COMPOSERS
Charles carter
Charles Carter has been composing and arranging band music for more than 45 years. His contributions to the concert band literature are numerous and well known; and his name is synonymous with creative quality music. He received the Bachelor of Music degree from Ohio State University and the Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Bernard Rogers and Wayne Barlow. When he was a senior at Ohio State he wrote his first symphonic band composition, which was performed in concert the next year.
After graduating from Eastman, he returned to Columbus, Ohio, and worked for the U.S. government. During this time he wrote dance band arrangements and played in dance bands and show bands. In the fall of 1951 he began arranging for the Ohio State marching band and was part time instructor of low brass. At that time Manley Whitcomb, the OSU Director of Bands, asked him to write another piece so that he could premiere it during the American Bandmasters Association meeting. In 1952 he wrote his first two compositions designed for the educational market. The titles were Metropolis and Overture In Classical Style, both eventually published by Bourne, Inc.
In 1953 Manley Whitcomb asked Mr. Carter if he wanted to go with him to Florida State University as his assistant. For the next 43 years Carter arranged for the various bands at FSU. During this time he continued to compose band pieces for the educational field and was also invited to guest conduct throughout the South and Mid-West. In 1984 he was presented with the Distinguished Service to Music award by Kappa Kappa Psi National Band Fraternity.
Mr. Carter is now retired from Florida State University but continues to compose and arrange for concert band.
carol brittin chambers
Aspenwood Music
aspenwoodmusic.com
Carol Brittin Chambers, composer and arranger, is currently the composer and owner of Aspenwood Music. She lives in San Antonio, Texas, where she is also on the music faculty at Texas Lutheran University, teaching composition and serving as Composer in Residence.
Chambers is commissioned each year to compose and arrange works for concert band, marching band, orchestra, and chamber ensembles. Her concert works have been selected to the J.W. Pepper Editors’ Choice List and the Bandworld Top 100 and have been performed at state educator conferences across the country, including the Midwest Clinic. She was most recently named the winner of the 2019 WBDI (Women Band Directors International) Composition Competition.
Chambers has arranged and orchestrated show music for numerous high school marching bands across the country, as well as The Crossmen DrumCorps. High schools include CT Johnson HS, San Antonio, TX (2020 6A State Champion, 2019, 2016, 2011 BOAGrand Nationals Finalist, 2017 BOA San Antonio Super-Regional, Austin, & Midland Champion, 2014 BOA San Antonio Super-Regional & Houston Champion, multi-year State Finalist), Keller HS, TX (2015 BOA Grand Nationals Finalist, 2017 & multi-year BOA Regional and State Finalist), Broken Arrow Senior High School, OK (2006 BOA Grand Nationals Finals Champion), and Ronald Reagan High School, San Antonio, TX (2005 Bands of America Grand Nationals Semi-Finals Champion), to name a few. In addition to her own shows, she also orchestrates the shows of Aaron Guidry, at www.yataforluda.com.
Before coming to TLU, Chambers taught middle school and high school band and private lessons for many years in the North East Independent School District, San Antonio, TX. She has also consistently performed with groups such as the Mid-Texas and San Antonio Symphonies.
Chambers received a Bachelor of Music Education from Texas TechUniversity and a Master of Music in Trumpet Performance from Northwestern University. She studied under Vincent Cichowicz, Will Strieder, John Paynter, Arnold Jacobs, and James Sudduth. She and her husband Mark have three children: Catherine, Joshua, and Julia.
philip sparke
Philip Spark Music
philipsparke.com
Philip Sparke was born in London and studied composition, trumpet and piano at the Royal College of Music, where he gained an ARCM.
It was at the College that his interest in bands arose. He played in the College wind orchestra and also formed a brass band among the students, writing several works for both ensembles.
At that time, his first published works appeared - Concert Prelude (brass band) and Gaudium (wind band). A growing interest in his music led to several commissions, his first major one being for the Centennial Brass Band Championships in New Zealand – The Land of the Long White Cloud.
Further commissions followed from individual bands, various band associations and the BBC, for whom he three times won the EBU New Music for Band Competition (with Slipstream, Skyrider and Orient Express). He has written for brass band championships in New Zealand, Switzerland, Holland, Australia and the UK, including three times for the National Finals at the Royal Albert Hall.
