Welcome to the WSMA
music mentor homepage.
This program is designed to provide a network of educators and
performers available to the developing high school musician and
composer. This site will provide email addresses of mentors, a message board, and a useful links page
for participants in this program to communicate with the mentors
and each other
John Gates, (right) professor of music, teaches music classes and directs the instrumental music programs at the University of Wisconsin, Sheboygan . He has taught at UW Sheboygan since 1969. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in music from UW-Madison.
Wayne Wildman, (left)
lecturer in music, directs the vocal music programs at University
of Wisconsin, Sheboygan and provides group and
individual music instruction. A member of the campus faculty
since 1990, Wildman is also music director of the Manitowoc
Symphony Orchestra. He received his master's degree in musicology
from UW-Madison.
Cliff
Odenkirk
(right) is involved in many
different facets of the music business. He teaches piano, organ,
electronic keyboards, brass, woodwinds, and computer music. Cliff has recorded music
for radio and television commercials and some of his original
music was used on NBC for one of their national TV shows. He is a pianist / composer living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Born in north central Ohio, he started playing piano at an early age and has since performed in 48 of the 50 US states and in multiple foreign countries. Cliff's easy listening and new age piano works can be heard on European radio and at his website CliffOdenkirk.com.
Cliff's CD's and music are distributed worldwide with online distribution through CDBaby.com , Best Buy, Tower Records and many popular digital distribution networks such as iTunes. Cliff
is an arranger for the University
of Wisconsin, Sheboygan jazz band and for community
bands in the area and is involved in promoting music technology
by acting as clinician and consultant to school districts and
colleges. He teaches three music technology related
courses." Computers and Keyboards , Music Sequencing and
Notation, and Music on the Internet". Cliff is the house
pianist at The
American Club, The Midwest's only AAA Five-Diamond
Resort Hotel.
James F. Crowley,was born in Chicago in 1963. He earned the Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from the University of Illinois, where he was named to the Bronze Tablet - the University's highest academic honor. From 1987 to 1990 he was a member of the administrative staff of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and in 1991 he held a Teaching Fellowship at the Aspen Music School. He earned the MM and DM in composition from Northwestern University, and served on the faculty of Drury College (Missouri) from 1994-98. His works have been performed by the Eastman Wind Symphony, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, the Interlochen Academy Symphonic Band, the Millar Brass Ensemble, Northwestern Symphony Orchestra, and other ensembles. His music has also been presented at Indiana University, Cleveland State University, University of Illinois, Ithaca College, University of Louisville, Bowling Green State University, Akademie der Kuenste (Berlin) and in Cape Town, South Africa. He was awarded the 1991 William T. Faricy Prize in Composition by Northwestern and has received commissions from the Music Teachers National Association and the National String Teachers Association. He was awarded a 1996 grant from Meet-The-Composer, Inc. to be guest composer/conductor at Symposium XXI for New Band Music at Virginia Tech University, and his 1997 work Danse Lunaire is published by European-American Music in the SCI Journal of Music Scores. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for both the Wisconsin Alliance of Composers and the Lighthouse Chapter of the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Paul Luhring, is a music arranger and owner of PEL Music Publications, Marinette, WI., a publishing company focusing on music of solos and small ensembles for woodwind, brass, percussion, and vocal. His B.S.degree is from the University of Minnesota, and his masters degree is from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He taught instrumental music at Shawano Junior High School in Shawano, Wisconsin, for 11 years and was the director of bands and chairman of the fine arts department at Marinette High School in Marinette, Wisconsin, for 23 years. He is the founder (1993) and conductor of the Northeastern Wisconsin Concert Band, an adult ensemble of 65 avocational and professional musicians. He a trombonst in the West Shore Brass Quintet of Marinette, Wisconsin. Paul works on the Macintosh with Finale as his software in the arranging and publishing field.
