DISTINGUISHED GUESTS
Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser
Tim Lautzenheiser is a well-known name in the music education world as a teacher, clinician, author, composer, conductor, consultant, and, above all, a trusted friend to anyone interested in working with young people in developing a desire for excellence. His career involves ten years of successful college band directing at Northern Michigan University, the University of Missouri, and New Mexico State University. During this time Tim developed highly acclaimed groups in all areas of the instrumental and vocal field.
Following three years in the music industry, he created Attitude Concepts, Inc., an organization designed to manage the many requests for workshops, seminars, and convention speaking engagements focusing on the area of positive attitude and effective leadership training. He presently holds the Earl Dunn Distinguished Lecturer position at Ball State University. Tim also is the Executive Director of Education for Conn-Selmer, Inc.
His books, produced by G.I.A. Publications, The Art of Successful Teaching, The Joy of Inspired Teaching, and Everyday Wisdom are bestsellers in the educational world. He is also co-author of Hal Leonard's popular band method, Essential Elements.
Tim is a graduate of Ball State University and the University of Alabama. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree from VanderCook College of Music. Additional awards include the distinguished Sudler Order of Merit from the John Philip Sousa Foundation, Mr. Holland's Opus Award and the Music Industry Award from the Midwest Clinic Board of Directors.
Dance Guest Artists
Renee Wood
Renee Wood began her training in Michigan and later continued with masters from the Bolshoi, American Ballet Theatre and Royal Danish Ballet. She studied pedagogy extensively with Jurgen Schneider, former Ballet Master of American Ballet Theatre while she attended Western Michigan University. She also studied pedagogy at the Nutmeg Ballet in Connecticut and with the renowned ballet master David Howard. Ms. Wood directed the Metropolitan Ballet Center and was Artistic Director of the Lake Pointe Chamber Ballet Company. Her excellent work with students was honored in 1997 with the Michigan Dance Teacher of the Year Award. She has served on the boards of Michigan Dance Council and The Michigan Youth Arts Festival. In addition to her work in ballet she trained and performed in jazz, tap and musical theatre. Renee continues to keep current with trends in teaching and performance, this summer she traveled to Chicago to study at the World Jazz Dance Congress and attended the CORPS de Ballet International Teacher Conference. Renee also enjoys traveling throughout Michigan and the Midwest teaching master classes and presenting workshops in dance to high schools, universities and summer camps. Ms. Wood's former students have received scholarships to universities and are dancing with professional companies.
Ray Mercer
Ray Mercer is a native of Omaha, NE. He is currently in the Broadway cast of The Lion King, NY. Ray started his dance training at the age of 17, where he studied at the University of New Orleans, Chicago, and New York. He has danced with Detroit City Dance Co./ Detroit, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater/Chicago, Boston Ballet (guest artist), and Joel Holl Dance Co. (guest artist). He has worked with Aretha Franklin, Rod Stewart, Stephanie Mills, Kevin "Iega Jeff", George Faison and Louis Johnson. Ray has won Broadway's Gypsy of the Year Award/2005, the Michigan Dance Council Award, and the Black Theater Alliance Award/Chicago, for his choreography. Ray was the resident choreographer for All-City Dance Company in Detroit and Chicago. He has worked with several outreach programs including the Alvin Ailey Summer Camp Program, the Joffery Ballet Educational Program, and the National High School Dance Exchange. He has set ballets on various companies and organizations across the country, such as Dallas Black Dance Theater, and DRA:Dancers Responding to Aids/New York. He has taught classes and master series all over the world. His most recent work set on Dallas Black Dance Theater. Ray was recently acknowledged in the New York Times and the Chicago Sun Times for his choreography.
Alisha Tresslar-Slaughter
Alisha is a studio owner, teacher, choreographer, and dancer from Indiana. She has been dancing since the age of two. She is trained in ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, lyrical, modern, hip hop, gymnastics, clogging, ethnic, folk, ballroom, and country western dance. She trained at Ballet Internationale and toured with the company performing in Cinderella at age twelve. She has also clogged with the Charlie Daniels Band at the Florida Citrus Bowl and was selected to be a NDA All-American. She has been named Miss Junior, Teen, and Senior Dance of Indiana.