A close association with banding in Japan led to a commission (Celebration) from and eventual recording of his music with the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra. This opened the door worldwide to his wind band music and led to several commissions, particularly from the United States. In 1996 the US Air Force Band commissioned and recorded Dance Movements, which won the prestigious Sudler Prize in 1997. In September 2000 he was awarded the Iles Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians for his services to brass bands. In 2005 Music of the Spheres won the National Band Association/William D. Revelli Memorial Band Composition Contest. He won the same contest again in 2016 with A Colour Symphony. In 2011 he received the BUMA International Brass Award and the 4barsrest.com Special Award for his contribution to brass music. In 2018 he was presented with the International Award at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago and was appointed visiting professor at the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Kawasaki, Japan, the following year. In 2020 he was made an Honorary Member of the American Bandmasters Association.
His conducting and adjudicating activities have taken him to most European countries, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Canada and the USA. In May 2000, he took the major step of becoming a full-time composer by founding his own publishing company, Anglo Music Press. The company is devoted to publishing his brass band, concert band, fanfare band and instrumental publications as well as recordings dedicated to his latest works.
Dwayne S. Milburn
Dwayne S. Milburn (b. 1963) is a native of Baltimore, Maryland. He received his B.F.A. in Music from UCLA in 1986, his M.M. in Orchestral Conducting from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1992, and his Ph.D. in Composition from UCLA in 2009.
During his undergraduate career, Mr. Milburn was an arranger for the UCLA Band and Choral Programs. Additionally, he worked for the Special Projects Division of ABC-TV as an arranger. Upon graduation he became the Director of Cadet Music for the United States Military Academy at West Point. Among his many duties, he served as the conductor for the internationally renowned West Point Glee Club, leading that group in performances at some of the finest concert halls in the country, including Carnegie Hall, Myerson Hall, and the Kennedy Center. During his studies in Cleveland, he contributed several arrangements to the Cleveland Orchestra.
In 1992, Mr. Milburn entered the United States Army Band Program as one of twenty-four commissioned officer conductors. His duty stations included Fort Monroe, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and Heidelberg, Germany. He concluded his military career as the Commander and Conductor of the Army Ground Forces Band in Atlanta, Georgia, having reached the rank of Major.
Mr. Milburn is active as a composer, conductor, and adjudicator. His choral and wind ensemble compositions are published by Alfred, Ludwig Masters, and the Neil A. Kjos Music Company. In addition to his duties as Composer- in-Residence for the St. Matthew’s Music Guild, his works have been performed by some of the finest collegiate and professional ensembles in the nation. Two of his works for band, American Hymnsong Suite and Variations on St. Patrick’s Breastplate, are featured in Volume Six of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, edited by Dr. Eugene Corporon. In 2002, Mr. Milburn conducted the Kennedy Center’s Annual Messiah Sing-Along, and he has acted as an adjudicator for the Conductor’s Art Workshop, co-hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin National Guard Band.
Alton Adams
As a young man in St. omas, Alton Adams apprenticed to become a carpenter and then a shoemaker. During this time, he learned to play piccolo and joined the St. Thomas Municipal Band in 1906. Simultaneously, he studied music theory and composition late into the nights through correspondence courses with Dr. Hugh A. Clark at the University of Pennsylvania. In June 1910, Adams formed the Adams Juvenile Band, which quickly became an important part in the society of Charlotte Amalie, the capital city of the Virgin Islands.
Adams developed a passion for reading and writing and his essays soon garnered the attention of prominent bandmasters such as John Philip Sousa and Edwin Franko Goldman. When on the eve of its entrance into World War I, the United States purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark, Adams was able to take advantage of an unprecedented opportunity. On June 2, 1917, Adams and his entire Juvenile Band were inducted into the United States Navy, thus becoming the first African-Americans to receive official musical appointments in the United States, since at least the War of 1812. It also made Adams the first black bandmaster of the US Navy.
The highpoint of Adams’ naval career was a 1924 tour of the U.S. eastern seaboard. With his US Navy Band of the Virgin Islands in top form, Adams and the band won accolades from concert and radio audiences alike. Adams' music is in the style of John Philip Sousa, exuding energy and unwavering patriotism. His best known works include the Virgin Islands March (1919), The Governor's Own (1921), and The Spirit of the U.S.N. (1924)
