Eastman Wind Ensemble
Conductors
Mark Scatterday
Mark Davis Scatterday is Professor of Conducting at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music and conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble. Scatterday joined a prestigious line of conductors in the past sixty-plus years of the internationally famed ensemble – Frederick Fennell, Clyde Roller, and Donald Hunsberger. Since his appointment, he has led the EWE on tours of Japan, Taiwan, China, Canada, the US, and Europe. He also conducted the EWE in highly acclaimed performances at Carnegie Hall, Severance Hall in Cleveland, the Canadian National Musicfest, and the Midwest Clinic, and has recorded 6 CDs with the EWE and the Eastman Music Nova. Dr. Scatterday has premiered over 30 new works for wind ensemble by composers such as Andre Previn, Roberto Sierra, and Jeff Tyzik. Artists that he has performed with include the Canadian Brass, Nexus, Bela Fleck, James Carter, Al Vizzutti, Jeff Tyzik, Michael Burritt, Chien-Kwan Lin, James Thompson, Jim Pugh, Ian Bousfield, Dennis Smith, Robert Sullivan, Brian Shaw, Clark Terry, Eddie Daniels, Slide Hampton, Ed Shaughnessy, and Lee Konitz.
Professor Scatterday has directed wind ensembles and orchestras throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Previous to his appointment at Eastman, Dr Scatterday was Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at Cornell University. Professor Scatterday maintains an active guest conducting schedule and researching and writing articles involving score analysis, performance practices, and conducting – most notably the music of Karel Husa and Roberto Sierra. His arrangements for wind ensemble are available through Subito, Schirmer, Alfred, and Hal Leonard publishers. Notable guest conducting appearances include The New World Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Tokyo Philharmonic (opening of Ohga Hall, Karuizawa, Japan), the Kunitachi (Japan) Wind Orchestra, the Sante Fe Concordia, as well as many US universities, all-state, and all-county ensembles.
Dr. Scatterday has conducted the premiere recording of Roberto Sierra’s Cancionero Sefardi with members of the Milwaukee Symphony (2001), Judith Weir’s Consolations of Scholarship with Ensemble X (2005), Danzante with James Thompson and the EWE (2006), Barcelonazo with Musica Nova (nominated for a 2008 Latin Grammy), Manhattan Music with the EWE and the Canadian Brass (2008, nominated for a 2009 JUNO), a CD with the EWE and the Eastman Virtuosi featuring Stravinsky’s music and celebrating the EWE’s 60th year (2013, AVIE, London), a live recording of Roberto Sierra’s music (Summit, 2016), and a recording of Jeff Tyzik’s music, Images, (Summit, 2018).
Donald Hunsberger
Donald Hunsberger is Conductor Emeritus of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, having served as its Music Director from 1965 to 2002. He also holds the title Professor Emeritus of Conducting and Ensembles at the Eastman School of Music, where he served for many years as Chair of the Conducting and Ensembles Department.
Under his leadership, the Eastman Wind Ensemble continued its development as an international performance model in the creation of numerous new works for the wind band. The Ensemble also served as a prime example of contemporary performance techniques as demonstrated on numerous recordings on Sony Classics, CBS Masterworks, Mercury Records, DGG Records, Philips and Decca among others.
In 1987 his scores and recording of Carnaval with soloist Wynton Marsalis and the EWE were nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Solo Performance with Orchestra category.
Under his direction, the EWE performed throughout Japan and South East Asia in 1978 for the Kambara Agency and the U. S. State Department. Sony Corporation and Eastman Kodak, Japan, sponsored additional six tours of Japan and Taiwan between 1990 and 2000. Since 2002 he has been a Visiting Conducting Fellow at the Kunitachi College of Music, Tokyo, Japan as well as conducting and teaching in US and Canadian university residency appointments.
In addition to performing over 100 premiere performances, Hunsberger had been involved in writing projects including the books The Wind Ensemble and Its Repertoire (Alfred Publishing Co.), the Art of Conducting (with Roy Ernst, Random House), the Emory Remington Warmup Studies (Accura Music) and numerous articles published in educational journals. He is well known and recognized for his innovative scoring techniques for varying instrumentations of the contemporary wind band with numerous publications. He is the founder and editor of the Donald Hunsberger Wind Library (Warner Bros./Alfred) and an active contributor to the Library’s publications.
