Responsibilities”, and he was a contributing author for a chapter in the book “Creative Music Making at Your Fingertips: A Mobile Technology Guide for Music Educators”. He has also edited several pieces of band literature with his mentor, Dr. Jack Stamp. Dr. Pisano has also served as a clinician, guest speaker, adjudicator, guest conductor, and lecturer for Universities, DMEA & PMEA and worked on educational policy with various state agencies.
A longtime member and teacher of Bands,
Dr. Pisano is excited for this opportunity to create music with the talented students of Drexel University. Go Dragons!
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Lynn Riley
Director; Fusion Band
215.895.2045
mcr27@drexel.edu
BiographyLynn Riley has been on the faculty of Drexel University since 1999. Previously an adjunct professor, she is currently Assistant Teaching Professor of Music in the Performing Arts Department. She teaches World Musics, Intro to Music (Music Appreciation) and directs the Drexel Fusion Band. In addition to lecturing, she is director of a Community Based Learning practicum (PRFA 100), where she supervises Drexel students who teach free after-school music classes to children of the Mantua-Powelton community of Philadelphia.
Ms. Riley has also taught, Music Theory, Ear Training, Fundamentals of Music, Jazz Theory, Latin Music, Rock Ensemble, Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet, Jazz Improvisation, and has served as conductor of instrumental ensembles of several Drexel theatre productions. She has taught at the Goodwin Evening College, both on campus and in the Online Distance Learning Center, as well as in Drexel’s Online Degree Program.
As director of the Drexel Fusion Band, one of Drexel’s advanced performance ensembles, she has performed at Westphal College’s graduations, Drexel Alumni Days, Convocation, and the Berks Jazz Festival. She has written the arrangements for and produced 8 Drexel Fusion Band albums: All the Places In Between (2022), Tell Me Something Funky (2019), Tell Me Something Good (2018), Funk Out Front (2016), Black and Blue (2014), Comin’ Home Baby (2012), Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing, (2010), Cold Duck Sauce, Best of Drexel Fusion Band (2008).
From 2000-2010, Ms. Riley was the Director of the AMLA (Latin American Musician’s Association) Roots of Latin Jazz program, giving presentations to schools throughout the Philadelphia area. She has done master classes nationally and internationally, as well as adjudicated at Jazz Festivals.
Known as the “Superwoman of the Saxophone”, Ms. Riley has performed with David Murray, Johnny Pacheco, Grover Washington Jr., Philly Joe Jones, David Bromberg, Peter White, Rachelle Farrell, and Charles Earland, among others. She has performed at Lincoln Center-Outdoors and the Brooklyn Art Museum, NYC, the Kimmel Center and the Center City Jazz Festival, Philadelphia, the Getty Museum, Los Angles, the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Minneapolis, the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, Wilmington, the Trenton Jazz Festival and the Mellon Jazz Festival, as well as internationally in Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guadeloupe, South Africa, Ghana and Japan.
Ms. Riley has received a Trane Stop award for her contribution to preserving and promoting Afro-American classical music, the NAJE National Association of Jazz Educators award for Outstanding Service to Jazz Education, and a Window of Opportunity Grant from the Leeway Foundation. She has been on the Board of Directors of the Jazz Sanctuary, the Sedgwick Cultural Center, the Women’s Jazz Festival and was featured on the television show Good Day Philadelphia.
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Rebecca Siler
Private Lesson Instructor: Voice
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Dr. Daniel Spratlan
Director; University Chorus and Chamber Singers
215.895.2451
dms542@drexel.edu
BiographyDr. Daniel Spratlan is currently in his second year as director of the Drexel University Chorus and Chamber Singers. This also marks his 10th season as Director of Music at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. Previously, he has served on the conducting faculties at Haverford College, Temple University, and Rutgers University. He earned his DMA in Choral Conducting from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, his MM in Choral Conducting from Westminster Choir College, and BA in Music from Earlham College.
An active professional singer, he is in his 15th season singing with the two-time Grammy Award-winning choir The Crossing with whom he has recorded two dozen albums. Many of The Crossing's 110 commissioned works focus on social, environmental, and political issues, and Dr. Spratlan hopes to share several of these works with the Drexel community. He has performed as a soloist and professional chorister with ensembles such as the New York Choral Artists, Clarion Choir, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Concert Chorale of New York, Opera Philadelphia, Piffaro, Tempesta di Mare, San Francisco Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in venues such as Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, the Kimmel Center, and Walt Disney Concert Hall.
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Dr. George Starks
Professor Emeritus
starksgl@drexel.edu
BiographyDr. George L. Starks Jr., professor emeritus of music, served for 35 years as director of the highly acclaimed Drexel University Jazz Orchestra, Jazzet, and Saxtet. For 20 years, he produced the Jazz Orchestra's celebrated Jazz Extravaganza, an annual event that drew capacity crowds to Drexel's Mandell Theater. An esteemed lecturer, "Doc," as he was fondly called by his students, taught a variety of courses including World Musics, African American Music, Jazz History, Jazz Improvisation, Topics in Jazz, and Introduction to Music.
