Episode 183 - Frank Troyka

02/03/21 • 80 min

Frank Troyka was a longtime band director in Richardson, Texas and now serves as an adjunct instructor at SMU, educational consultant for Conn-Selmer, and director of education for System Blue.

Topics:

Frank's background growing up in several different locations and the story of how he ended up in Texas.
Meeting Eddie Green at Western Michigan and how that led to him moving to Texas to jumpstart his teaching career.
Teaching in Texas and some insight into the methodology and structure of Frank's program.
Lots nuts and bolts about teaching band and some philosophical discussions about teaching instrumental music.

Links:

Biography:

A teacher of 35 years, he is the retired director of bands and coordinator of Fine Arts at Berkner High School in Richardson, Texas. Troyka came to Berkner in May 2006 following seven years as director of bands at Cypress Falls High School in Houston. Ensembles under his direction have been selected to perform at the Music for All National Festival; the Percussive Arts Society International Convention; and the Midwest Clinic on two occasions with the Symphonic Band at Cypress Falls in 2004 and with the Berkner Symphonic Band in 2011. Troyka is an active lecturer and clinician, presenting in Texas, the U.S. and at international destinations including Canada, the Philippines, Singapore, China and South Africa. He is a frequent presenter at faculty development workshops for public schools and universities, as well as a guest lecturer and “hands-on” instructor for both students and teachers at all levels. In 2016, Troyka assumed the role as collegiate track director at the annual Conn-Selmer Institute in Mishawaka, Ind.

Troyka is a member of the Texas Music Educators Association, the Texas Bandmasters Association, Phi Beta Mu International Bandmaster Fraternity, and the National Association for Music Education. He is an educational consultant with Conn-Selmer, Inc.; the director of education for System Blue, the educational arm of the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps of Concord, California; and the coordinator of the Generation Next series of presentations for The Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference. He was honored as the 2002-03 Teacher of the Year at Cypress Falls High School and, while at Berkner High School, was one of 15 Texas recipients of the 2010 UIL Sponsor Excellence Award. In 2014, Troyka was honored by the Texas Bandmasters Association as a recipient of the Meritorious Achievement Award. In 2015, he was named to the International Board of Experts for the World Music Contest of Kerkrade, The Netherlands and in March of 2016, Troyka was inducted into the Bands of America Hall of Fame.

The Everything Band Podcast team includes the following contributors:

Host and Creator: Mark Connor
Outreach Manager: Colin Peters
Creative Director: Jake Walker

Frank Troyka was a longtime band director in Richardson, Texas and now serves as an adjunct instructor at SMU, educational consultant for Conn-Selmer, and director of education for System Blue.

Topics:

Frank's background growing up in several different locations and the story of how he ended up in Texas.
Meeting Eddie Green at Western Michigan and how that led to him moving to Texas to jumpstart his teaching career.
Teaching in Texas and some insight into the methodology and structure of Frank's program.
Lots nuts and bolts about teaching band and some philosophical discussions about teaching instrumental music.

Links:

Biography:

The Everything Band Podcast team includes the following contributors:

Host and Creator: Mark Connor
Outreach Manager: Colin Peters
Creative Director: Jake Walker

Previous Episode

Episode 182 - Allan McMurray

Allan McMurray enjoyed a 35 year career as the Director of Bands at the University of Colorado. Over the course of his remarkable career he has earned numerous honors and awards and is a past president of CBDNA.

Topics:

Allan’s background in music and his early influences.
The influence of H. Robert Reynolds on Allan’s career and some thoughts about the importance of finding great models to emulate.
Thoughts about motivating students and showing them that you care and pursuing excellence in your career.
“Imitation is the greatest form of flattery but the lowest form of artistry.”
The relationship between composers and conductors and how that collaboration can bring out the best in the music.

Biography:

Allan McMurray is Distinguished Professor and Professor of Conducting Emeritus at the University of Colorado. He served for 35 years as Director of Bands and Chair of the Conducting Faculty before retiring from CU at the end of the 2013 academic year. Prior to this position, he was on the faculty of the University of Michigan, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Considered one of the world’s leading teachers of conducting, Professor McMurray has guest conducted and taught conductors in 48 states and 15 foreign countries. He has been a featured visiting professor and conductor at over 200 universities and conservatories internationally.

