AU BAND MEMBERS AND DIRECTOR PERFORM AT SEVERANCE HALL

Six members of the Ashland University Concert Band and two members of the Ashland University Jazz Orchestra were selected to be members of the 2014 Ohio Private College Instrumental Conductors Association All Ohio Collegiate Honors Concert Band and Honors Jazz Ensemble.  In addition, Ashland University Director of Bands Leonard Salvo was selected as a conductor for this year's Honors Concert Band. The 26^th Annual OPCICA Honors Festival was hosted on February 1 and 2 by Case Western Reserve University and the concert was held in Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio.

Those selected for the Honors Concert Band were music education majors Paige Arthur (Danville), Hannah Phillips (Plymouth), Shayne Smith (Bellevue), and Alexandria VanScoy (Huron); music major Jake Lange (Dublin) and dietetics major Natalie Hritz (Seven Fields, Pennsylvania).  Those selected for the Honors Jazz Ensemble were music education majors Andrew Bartelheim (Wooster) and Jaylynn Buchmelter (Wintersville).

The Conductors selected for this years Honors Concert Band were Leonard Salvo, from Ashland University; Robert Gibson, from Ohio Dominican University; Barry Kopetz, from Capital University; Dwight Oltman, from Baldwin-Wallace University; and Marshall Kimball, from Marietta College. The Honors Jazz Ensemble directors this year were Jack Taylor, from the University of Findlay; and Paul Ferguson, from Case Western Reserve University.  

Nominations for the Honors Band and Jazz Ensemble were submitted by conductors at each of the member institutions.  These students were selected from over 150 nominees. Both ensembles rehearsed for two days and then presented a gala concert in one of the world’s finest concert venues Severance HalL.

The Ohio Private College Instrumental Conductors Association, founded in 1987, held its first collegiate honors band festival on January 24, 1988 at Capital University.  Currently comprised of 20 member colleges and universities, the primary purpose of the organization is to develop a closer network of communication and resource sharing among the instrumental departments, divisions, or conservatories of the various privately funded institutions of higher education within the state of Ohio.  An additional purpose is to sponsor an annual honors festival featuring an Honors Concert Band and an Honors Jazz Ensemble comprised of instrumental students from the participating schools.  These festivals have enriched the lives of thousands of college instrumentalists as well as the conductors from the member institutions.  The students are together for two days, and prepare the concert in three rehearsal.