Special Homecoming concert to feature four ISU music alumni
Four distinguished Iowa State University music alumni are the inaugural
recipients of alumni awards from the Department of Music.
The four will be recognized during Iowa State’s Homecoming celebration Oct.
21-23.
To honor these individuals, the ISU Wind Ensemble will present a special
Homecoming concert at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 23. The concert will be held
in the Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall and is free and open to the public.
Each alumnus will participate in the concert, which will feature the premiere
of a composition entitled "Fastidious Notes" by Jay Kawarsky performed by
the ISU Wind Ensemble with fellow alumnus saxophonist Paul Bro.
Others participating in the concert will be fellow music alumni and award
winners Wayne Bailey and Alan Greiner.
Wayne Bailey ('77) is the director of the School of Music
and professor of music at Arizona State University. He has held similar
positions at the University of Tennessee and Texas Tech University. A trumpeter
and band director, he is the author of three widely used music education
textbooks including Complete Marching Band Resource Manual.
An associate professor of music at Indiana State University, Paul
Bro ('80) has performed throughout the United States and Canada
as well as Europe and Taiwan. As part of the Bro/Street Duo, the saxophonist
has appeared on Minnesota Public Radio and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Alan Greiner ('85) is the director of the Iowa State High
School Music Association where he is responsible for the all-state music
program.
Jay Kawarsky ('81) is a professor of music theory and composition
and chair of the musical theatre program at Westminster Choir College of
Rider University in Princeton, NJ. He was the founder and conductor of the
New Jersey Gay Men’s Chorus from 1991-98, conductor of the Brunswick Symphony
and was artistic director of the Lehigh Valley Gay Men’s Chorus in Allentown,
PA, from 1996-2004. As a composer he has written for all genres including
solo instrument, orchestra, band, choir, voice and music theatre.