An ethnomusicologist with a specialty in New World Musics of African origin, he holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in music from North Carolina A&T State University and the University of Illinois respectively, and the Ph.D.in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University. He has conducted field research in Barbados, Jamaica, the Bahamas, the South Carolina Sea Islands, and Anderson County, South Carolina.
Scholar/musician, his publications are on sacred and secular musics, rural and urban musics, traditional and contemporary musics. Starks served as associate editor of the International Jazz Archives Journal; as contributing editor to The Black Perspective in Music, the pioneering scholarly journal on African derived musics; as Black Scholar-in-Residence at LeMoyne College; as a member of Call and Response, a think tank on African American music; as a Carnegie Hall Advisory Scholar, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts
He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities; been the recipient of the Legacy Award from the African American Museum in Philadelphia, and the recipient of the prestigious Benny Golson Jazz Master Award from Howard University.
As an alto saxophonist, he was recognized in the Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition Category of the Down Beat International Jazz Critics Poll. He has performed with musicians ranging from Ghanaian master drummer Kobena Adzenyah to avant-garde trumpeter Clifford Thornton to vocalist Roy Hamilton to the Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra.
Starks was commissioned to compose and perform the music for the soundtrack of Trading Church Street: Pride, Prejudice, and a Parking Lot, a documentary on what was once a thriving African American business district in Anderson, South Carolina, and he appears in BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez, an internationally acclaimed documentary on the life and work of author, activist, educator, and Philadelphia's first Poet Laureate, Sonia Sanchez. He has lectured and/or performed at Harvard University, Yale University, Cornell University, and the University of Pennsylvania, among other colleges and universities.
In addition to Drexel University, he served as chairman of the music department at Spelman College; as Ethnomusicologist-in-Residence at Howard University; as a member of the faculty of the Gullah Studies Institute at historic Penn Center on St. Helena Island, SC, and on the music faculties of Coppin State University, the Community College of Philadelphia, and the University of Virginia.
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Brent White
Director, Jazz Orchestra and Jazztet Coordinator, Arts and Culture Hub at the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships
215-895-1732
bw352@drexel.edu
BiographyBrent White is a lifelong Philadelphian and jazz enthusiast. Mr. White understands Philadelphia’s rich cultural community; its leaders, history, musicians, connectors, and politics. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Widener University, a Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies from the University of the Arts, and a certificate in non-profit management from LaSalle University. He has toured nationwide and internationally as a freelance trombonist to the world’s largest Jazz festivals, yet possesses the local field experience, and relationships with many of Philadelphia’s non-profits with a career focus that can be summarized in one word—Jazz.
Previously, Mr. White has worked as the Education Program Manager at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, designing and implementing outreach education programming for Philadelphia students. Mr. White has taught jazz in the Philadelphia Prison System, the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts, in the Camden New Jersey City School system, and as Director of Jazz Orchestra at Drexel University. Residencies included the Juilliard School of Music outreach Department (Bay Area Tour), where he provided jazz workshops in juvenile detention centers, children’s hospitals, and schools in the San Francisco Bay area.
As a trombonist, Mr. White has toured with the likes of John Legend (Indonesia), Kindred Family Soul (South Africa), and the Sun Ra Arkestra (Europe). Mr. White has been welcomed to the stage by Lady Alma, and has recorded in-studio for Patti Labelle. Mr. White is no stranger to the Philadelphia and New York jazz scenes where currently, he performs with Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Big Band, Josh Lawrence and Color Theory, and the Fresh Cut Orchestra, among other ensembles. Most recently, Mr. White composed and recorded his album Broken Toy dedicated to children who suffer trauma caused by losing a parent to incarceration.
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Gregory Wright
Director; Rock Ensemble
215.895.2451
gjw28@drexel.edu
BiographyGreg Wright is the guitar instructor at Drexel University, he also directs the Rock Ensemble, which performs at Drexel and coordinates recording with music industry classes. When he is not teaching, Greg performs on guitar, plectrum banjo, electric bass, mandolin & ukulele.
Greg’s undergraduate degree is from Combs College and he has previously taught jazz guitar at Swarthmore College & Widener University. He also coordinates all music courses at Harcum College.
Greg is the director and co-creator of Summer Music Programs, Inc., which develops skills of young musicians in professional recording, performance and rehearsal disciplines. This program received “Best of Philly” 2008 Philadelphia Magazine for best summer camp and 2007 Coolest Camps on the Main Line, Main Line Magazine.
Greg was a bandleader for SWING SHIFT, a versatile, small Big Band that performed events and concerts throughout the tri-state area from 1988 until 2008. Greg’s interest in banjo and the music of New Orleans & traditional jazz started in the 1990’s as he led the Bid Easy Dixieland Band. He also currently performs Hot Jazz with Drew Nugent & The Midnight Society and is a member of the Wild Bohemians, a thirty-year Philadelphia tradition of NOLA street music.
In addition, you will find Greg strolling vintage train excursions, singing and playing banjo in West Chester and New Hope, and performing holiday music. Vintage rock band, traditional/modern celtic music, solo acoustic guitar gigs, jazz trios are all current activities that still fill his schedule.
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