Band - John Christian
John R. Christian is an Independent Arts Curriculum and Program Consultant who assists Charter, Private and Parochial Schools in strengthening and building new Arts Programs in schools. Prior to his current appointment, he served as Fine Arts Chair in Rabat, Morocco and Director of Bands and Choirs at schools in California, Florida, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. He has also held higher education posts at Southern Catholic College, Barry University, and Alma College.
Mr. Christian has been a Guest Conductor at the MENC National Convention in Minneapolis, MN, Rollins College, and the Columbine Concert Band Festival in Colorado. Mr. Christian has also conducted honor bands, clinics and lectured at higher education institutions on Music Education in Independent/Parochial School and Integrative Arts Education in ten states, Australia, Europe and Africa. He has participated at the Southeastern Center of the Arts Forum on Integrative Arts Education.
A champion of new music, Mr. Christian has commissioned over 10 works for band at the elementary and middle school level and has participated with American Composer’s Forum on the Bandquest Project.
John earned a Bachelors of Music the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and a Masters of Arts in Education with concentrations Instruction and Curriculum from Central Michigan University. He also has done post-graduate study in Instrumental Conducting and Music Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Central Michigan University, and the Essential Ellington Band Director Academy. His mentors have included Dr. Glenn Hayes, Thomas Dvorak and John Williamson. His professional memberships include the NAfME, NCBA, NBA, CBDNA, The Conductor’s Guild, and is Life Long member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.
Chorus - Claudia Dvorak
Claudia Mallatt-Dvorak has served as a dedicated music educator in the state of Nebraska for over 29 years. As director of choral activities and instructor of elementary music at Laurel-Concord/Coleridge Public Schools, she currently teaches over 275 students per day ranging from Early Childhood through 12th grade. Dvorak holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Education degree from Wayne State College and a Master of Music in Opera/Performance from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
In addition to the Laurel-Concord/Coleridge Concert Choir, Dvorak conducts the Madrigal Singers, Lady Bears Women’s Glee and the Varsity Show Choir. Her choirs have successfully competed and toured on both the state and regional levels, and her concerts and holiday festivals have been featured on public access television, public radio and at various churches and community organizations. Dvorak’s choirs continue to receive superior ratings at District Music contests and place highly at show choir invitational’s and choral festivals. Along with her high school programs, she also presents annual holiday and spring elementary performances and operettas.
Dvorak also serves as the conductor of the Laurel Area Community Chorus and the Marian Mallatt Singers, who present an annual Memorial Day Concert and seasonal choral works, including Christmas and Easter Cantatas. She was the featured guest clinician at the LWML Regional Convention and has been an active adjudicator at the elementary, middle school and high school levels. Dvorak has hosted both the NENAC and Lewis and Clark Conference choral clinics several times in addition to NSAA sanctioned District Music Contests. She has also produced musicals with the Laurel-Concord Junior High School, Sr. High School and Wayne Community Theatre. Claudia maintains a private vocal and piano studio from which selected students perform at competitions and all members of the studio participate in annual spring recitals.
Claudia has served as class sponsor for multiple freshman, sophomore and junior classes throughout her tenure at Laurel, and has served as a faculty advisor to various groups of students. She is chair of the Music Curricula Review and Development Committee at Laurel, where she developed the school’s first curriculum for music education. She participated as a member of the safety committee and served as co-chair of the School Improvement Steering Committee for nine years. She has been an active member of the ACDA, NCDA, NMEA, MENC, NEA, LCEA, and served as an NCDA mentor and secretary at the state level for four years. Dvorak continues to mentor young music educators from the surrounding colleges and universities, as experience in the classroom is of vital importance in the development of young and talented music educators.
During her career, Dvorak has been decorated with many accolades, some of which include multiple honors for the Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers award, the Laurel-Concord Educational Foundation Award, and the Haskell Award for excellence in teaching.
General Music - Mary Abt
I was raised in Pittsburgh PA. My favorite personal quote is “I was a singing and teaching from the time I popped into the world”. Some of my fondest musical memories are of accompanying my Aunt Shirl to her voice lessons; coaxing my brothers and sisters into allowing me to play school all summer; of course I was always the music teacher. And each winter growing up I would gather them together and I would be the director while wassailing up and down the streets of our little neighborhood.
Throughout high school my major influences came from my music teachers. I studied vocal technique with Mrs. Betty Jo Wareham and Ms. Patti Abele both outstanding in the field. I also participated in the PMEA All District and State choruses for 3 successive years. During my undergrad years I participated in the student orchestra and the Concert Chorale. I was an active member of the musical theatre opera workshop department and was a selected participant in the PMEA Intercollegiate Choir Festivals.
After college I moved to Philadelphia, PA and found my first teaching position at Warren Harding Middle School. Harding was an inner city school and I found myself the only general music teacher for grades 6-8. I was given one set of CD’s for each grade and a boom box that was it. I immediately designed a music curriculum and set out writing plans for a comprehensive middle school music program.
The four walls of my third floor classroom were peeling and cracked. The plaster in the ceiling was falling down on top of my head. Halls were jammed with students who were bussed into Harding MS from all areas of Philadelphia. Classroom instruments were a dream not a reality. But I was bound and determined to bring music into the lives of these students. And I did! I developed a strong solid general music program from soup to nuts.
Now, I live in Truro, Massachusetts, a far cry from inner city Philadelphia. In this rural town I again find myself the soup to nuts music educator. Instructing students in Kindergarten through 6th grade, I have developed a music curriculum for general music, vocal, strings, band and keyboard. I use the music methods of Kodaly, Orff and Dalcroze while I venture into the new teaching theories of modern master teachers like Dr. Kenneth Phillips and Dr. Sandra Doneski of Gordon College, Drs. John and Lillie Feierabend from the Hartt School of Music, and Dr. Chris Azzara from Eastman School of Music to name just a few.
Along with this solid foundation in music education, I am grateful to have the support of my community, staff members and colleagues. Partner that with the support of administrators and a school committee who adhere to the qualities of great educational leadership, I have all the tools necessary to run a successful music program.
Guitar - Eileen Dimminger
Eileen Dimminger has been teaching guitar privately and in schools for over 30 years. She received her B.A. in Classical Guitar and a secondary Music Education Credential from San Francisco State University. For 10 years Eileen taught all instruments traveling to several public elementary schools, while also teaching Orchestra and Jazz Band at the Middle School Level. She acted as Department Head and was a Music Mentor for the State, teaching other teachers how to incorporate guitar into their curriculum in the Redwood City School District. Eileen currently teaches Guitar classes for both Middle and High School students at a private school, as well as Jazz Band, Rock Band and two Orchestras.
Jazz - Zachary Poulter
Zachary Poulter is best known as the author of Teaching Improv in Your Jazz Ensemble: A Complete Guide for Music Educators, published by MENC. As director of bands at Syracuse Jr. High in Utah, Poulter's performing groups are noted for innovation, excellence, and creativity. The jazz band and combos have won multiple first place awards in statewide and region festivals where they regularly perform student-composed material. In addition, Syracuse Jr. High’s Symphonic Band is a perennial participant in the State Band Festival, and annually creates and performs an original student-composed silent film soundtrack. Poulter is active throughout the intermountain west as an adjudicator, clinician, and performer. He is currently serves on the Executive Board of the Utah Music Educators Association as the Jr. High/Middle School Vice President, and is working on a saxophone harmonics book and his first album.
Orchestra - Barry Kolman
Barry Kolman is a frequent guest conductor of orchestras around the world. In 1994, he led the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in Russia as guest conductor for the Anton Rubinstein Centennial Concert, and in 1993 he was invited by the Minister of Culture to become the first American to conduct the State Orchestra of Azerbaijan. In 1992 he led a tour of the Deutsch-Amerikanisches Blasorchester under the auspices of the U.S. General Consul. As a guest conductor, Kolman has also led the Orchestre Royal de Chambre of Belgium, the Orquestra do Norte in Portugal, the Poznan and Czestochowa Orchestras in Poland, the Cordoba Symphony Orchestra in Argentina, the Hunan Philharmonic in China, the Botosani Philharmonic in Romania, the Gilea Chamber Orchestra and Crimean State Philharmonic Orchestra in Ukraine, the West Bohemian Symphony Orchestra in the Czech Republic, the Ural State Philharmonic in Russia, the Hopkins Symphony in Baltimore, the Northern Music Festival Orchestra in Ontario, and the Rio de Janeiro Philharmonic.
Dr. Kolman has led the Buffalo Philharmonic (New York), Mesa (Arizona) and North Arkansas Symphony Orchestras and recorded his fifth CD with the State Philharmonic of Iasi (Romania). He has conducted the Slovak State Symphony Orchestra of Kosice during the city's annual sacred music festival and then in the first recording of Anton Rubinstein's Symphony No. 3 for Centaur Records. He has also recorded music of Pulitzer prize-winner Karel Husa with the Slovak Radio Symphony in Bratislava. Other recordings include music of George Antheil, also on Centaur, and film music of Max Steiner. He is currently working on the premiere recording of, “Where Do We Go From Here?”, a film musical comedy with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Ira Gershwin.
Barry Kolman received his doctorate in conducting from the University of Northern Colorado, his Master of Music degree in clarinet from Illinois State University, and his bachelor's degree in music education from the Crane School of Music. Dr. Kolman studied conducting with Eugene Corporon of the University of North Texas, and has participated in master classes led by Zubin Mehta and Frederick Fennell.
Currently, Dr. Kolman is Music Director and Conductor of the University-Shenandoah Symphony Orchestra and Professor of Music at Washington and Lee University.