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About the Wind Ensemble

The Miami University Wind Ensemble has won praise from many composers for performances or their music, including Michael Colgrass, John Harbison, Gunther Schuller, Karel Husa, Leslie Bassett, Verne Reynolds, Daron Aric Hagen and Aldolphus Hailstork. The ensemble has performed for the College Band Directors National Association in 1994, 1998, 2006, and at the national conference in 1999; for the Ohio Music Education Association in 1990, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2010; at the inaugural Atlanta International Band and Orchestra Conference in 1996; and at the MENC North Central Division/Michigan Instrumental Music conference in 2005.

A unique guest conductor residency program has allowed the ensemble to work with some of the finest conductors in the world, including Frederick Fennell, H. Robert Reynolds, Eugene Corporon, Richard Floyd, Michael Haithcock, Jerry Junkin and Robert Ponto. Commitment to new music is also a vital part of the ensemble's mission, having joined commissioning consortia for works by John Harbison, Lukas Foss, Joan Tower, Joseph Schwantner, Michael Torke, Richard Danielpour, Daron Eric Hagen, and Chen Yi, among many others.

About the Director

Gary Speck ConductionsA native Texan, Professor Gary A. Speck is in his twenty-second year at Miami University, where he serves as Director of Bands. Mr. Speck received the Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Music Education degrees magna cum laude from Baylor University in Waco, where he studied conducting with Richard Floyd and Michael Haithcock. After receiving the Master of Music degree in conducting from the University of Michigan, where he was a student of H. Robert Reynolds, Mr. Speck was a high school band conductor in the Houston area for five years.

In 1987 Mr. Speck was a Doctoral Conducting Associate at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he was a student of Eugene Corporon. The following year Mr. Speck was appointed to the faculty of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he now conducts the Wind Ensemble, Symphony Band and Chamber Winds; teaches courses in conducting, music education, and wind repertoire; and supervises student teachers.

Department of Music

The Miami University Department of Music encourages its students to develop their relationship to the discipline of music as they explore the world through the lens of a superb liberal arts education.