During his tenure at Colorado, the University of Colorado Wind Symphony performed by invitation at major conferences and conventions, including The First International Conference for Symphonic Bands in Manchester, England; the All-Japan Band Conference in Nemo Nu Sato, Japan; the College Band Directors National Association Convention (twice); and the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles in Hamamatsu, Japan. The ensemble also has released two CDs on the Klavier label featuring original works by composers Daniel Kellogg, Carter Pann and Frank Ticheli and collaboration with the Takacs String Quartet, Patrick Mason, Baritone and Jennifer Bird-Arvidsson, Soprano.

With a strong commitment to new music, Allan McMurray has been a strong proponent in commissioning and performing new compositions by American composers. He has won praise for his interpretive and expressive conducting by many composers including Pulitzer Prize winners Michael Colgrass, George Crumb, John Harbison, Karel Husa and Steven Stucky.

Professor McMurray has performed with the St. Louis Symphony, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Debut Orchestra and has guest conducted the Colorado Symphony, the Thai Philharmonic Orchestra and the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra. He also conducted the Prague Chamber musicians in a festival featuring the music of George Crumb in Prague and subsequently in the US. McMurray also completed four seasons with the Colorado Ballet Orchestra as conductor of Philip Feeney’s Dracula.

Professor McMurray’s internationally acclaimed DVD series on the Art of Conducting includes three DVDs: “Conducting from the Inside Out: Gesture and Movement” published by GIA; “Conducting from the Inside Out: Conductor and Composer with Frank Ticheli” published by Manhattan Beach Music; and “Kindred Spirits” with friends and well-known conductors Richard Floyd, Craig Kirchhoff and Robert Reynolds also published by GIA. He is currently working on a companion textbook to the DVD series.

Allan McMurray has received numerous honors and awards. He is a Past-President of the College Band Directors National Association, he is a recipient of the Bohumil Makovsky Award for Outstanding College Band Directors from the National Band Fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi, and has been recognized by California State University Long Beach as “Distinguished Artist in Classical Music.” In December 2004, the Board of Regents of the University of Colorado designated Allan McMurray as the university’s 25th “Distinguished Professor” in recognition of his lifetime professional achievement in the teaching of conducting.

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Next Episode

Episode 184 - Steve Danyew

Steve Danyew is a composer living in Rochester, New York. He has written several very successful for band, including Magnolia Star and Into the Silent Land.

Topics:

Steve's background growing up and his musical education.
Steve plays saxophone and I sing a few notes!
Steve's music, including Magnolia Star and the story behind Into the Silent Land.
Thoughts about composing and publishing.

Links:

Biography:

Steve Danyew’s music has been hailed as “startlingly beautiful” and “undeniably well crafted and communicative” by the Miami Herald, and has been praised as possessing “sensitivity, skill and tremendous sophistication” by the Kansas City Independent.

Danyew (b. 1983) is the recipient of numerous national and international awards for his work, and his compositions have been performed throughout the world in venues such as the Sydney Opera House, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and the steps of the US Capitol. Danyew’s recent work Into the Silent Land was named the winner of the 2019 Walter Beeler Memorial Composition Prize. Three of his compositions for wind band are featured in Volume 11 of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band (GIA).

In addition to composing, Danyew is a passionate educator who teaches courses focused on helping young musicians craft their own creative careers at the Eastman School of Music’s Institute for Music Leadership. He is the contributing author for the 2nd edition of Ramon Ricker’s book Lessons from a Street-Wise Professor: What You Won’t Learn at Most Music Schools (Soundown, 2018). He is also a frequent guest composer and lecturer at schools through the United States.

In 2020, Danyew and his wife Ashley created Musician & Co., a new resource that equips 21st-century musicians to be both artists and business owners. The mission of Musician & Co. is to provide an innovative model for bridging the gap between the practice room and a profitable business.

Danyew grew up in New England, playing the saxophone and improvising music on the piano. After a performance of his own work, the South Florida Sun Sentinel proclaimed him a “saxophone virtuoso par excellence, making the instrument sing as well as shout.” Danyew performed as a saxophonist in the University of Miami Wind Ensemble under the direction of Gary Green, and this formative experience led him to begin composing works for wind band.

Danyew received a B.M., Pi Kappa Lambda from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and holds an M.M. in Composition and Certificate in Arts Leadership from the Eastman School of Music. Additionally, Danyew has served as a Composer Fellow at the Yale Summer Music School with Martin Bresnick, and as a Composer Fellow at the Composers Conference in Wellesley, MA with Mario Davidovsky.

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The Everything Band Podcast team includes the following contributors: