This band festival is a celebration of the musical legacies of Lowell Mason and John Philip Sousa. Lowell Mason (1792-1872) is known as the father of American public school music education, acting as the first supervisor of music in the Boston Public Schools as early as 1833. Mason also contributed significantly to the development of American sacred music during his life and was a former president of the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston. John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) did for American school bands what Lowell Mason contributed to American music education, by directing an outstanding professional concert band that travelled extensively around the world, as well as conducting many early youth festival bands that exist today…most notably in the Northeast, the New England Music Festival Association. Sousa was an outstanding composer and an advocate school band music. As a composer, Sousa was quite prolific and his marches are known around the world as a symbol of American music.
COLLIN MYERS
CONDUCTOR, 2016 SOUSA MASON HERITAGE YOUTH BAND
Collin Myers is Co-Conductor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Concert Band of Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as the Director of the Worcester Youth Orchestra Clarinet Choir, an ensemble started just this year. He teaches band, marching band, and instrumental lessons at the Auburn Middle School in Auburn, MA. Previously, Collin taught at beginning band and chorus in Rockland, MA and was the high school band director at The Bromfield School in Harvard, MA.
Mr. Myers received a Masters in Conducting from the American Band College of Sam Houston State University. Collin earned his bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Ithaca College (Summa Cum Laude). While at Ithaca, Mr. Myers studied with Michael Galvan, Stephen Peterson, Elizabeth Peterson, Mark Fonder, John White, and Craig Cummings.
CONDUCTOR, 2016 SOUSA MASON HERITAGE YOUTH BAND
Collin Myers is Co-Conductor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Concert Band of Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as the Director of the Worcester Youth Orchestra Clarinet Choir, an ensemble started just this year. He teaches band, marching band, and instrumental lessons at the Auburn Middle School in Auburn, MA. Previously, Collin taught at beginning band and chorus in Rockland, MA and was the high school band director at The Bromfield School in Harvard, MA.
Mr. Myers received a Masters in Conducting from the American Band College of Sam Houston State University. Collin earned his bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Ithaca College (Summa Cum Laude). While at Ithaca, Mr. Myers studied with Michael Galvan, Stephen Peterson, Elizabeth Peterson, Mark Fonder, John White, and Craig Cummings.