Press Room
Over One Hundred Students From Three States To Perform In the SUU Honor Band
For Immediate Release: February 5, 2008
(Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah) The SUU Music Department will host the SUU Honor Band on February 15 – 16, 2008. A culminating concert will be held at the Heritage Center, in Cedar City, Utah on Saturday, February 16th at 5:00pm. Dr. William Berz and Dr. Mark Stickney will conduct.
The SUU Honor band will be made up of students from more than a dozen high schools from Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. Over 100 students have been selected to participate in two bands. They will rehearse all day Friday and Saturday and for a concert Saturday evening. This two day intensive offers students the opportunity to meet and collaborate with each other under the guidance of professional conductors.
Dr. William Berz is Professor of Music and Director of University Bands at the Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers—The State University of New Jersey. He teaches classes in music education and graduate instrumental conducting and has conducted a wide variety of performance ensembles including bands, orchestras, contemporary music groups, and opera. William Berz is also the Director of Bands at Rutger.
Currently, Dr. Berz is also conductor of the Rutgers Wind Ensemble. He has premiered many new works for winds, and he has won the praise of many distinguished composers, including Charles Wuorinen, Roger Nixon, Norman Dello Joio, Anthony Iannaccone, Eric Whitacre, Jere Hutcheson, Martin Ellerby, Adam Gorb, Jan Van der Roost, Ralph Hultgren, and H. Owen Reed.
Dr. Mark Stickney, a native of Fairfax County, VA and Portsmouth, RI, has performed and taught all over the United States. Currently he is serving as the Director of Bands and Brass Studies at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, UT. At SUU, Stickney directs the Wind Symphony and the Brass Ensemble. His teaching duties include conducting, instrumental methods and literature, brass methods, and applied low brass.
Before moving to Cedar City, Dr. Stickney held positions at Elmhurst Elementary School, Salve Regina University, The Community College of Rhode Island, The University of Rhode Island, and Oklahoma Panhandle State University. Dr. Stickney is the Production Supervisor for the Newport Music Festival in Newport, RI.
Dr. Stickney's conducting experience has included almost every kind of ensemble, from large concert bands to percussion ensembles. He has directed or guest conducted the Gettysburg College Symphonic Band, the University of Rhode Island Wind Ensemble, the Rutgers Wind Ensemble, the Rutgers Brass Ensemble II, and the Rutgers Percussion Ensemble, as well as various chamber ensembles and high school bands. His research into contemporary Swedish Wind and Percussion music has lead to world and North American premiers of a number of chamber works. During his doctoral studies, Dr. Stickney had the honor of guest conducting the Rutgers Wind Ensemble at their Carnegie Hall debut.
An active performer, Dr. Stickney is currently performing with the Orchestra of Southern Utah and the Las Vegas Brass Band. Performing mainly on tuba, but also trombone and euphonium, he has performed with the Rutgers Wind Ensemble, the Narragansett Bay Tuba and Euphonium Quartet, the American Band, and the Fanfare Brass Quintet. Solo performances include numerous recitals throughout the northeast, and a performance at the Newport Music Festival in 2003. He can be heard performing with the Rutgers Wind Ensemble on the Mark label.