Hunsberger has been the recipient of numerous awards for research (Homespun America: the National Association for State and Local Historians), pedagogy (The Eastman Alumni teaching Award, The Herbert Eisenhart Award; Wiley Housewright Fellow, Florida State University) and performance (the Crystal Award, from the Asahi Broadcasting Company, Osaka, Japan; the Ehud Eziel Award, Jerusalem, Israel)
He is a Past president of the College Band Directors National Association and has served as a member of the boards of CBDNA, the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles and the Conductor’s Guild. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the Society for Chamber Music in Rochester.
In the orchestral world he has created and conducted performances of orchestral accompaniments to over 18 silent films with fifty orchestras including the National, San Francisco, Houston, Pittsburgh, Vancouver, Utah, Virginia, San Diego, Jacksonville, Honolulu, Winnipeg, Syracuse and North Carolina Symphony Orchestras and the Rochester, Buffalo, Kansas City and Calgary Philharmonic Orchestras, among others.
A. Clyde Roller
Conductor A. Clyde Roller (1914-2005) had an impressive career in both professional and academic music fields. Roller followed Frederick Fennell as conductor and music director of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, serving from 1962 to 1964. His 1962 Mercury recording of Alan Hovhaness’ Symphony No. 3 with the wind ensemble was chosen by High Fidelity as one of the top 10 recordings of the year.
In addition to his position as ensembles professor at Eastman, Roller also served as a professor of ensembles at the universities of Houston, Texas-Austin, Wisconsin at Madison, and Michigan, and was a conductor and faculty member at the Interlochen Center for the Arts for 50 years. He made numerous conducting appearances with the Boston, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Inland-Empire (CA) symphonies; the Texas orchestras of Corpus Christi, Fort Worth, and San Antonio; the Arkansas Opera Company; and at the Alaskan Festival, among others. For many years he was resident conductor of the Houston Symphony, musical director and conductor of the Lansing (MI) and Amarillo symphonies, and made international guest-conducting appearances with orchestras from Portugal to New Zealand. He also led many All-State, MENC, and regional orchestras, and the Congress of strings on both the East and West coasts.
Frederick Fennell
Frederick Fennell (1914-2004) began his career as a conductor almost as soon as he arrived at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music in the fall of 1933 when, to his amazement, he discovered that no wind band of any kind existed at either campus. He then devoted a considerable portion of the next 30 years of his life to the amicable amelioration of this condition, organizing and conducting outdoor and indoor groups, which led him to establish the Eastman Wind Ensemble in 1952. He conducted the group for its first decade, and spread wide its simple message through the Eastman/Mercury Records American music recording project at the invitation of composer and Eastman Director Howard Hanson. The Wind Ensemble’s original 23 LPs, now in crossover to CDs, caused reconsideration of the wind medium as a serious artistic pursuit. Dr. Fennell later joined the Minneapolis Symphony as associate music director, and then moved to the University of Miami as conductor in residence. He was principal guest conductor of the Interlochen Arts Academy, and other guest conducting appearances include the Boston Pops Orchestra as well as performances with the Carnegie Hall Pops Concerts and the Boston Esplanade concerts. He also conducted the Denver, San Diego, National, Hartford, St. Louis and London Symphonies; the Buffalo, Calgary and Greater Miami Philharmonic Orchestras, the Cleveland Orchestra and the New Orleans Philharmonic. In 1984, at the invitation of its players he became the initial principal conductor of the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra of Japan and later, conductor laureate.
Dr. Fennell was also part of pioneering recordings with the Cleveland Symphonic Winds and Dallas Wind Symphony. A legion of additional honors include an honorary doctorate from the University of Rochester; the Honor Medal of Interlochen, the Midwest Clinic, and the John Philip Sousa Society; a concert hall built in his name in Kofu, Japan; and the 1994 Theodore Thomas Award of the Conductor’s Guild. The 1993 Roger Rickson bio-discography, Fortissimo, (Ludwig Music, Inc., publisher) covers in a fat format the past 40 years of the Fennell story as well as Robert Simon’s new book, Fennell: A Tribute to Frederick Fennell, which includes the following quote:
For over seven decades, Frederick Fennell has been America’s Ambassador of music around the world. I have loved his editions and recordings since I first played them in high school. It was an honor to have him conduct the Marine Band as President and I congratulate him on this richly deserved lifetime achievement tribute and award.
– The Hon. William J. Clinton
42nd President of the United States