Alisha received degrees in Dance Performance and Dance Education from Ball State University. At BSU, Alisha received the Fine Arts Scholarship and the Upperclassman Scholarship. She was actively in the Ball State Dance Theatre for four years, performing and choreographing. Alisha was asked to perform at the Kennedy Center in 2002. She also performed at the American College Dance Festival in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Alisha appeared on a PBS Special about Isadora Duncan. She has danced in pieces choreographed by professionals such as: Bill Evans, Charlotte Adams, Elena Comendador, Alan Sener, Kennet Oberly, Lori Belilove, and Robert Gardner.
Currently, Alisha is a guest choreographer and teacher at workshops throughout the Midwest. Alisha's students have performed and competed throughout the United States and have been honored with many overall awards at the state, regional, and national level. Just recently, Alisha's student company was nominated to represent the USA team at the World Showdance Championships in Germany.
Gregory M. George
Mr. George began dancing at age eight in Wayne, Michigan. From age 12 to 18 he studied at the Jordan College of Music, a division of Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana with George Verdak (formerly with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Becoming professional at the age of 16, he danced with the Indianapolis Ballet Theatre. He continued his studies with a full scholarship at the Ruth Page Foundation Chicago Ballet School, directed by Larry Long. For four years, Mr. George danced leading roles for the Ohio Ballet in Akron, Ohio, touring extensively throughout the United States and performing pieces by Ruthanna Boris, Paul Taylor and Balanchine. He performed in several festivals including Jacob's Pillow and the Spoleto Festival in Italy, as well as performing in original works reviewed in Dance Magazine. Returning to the Indianapolis Ballet, he performed leading roles in Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Coppelia, Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, Swan Lake, Sylvia, Raymonda and Gaite Parisienne.
Mr. George has a well-earned reputation as a respected dancer, teacher, choreographer and director for companies and universities across the Midwest. He has performed and choreographed musicals for Wisconsin University, Ann Arbor Civic Players and Bay View Theater Arts, in addition to TV commercials, plays and fashion shows as well as ballets for many companies as a guest resident director, dancer and choreographer. Over the past nine years with Children's Ballet Theatre of Michigan, he has produced full-length ballets such as Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Nutcracker, and has choreographed over 100 other repertory works for other CBT performances.
Creative Writing Guest Artist
Anne-Marie Oomen
Anne-Marie Oomen is a teaching writer. She is author of Pulling Down the Barn and House of Fields (Wayne State University Press), both Michigan Notable Books and Un-coded Woman, a collection of poems from Milkweed Editions. She is co-author of two chapbooks of poetry, Moniker with Ray Nargis, and Seasons of the Sleeping Bear. Her poems appeared in New Poems of the Third Coast: Contemporary Michigan Poetry. Among her plays, Northern Belles gained recognition through the Jane Chambers contest. She is Chair of the Creative Writing Department at Interlochen Arts Academy.
Anne-Marie Oomen is a teaching writer and author of Pulling Down the Barn and House of Fields (Wane State University Press) both Michigan Notable Books; two chapbooks of poetry, Seasons of the Sleeping Bear and Moniker (with Ray Nargis); and a collection of poetry, Uncoded Woman, (Milkweed Editions). She is also represented in New Poems of the Third Coast: Contemporary Michigan Poetry and was editor Looking Over My Shoulder: Reflections on the Twentieth Century, an anthology of seniors' essays funded by Michigan Humanities Council. She has written and produced several plays including the award-winning Northern Belles and Wives of An American King, based on the James Jesse Strang story. She is faculty editor for the Interlochen Review, founding editor of Dunes Review, is vice-president of Michigan Writers, Inc. She and her husband, David Early, have built their own home in Empire, Michigan where they live with a large cat named Walt Whitman.
Music Composition Guest Artist
Jose-Luis Maúrtua
Jose-Luis Maurtua, associate professor of composition and theory, joined the music faculty at Central Michigan University in August 1999. He studied composition with Ladislav Kubik and conducted with Paul Vermel and Leon Gregorian. Maúrtua has written music for concert hall, dance, theater and film. His music has been performed in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Czech Republic, England and China. Maúrtua's musical activity encompasses not only classical music but jazz, Latin jazz, music theater, pop, Latino and Latin American folk genres as well. He has composed and arranged music for symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, big bands, salsa bands and ensembles of varied nature. Maúrtua holds a doctor of music degree in composition from Florida State University, a master of music degree in composition from George Mason University, and a bachelor of music degree in composition from Carlos Valderrama Conservatory, Trujillo, Peru.
