Toronto MegaFests, sponsored by North America Music Festivals. In 1999 and 2005 her orchestra received recognition for “Outstanding Performance by a Middle School Orchestra” from the Virginia Music Educators Association, at their association’s State conference. The Oakton High School Chamber Orchestra was invited to the 2008 Music for All National America Orchestra Festival; performing at the Hilbert Circle Theatre in Indianapolis. The orchestra was invited to attend the National Orchestra Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, sponsored by the American String Teachers Association. Dr. Collins is in great demand as a string clinician and adjudicator, as well as to demonstrate the physics of tone-production. The 2011-2012 season marks Dr. Collins’ ninth year as conductor of the American Youth String Ensemble.
doug wallace |
director of percussion ensemble Doug Wallace is a vibrant and energetic performer, composer, and educator with diverse experience in all areas of percussion performance and pedagogy. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School, Mr. Wallace has performed with a variety of acclaimed ensembles including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Washington National Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Theater Chamber Players, the Battery Four Percussion Group, Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, Post Classical Ensemble, Washington Symphonic Brass, and the Amadeus Orchestra. He has also participated in several honors ensembles and festival orchestras including Tanglewood Music Center, the National Repertory Orchestra, the National Orchestral Institute, Music Academy of the West, and the International Symphony Orchestra. With these groups and others, Mr. Wallace has worked under the baton of Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Pierre Boulez, James Levine, John Williams, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur, Leonard Slatkin, and Placido Domingo. Mr. Wallace is in high demand as a music educator and clinician. In addition to his position as Director of Percussion for the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras, he is the Professor of Percussion Studies and Assistant Director of Athletic Bands at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. Doug Wallace; Photo by Steve Barrett Mr. Wallace has been an active clinician, percussion director, and sectional instructor at several nationally recognized Fairfax County Public Schools, and his private students have been accepted to The Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the New England Conservatory, Boston University, the Peabody Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the University of Miami, and DePaul University. His teaching techniques are highlighted in his method book, Percussion with Class, published by FJH Music, and his compositions and arrangements have been performed at The Juilliard School, the Eastman School of Music, New York University, George Mason University, the Music Academy of the West, the Aspen Music Festival, Temple University, the Noncert Chamber Series, the Bands of America National Percussion Festival, the Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage, and Nationals Park. Visit www.dougwallacepercussion.com.
assistant to the music director; ayp brass coach Trumpeter Thomas Cupples of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) began his professional career at the age of twenty when he left the New England Conservatory of Music to play Principal Trumpet with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra in Haifa, Israel. He held the same position with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, prior to his appointment to the NSO by Leonard Slatkin in 2005. Cupples has also performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Boston Esplanade Pops, Washington National Opera Orchestra and the Jerusalem Symphony.
thomas cupples |
Thomas Cupples began his studies at the New England Conservatory (NEC) under the tutelage of BSO Principal Trumpet Charles Schlueter in the fall of 1995. While at NEC, he was a founding member of the Huntington Brass Quintet which would go on to receive grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and record under the Arasis Audio label. After two years he began to study with Boston Symphony Orchestra Trombonist Norman Bolter before leaving for Haifa, Israel. In Haifa, Cupples played hundreds of concerts throughout the country of Israel and toured Asia and Europe. On several occasions he was a featured soloist with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra and also with the Young Israel Philharmonic. 10 | www.aypo.org