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Time:

Thursday
December, 19, 2019
01:00 PM - 02:00 PM

Location:

Meeting Room W187

Clinician(s)

Ed Kiefer

Ed Kiefer

The Value of Giving Your Heart to a Small Program

Clinic Synopsis:

This clinic will examine the possibilities of achieving our personal goals, teaching non-musical life lessons in our classes, and teaching musical values when we find ourselves in a small school setting. Which of our goals can we realistically achieve? Which are out of reach? Every student deserves a good musical experience, so how do we prioritize our programs using our limited resources to help reach as many of these goals as possible?

Ed Kiefer - Biographical Information

Ed Kiefer began his career teaching band and chorus grades 6-12 in Davidson County, NC at Brown Middle and East Davidson High Schools. Teaching by himself and beginning with 25 students at the high school, Ed taught 28 years and built a Grade 6 program of over 100 students, three band directors grades 6-12, and a chorus teacher at a high school that had a total population of about 700. From 2004-2010, Ed served as Director of Instrumental Music at Pfeiffer University. Since that time, he works daily giving clinics with young directors in NC, VA and SC to promote sound teaching techniques and better bands. He is the staff arranger for the North Carolina Brass Band and regularly guest conducts his music at clinics and concerts across the country, including conducting the NC All-State Band in 2005. His wind ensembles and jazz ensembles have performed at the NC MENC convention numerous times, where he has also presented many clinics. Ed was inducted by his peers into the NC Band Director’s Hall of Fame in 2017. Through C. Alan, Carl Fischer, and Excelsia Publications, Kiefer has had over 50 commissions published for band and for percussion ensemble, many of which are on state festival lists. His publications have been performed world-wide and many have been featured at the Midwest Clinic. Mountain Dance received the best new piece for young band in 2009. Several of his pieces have been placed in Bandworld’s top 100 new pieces for band, including in 2016, Lannigan’s Ball and Captive, in 2017, Courage of the Cossacks concert march, and in 2018, Journey of the Spanish Buccaneers. His Bluegrass Rondeau for percussion ensemble received a favorable review in Percussive Notes Magazine. He performed on conch shell to his young band piece, Search for the Lost Colony, at the Midwest Clinic in 2013. Ed Kiefer graduated from Wake Forest University with honors in 1976 and received his Masters in Music Education in 1990 from UNC-Greensboro.

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