Guest Conductors
Jing Ling-Tam
One of North America’s most sought after choral conductors, Jing Ling-Tam, Director of Choral Studies at University of Texas Arlington, has garnered international recognition in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. A compelling musician, Ling-Tam has conducted over twenty five All-State Choirs throughout the United States. Her appearances as clinician at the American Choral Directors Association’s national and regional conventions have captivated educators and conductors with her inventive, humorous and highly creative approaches to choral and conducting techniques. Under her direction, the UTA Chamber Singers have toured Mexico, Taiwan, Austria, Hong Kong and performed at the Texas Music Educators Convention and the American Choral Directors Association Conventions.
Ling-Tam received advanced degrees in Piano Performance and Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory and the University of North Texas. She is the founder/Artistic Director of the American Chamber Choir. She also served for sixteen seasons as Associate Conductor/Chorus Master/Principal Coach Pianist with the Fort Worth Opera Association and was on the faculty at the American Institute of Musical Studies, Graz, Austria for eleven summers.
Some of Ling-Tam’s recent appearances include a concert tour to Salzburg, Vienna, and Graz, Austria with the UTA Chamber Singers (2005), the Taipei Symphony Orchestra/Chorus (April 2005), the 2004 American Choral Directors Association Western Division Honor Choir, the 2004 Alaska All State Choir, the 2003 All State Choirs of Iowa, Main and South Carolina, the 2002 AIMS Festival Chorus (The Netherlands), the 2002 Singapore Youth Festival Choir and the 200 Hong Kong Choral Exchange.
In 2006, she had appearances as clinician/conductor at the Ontario Vocal Festival & Bell’Arte Singers 6th Annual Choral Conductors’ Symposium in Toronto, Canada, the Southwestern ACDA Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, the Disney Honors National Choral Invitational, a workshop at the Costa Rica Conservatory of Music, the International Youth Choral Festival in Hong Kong, China, the Missouri ACDA, as well as concerts in Washington, D.C., Cincinnati, and Alaska. Ling-Tam’s past work as clinician has brought her to the Salzburg Pedagogical Institute (2005), the Third World Children’s Choral Festival, Hong Kong (2005) Treble Choir Festival (2004), the Canadian Rocky Mountain Music Festival (2003) IFCM Asia Pacific Choral Symposium (Singapore, 2002) and the Chorleitergang (Graz, Austria, 200). In 2005, she conducted the Wyoming and Nebraska All State Choirs and lectured at the American Choral Directors National Conference, the Taiwan Orff Institute, and the California American Choral Directors Association Summer Conference. A choral series in her name is published by Alliance Music of Houston, Texas.
Chris Collins
Chris Collins is a professional jazz woodwind player who has toured throughout Japan, South Africa, Europe and North America as the leader of his own ensembles and as a featured soloist. In the past year Collins has performed his original works in 7 countries on 4 continents.
He has played professionally with artists including the Phil Collins Big Band, Doc Severenson, Mel Torme, Michael Fienstien, Rob McConnel, Lou Rawls and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He has performed at jazz festivals including: Cork, Ireland, Montreux-Switzerland, Pori, Nice, North Sea, and Glasgow.
His most recent CD release, Jazz From The Shamrock Shore (Harriett Jazz/ASCAP), features extended compositions which artistically combine the instrumentation, musical vocabulary and repertoire of the Irish folk tradition with American Jazz. In addition to his work on commercial recordings and film soundtracks, including the soundtrack for the award winning Paramount Pictures release The Big Night, Collins’ jazz solo work can be heard on the CD releases Urban Solitude - Chris Collins Quartet (Harriett Jazz), A Hot Night In Paris - The Phil Collins Big Band (Atlantic), A Time To Mourn, A Time To Dance (Harriett Jazz/ ASCAP) and Watching For Watchung Plaza - The John Cooper Quintet. Collins’ work has received recognition from Billboard Magazine, Downbeat Magazine, Detroit Jazz Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit News, The Hennesey Jazz Competition, and the International Association of Jazz Educators.
Collins is currently an Associate Professor and Director of Jazz Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He has presented numerous workshops around the world including presentations at The South African Jazz Educators conference - Durbin, Capetown, and Grahamstown, South Africa, The University of Strathclyde - Glasgow, Scotland, The Big Band Club - Kita Kyushu, Japan, and at numerous U.S. I.A.J.E. conferences on topics including jazz saxophone/improvisation and distance jazz education. Collins has also contributed several articles to the Jazz Educators Journal including cover stories on Joe Lovano and Joe Zawinul.
Scott Boerma
Scott Boerma is Associate Director of Bands, Director of the Michigan Marching Band and the Donald R. Shepherd Associate Professor of Conducting at the University of Michigan. Prior to this appointment, Boerma was the Director of Bands at Eastern Michigan University. He began his career teaching music in the Michigan public schools at Lamphere and Novi High Schools, respectively.
Boerma earned his Master of Music degree in music education from the University of Michigan, where he also studied composition with William Bolcom. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in music education from Western Michigan University, where he also studied composition with Ramon Zupko. He is presently working toward his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in wind conducting at Michigan State University, having studied with John Whitwell. Boerma has also studied composition with Anthony Iannaccone at Eastern Michigan University.
An active composer, Boerma’s concert band works have been performed by many outstanding ensembles, including the Dallas Wind Symphony, the University of North Texas Wind Symphony, the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, the University of Illinois Wind Symphony, the University of Michigan Concert Band, the Interlochen Arts Camp High School Symphonic Band and the BOA Honor Band of America, to name just a few. His works have been heard in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Hill Auditorium, the Myerson Symphony Center, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and at the Chicago Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic. One of Boerma’s works appears in Volume 6 of the popular series, Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. He is commissioned each year by high school, university and community bands to write new works for the repertoire.
Also a prolific arranger, Boerma receives yearly commissions to write music for many high school and university marching bands and drum and bugle corps. From 989-2006, he was the music arranger and head brass instructor of the top-ranking Madison Scouts Drum & Bugle Corps. He is now the music arranger for Spirit from JSU Drum & Bugle Corps. Additionally, Boerma has arranged for drum and bugle corps and bands from Japan, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Thailand. Other credits include marching band arrangements for the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, the University of Texas (both Austin and Arlington), the University of Illinois, Texas Tech University, Baylor University and Jacksonville State University. Most of the Big Ten University marching bands have performed Boerma’s arrangements. Boerma has also written arrangements for the Detroit Chamber Winds Brass.
Boerma has been active as a band/orchestra conductor, adjudicator, and clinician and has given composing, arranging, adjudicating and educational clinics at the Michigan Music Conference in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids, Michigan, as well as at the BOA Summer Symposium in Normal, Illinois. He has conducted the Detroit Chamber Winds Brass Holiday Concerts, and he served for several years as conductor of one of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp High School Bands in Twin Lake, Michigan. Boerma actively serves as a guest conductor for many honor bands and community bands each year.
Boerma is a member of the College Band Directors National Association, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the American School Band Directors Association, Phi Mu Alpha Professional Music Fraternity and an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma Band Fraternities.
James R. Tapia
James Tapia is in his sixth year as the Director of Orchestral Activities and Chair of the String Department at Syracuse University. He served the previous four years as Associate Director of Ensembles and held the Donald R. Shepherd Chair in Conducting at The University of Michigan. While in Ann Arbor, he was also the Music Director/Conductor of the renowned Michigan All-State Orchestra.
Tapia began his professional conducting experience with the Tampa Bay Symphony as Assistant Conductor and has conducted the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, the Austin Bach Festival Orchestra, The Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings and The Dallas Wind Symphony along with many guest conducting experiences in the academic arena.
He has worked with distinguished conductors and teachers Pierre Boulez, Gustav Meier, Fiora Contino, Louis Lane, Jerry Junkin and Fred Fennell. James has received praise from composers such as Leslie Bassett, Michael Daugherty, George Crumb, Donald Grantham and Andrew Meade for his insightful interpretations of their works. Tapia maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor and clinician.