David M Thompson, holds a PH. D in music theory and composition from Kent State University in Ohio. He is presently Associate Professor of Music at Marian College, of Fond du Lac, where he teaches theory, composition, piano, American music, and conducts the orchestra. Recent compositions include a one-act opera David and Bathsheba, a symphony for concert band, and the score for a forthcoming television documentary The Gathering Place. He is also the author of a book, A History of Harmonic Theory in the United States.
Charles Rochester Young (b. 1965) has won high praises
and honors for his work both as composer and saxophonist. Major
awards include: First prize in the National Flute Association New
Publications Competition, Second prize in the 1990 Fischoff
Competition, Second prize in the National Association of
Composers in the USA Young Composers Competition, Prize winner in
the Vienna Modern Masters Competition and financial awards from
ASCAP (for the unique prestige value of his original works), The
National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, The Aaron
Copland Foundation, The Minnesota Composers Forum, The Presser
Foundation and Arts Midwest. Dr. Young has received commissions
from members of the Boston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and the
New York Philmarmonic; from organizations such as the Green Bay
Civic Symphony and the Big 12 Band Directors Association; and
from luminaries such as Keiko Abe and Donald Sinta. Dr. Young is the
Chair of Composition
and Music Theory at the University of
Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Dr. Kenneth T. Kosche is Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music at Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon, WI. He has been on the faculty there since 1978 with prior high school teaching experience in Illinois and on the staff at UW-LaCrosse. His BS in Music Ed. and MS degrees are from the University of Illinois (Urbana) and DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Washington (Seattle).
He has been a 1990 Fellow in the Melodious Accord January in NY Program studying with Alice Parker. His primary compositional focus has been church music. Through 1999, Dr. Kosche has nearly 150 pieces for choir, organ, handbells, instruments, and various combinations represented in the catalogues of some fifteen publishers. He teaches choral music and arranging/composing courses at CUW. He won the 1997 WCDA composition award for "Three Tongue Twisters" for two equal voices and keyboard, published by Hal Leonard. He was elected Faculty Laureate by his colleagues at Concordia University in 1999.
David Plank is a retired educator who worked in the Tucson (AZ) Unified School District. He received his Masters in Education degree from the University of Arizona. Mr. Plank served as a faculty member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Summer Music Clinic for 10 years as a performer and as a teacher of composition, arranging, and improvisation. Mr. Plank has had choral works published by Shawnee Press, Aberdeen Music, Kendor Music, and Curtis Music Press. His compositions have been performed by the Tucson AZ Pops Orchestra, the Queensland Australia Pops Orchestra, the Southern Arizona Symphonic Winds. He has written many works for jazz groups including Tucson’s Big Band Express. He has arranged music for a number of musical shows, both variety and thematic. As a performer he has appeared at the Sacramento Jazz Festival, International Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato, Mexico, Mammoth Lakes Jazz Festival in California, and many other jazz festivals in the western US. He has performed with many artists including Liberace, Eddy Arnold, Robert Goulet, Bob Hope, Debbie Reynolds, the Modernaires and Steve Allen.
Paul Sucherman is the son of two popular Chicago entertainers. He began studying piano a age three-and-a-half with concert pianist George Rosenberg. Forming a trio with his two younger brothers, he turned professional at age 12. After studying piano composition, theory and arranging at Northwestern University Prop School for seven year, Paul attended DePaul University.
He has performed on the main stage at the Sahara in Las Vegas, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and Cancun, Mexico. He has toured extensively in the United Stated, Canada, Mexico, England and the Carribean as a single act and with his bands: Cooler Near the Lake, Daddy-O and the Hep Cats.
Sucherman is past musical director and arranger for Chicago Playboy clubs, Glenn Ash, Pete Barbutti, Teddy Greaves, Pee Wee Kershaw, The Treniers and the W.W.F. He has opened or played with Reba MacIntyre, Tim Allen, Count Basie's Orchestra, Maynard Ferguson, Eddie Rabbit, Peter Noon and Steve Allen.
While on the staff at the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan, Sucherman has been active as a composer/arranger and Jazz Clinician and has produced and directed musical theater productions here, at various area high schools, and professionally at resort hotels and theme parks throughout the Midwest and Las Vegas.
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