CLP: Symphonic Band in concert with special guests

Join the Furman Symphonic Band in McAlister Auditorium Friday, Nov. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in an evening of contemporary and traditional concert band music featuring music by Mackey, Milburn, Anderson, and more. Guest trumpet soloists Jamie Hood and Furman faculty member Buddy Deshler join the Symphonic Band for a special performance. Furman’s Sue Samuels and David Stanley conduct. The concert is free and open to the public.

Samuels returned to her alma mater in 2019 as Director of Bands and Coordinator of Music Education Studies. Prior to Furman, she was director of visual and performing arts at Randolph School in Huntsville, Alabama, and served for 14 years as director of bands at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her responsibilities included teaching and administering the Marching Blazers, the Wind Symphony, the Symphony Band, and the Blazer Band, as well as teaching courses in conducting and music education. During her time at UAB, the Marching Blazers more than doubled in number, performed nationally and internationally before tens of thousands, and garnered a reputation as one of the outstanding college marching bands in the southeast. In addition, Samuels created the UAB All-Star Band Festival which served more than 300 high school students from Alabama each fall, and more than 600 young musicians were served at the annual Middle School and High School Honor Band festivals each December.

Samuels’ teaching experience prior to her arrival at UAB includes 12 years at Lassiter High School in Marietta, Georgia, one year as assistant director of bands at the University of Georgia, and two years as director of bands at WT Woodson High School in Fairfax, Virginia.

David Stanley, Department of Music.

Stanley works as a teacher and musician to champion public music education, affirm regional identity, and promote community.

Raised in Emory, Virginia, Stanley is an 11th-generation Southwest Virginian who knows rural Appalachia is frequently stereotyped as simple or unsophisticated—characteristics he was encouraged to challenge. It seems appropriate to note that David was an overly inquisitive child. His father (probably just hoping for quiet) offered the sage advice, “sometimes you learn more just by listening to people than by asking them a lot of questions.” A healthy combination of curiosity and listening proved meaningful. Developing these skills as a teacher in an urban high school, Stanley came to understand seemingly opposite communities as more connected than separate. Together, they underscored the importance of musicians who listen, invest, and act: artistic citizens of place.

Now, Stanley aims to empower such citizenship. As associate director of bands at Furman University, he helps lead a comprehensive ensemble and music education program. Prior to his appointment at Furman, he was a conducting associate at the University of Georgia, where he earned the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts, studying with Cynthia Johnston Turner and Nicholas Williams. Interdisciplinary work in conducting, music education, and justice culminated with his dissertation, “Listening for Community: Ensembles of Purpose and Place,” which explored an ensemble’s potential to create community and teach artistic values supportive of a democratic society.

From 2014-2018, Stanley served as director of bands for William Fleming High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and was responsible for overseeing the program’s complete structural reorganization. An alumnus of Furman during the tenures of directors Leslie Hicken and Jay Bocook, he completed the Bachelor of Music Education, serving in a variety of leadership capacities including drum major.

Stanley is a member of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), the South Carolina Music Educators Association (SCMEA), and the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA). He recognizes these institutions must listen honestly to their past, and he is focused on using his membership to pose direct questions about work toward a more just future.

Trumpet Artist Buddy Deshler is an ambassador for the transformative powers of the arts, champion of living composers, and agent for change in the instrumental music field. His burgeoning career has taken him around the country, as well as internationally, and has allowed him to share the stage with ensembles such as the King’s Brass, The Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass, Foden’s Band, his own Vice City Brass, The Phoenix Brass Collective, and as of 2017, the illustrious Dallas Brass.

As an educator, Deshler serves as president, artistic director and co-founder of the nonprofit organization, “Brass Institutes of America” which encompasses The Fredericksburg Brass Institute and Tidewater Brass Institute, two week-long summer music festivals offering a rich immersion in master classes and seminars, large and small ensembles, instrument exhibits, participant recitals, and free concerts featuring renowned guest artists. Deshler also serves as president of the Nova Trumpet Collective, a nonprofit that aims to elevate the trumpet chamber music standard through accessible performance and outreach with an emphasis on diverse representation of musicians and repertoire. Deshler is also an active member of the International Trumpet Guild by occupying the role of Youth Day Coordinator as well as being a frequent clinician and session host of Trumpet Ensemble Reading Sessions and Chamber Music seminars.

Deshler holds a bachelor’s in instrumental performance and an artist diploma from the Frost School of Music, University of Miami, a master’s from the Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University, a doctorate from Arizona State University. His primary teachers have included Phil Snedecor, Craig Morris, and Josef Burgstaller. He has held teaching appointments at the University of Richmond, Arizona Western College, and SUNY Potsdam Crane School of Music. Deshler joined the music faculty at Furman University in 2022.

Jamie Hood is recognized across the US and Europe as an educator, soloist and conductor. Born in Scotland, Hood is a product of the Salvation Army banding tradition and began cornet lessons with his father at the age of 4. After moving to Alsace, France at 14, Hood continued his education studying with Marc Ullirch (solo trumpet Basel Symphony Orchestra), Philippe Litzler (Solo Trumpet Tonhalle Orchestra), James Gourlay (International Tuba Soloist). Hood then returned to Scotland to study at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama with Nigel Boddice (Trumpet) and Roger Webster (Cornet). During this time Hood played with two of Scotland’s premiere brass bands, The Co-operative Funeralcare Band and The Kirkintilloch Band. After two years, he moved back to Alsace and began studies with the American trumpet teacher and composer Anthony Plog at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg, Germany and Pierre Thibaud in Paris, France.

Hood is a passionate educator and loves to teach. He is equally at home working with beginners as well as seasoned players of all ages. Hood began teaching at the age of 16 in various music schools in France and since then has gone onto teach regular and give master classes in Germany, Switzerland, and the States. Hood remains passionate about teaching and still wants to learn himself as well as gain a greater understanding of Brass Pedagogy. It is because of this drive to continually get better as an educator himself that Hood has started to work very closely with American Brass Pedagogue and tuba player David Fedderly. As a freelance trumpet player Hood has worked with l’Orchestre de Chambre de Cannes in France, The Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra in Monte Carlo, The Houston Grand Opera in Texas and The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist and Besson Cornet Artist Jamie has given recitals and Master Classes in France, Switzerland and in the USA.

Hood has seen success conducting brass bands and working as a clinician with brass bands in Switzerland, France, and Scotland. He has served as an adjudicator at the Swiss National Soloist Competition and The North American Brass Band Association (NABBA) Competition. Hood is the music director with The Queen City Brass Band in Charlotte, North Carolina with whom he has been making huge musical strides over the last two years since accepting to work with the band. Up until August of 2014 Hood was the divisional music director for The Salvation Army in North and South Carolina overseeing the music and arts programs in the 60 churches across the Carolinas. Hood is now a freelance educator, soloist and conductor based in Happy Valley, Oregon, and performs exclusively on a Besson Prestige BE2028 cornet.