Band – Dennis Granlie
A Glendive, Montana native, Dennis Granlie retired in June of 2005 from his position as Music Supervisor for the Great Falls Public Schools after a career that will have lasting impact on music education in Montana.
During his twenty-five years in the classroom, his bands earned a reputation for excellence. He taught in four Montana high schools (Lavina, Roundup, Glendive, and Great Falls Russell) ranging in enrollment from 36 to over 2,000. He has taught general music, choir, and band, and served as a church choir director. As a band director, his bands consistently earned the highest ratings at festivals and his symphonic bands won numerous awards at the state and regional level. Granlie served the last eleven years of his career as a music administrator.
He holds music education degrees from Dawson Community College, Eastern Montana College and VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, and an administrative endorsement from the University of Montana.
Mr. Granlie is a past-president of Montana Bandmasters Association, Montana Music Educators Association, and the Northwest Division of MENC, the National Association for Music Education. As a division president, he sat on MENC’s National Executive Board and was a participant in the 1993 National Symposium for Arts Standards helping to develop music education standards now in place under Federal law. Granlie served on the Montana High School Association Music Committee for nine years, four as chair and he continued to chair the National Federation Music Advisory Committee for two years after he retired. During his tenure with the MHSA, Granlie was instrumental in developing the rubric adjudication forms which are in use today in MHSA festivals, and converting them to electronic format.
Noted for his leadership ability, Mr. Granlie has organized such events as the 1997 All-Northwest Festival in Bellevue, WA involving over 900 students from six states. As NW MENC President, Granlie organized and managed the 1999 Division Conference in Portland, Oregon. In 1989 he organized and led the Montana Statehood Centennial Band’s tour in Europe. He has also organized and hosted Montana All-State Festivals and MMEA conferences, chaired MHSA District Festivals for 15 years and organized countless smaller invitational festivals or events. Throughout his career, he has been a valued member and leader of many other arts organizations in the community, state and the Northwest.
Mr. Granlie is one of three co-authors of MENC’s “Teacher Success Kit,” and has had articles published in regional and national professional journals. His book, "Teaching and Managing Performing Ensembles," was published in 2009, and is currently in use by several universities in their methods classes.
Dennis has received numerous awards including both the Northwest MENC Distinguished Service Award and MMEA Distinguished Service Award in 2005. MENC also named Granlie a Lowell Mason Fellow at a ceremony in Washington D.C. in March of 2005. In June of 2006, the National Federation of State High School Associations presented Mr. Granlie with their National Citation Award for significant and/or long-term contributions to high school music activities.
Mr. Granlie is co-director of the Winds of Montana adult band, and frequently serves as a clinician, adjudicator, and/or guest conductor at various conferences and festivals throughout the western United States. He works as a music consultant and serves as a mentor for the Montana Music Educators Association and is the editor of Cadenza, the official journal of the MMEA. He and his wife Marianne continue to live in Great Falls and have three grown children and four grandchildren.
General Music – Sue Metz
Sue Metz is an Assistant Professor of Music concentrating in Music Education. She has Bachelor of Music Education from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, a Master’s degree in Education/Music from the University of San Francisco, and an Administrative Services Credential from Sacramento State University. Prior to coming to Sacramento State she taught in the public schools where she was a music specialist, consultant, and administrator. At CSUS she teaches music for liberal studies majors, music education courses, supervises and places music student teachers, and advises undergraduate and graduate music education students.
Throughout her career she has worked extensively with the California Department of Education and the Commission on Teacher Credentialing where she has been a contributing panel member on the writing of the California Subject Examination for Teachers (CSET), the California Music Standards, and the CalTPA, the California Teacher Preparation Assessment, as well as an evaluator for the Single Subject Music Preparation Submission Documents. She is an active consultant and clinician for elementary music, and is the researcher and co-founder of the nationally recognized Teaching Through Musical Theatre Institute sponsored by California Musical Theatre.
Currently, Sue is a member of the National Association for Music Education (MENC), the California Music Educators Association (CMEA), the American Orff Schulwerk Association (AOSA), and the Northern California Association of Kodaly Educators (NCAKE).
Chorus – James Reddan
Currently, James Reddan serves as the Faculty of Music & Director of Choral Activities at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, Oregon where he teaches all academic music courses and directs the three-choirs (Concert, Chamber, and Men's). Prior to his current position, he served as the Choral Music Educator at Arbor View High School (2005-2008) where he taught all 8 choral ensembles, directed Musical Theater, and administered the AP Music Theory Program. He also served as the Choral Music Educator at Helen C. Cannon Junior High School from 2002-2005 in Las Vegas, NV. In addition, he has toured with his ensembles across the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. He holds two Master of Music degrees in Choral Conducting and Music Education from the University of Oregon where he studied with Dr. Sharon Paul, Dr. Richard Clark, and Helmuth Rilling; and the Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland where he studied with Dr. Margaret Boudreaux. Currently, he is planning to pursue his DMA in Music Education through Boston University beginning fall 2009.
Orchestra – Michael Lapomardo
Michael Lapomardo is a conductor and choir/orchestra director for Shrewsbury High School. His 10 year tenure has spanned over every grade level and subject matter. He is currently the director of the women's choir, mixed choir, and freshman choir as well as the orchestral program. Michael is also the music director for the annual spring musical. Mr. Lapomardo has had the pleasure of directing choirs touring Europe as well as performance tours with the BSO. Michael's choirs and orchestra consistently receive gold and superior ratings at festivals around the country.
Professionally, Michael is frequently called upon as an accompanist for local theatre companies as well as music directing the cast and orchestra. He has been fortunate enough to work with outside organizations on operas as well as College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. Mr. Lapomardo has sung professionally with the Tanglewood Festival Choir - resident choir of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston POPS. Mr. Lapomardo earned his degrees from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and from Fitchburg State College. He also holds a Level III certificate in Orff Schulwerk Pedagogy from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Jazz – David Kay
David Kay has been very fortunate in his music career, as it has taken him from recognition in Down Beat magazine both as player and educator to the pines of the Interlochen Arts Camp.
David received Bachelors degrees in Music Education and Telecommunications from Michigan State University, and a Masters degree in Jazz Studies from Indiana University. Although his first job out of college was as a disc jockey, he has primarily been using his music degree ever since. He currently teaches music at the high school of University School, a private boys school in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland. There he directs two jazz ensembles, a combo, a guitar ensemble and teaches theory. In addition, he teaches on the jazz faculty during the summer at Interlochen where he leads the middle school (called 'Intermediate' Division') jazz ensemble and three improvisation courses, two for middle school and one for high school. He also directs the faculty/staff Festival Jazz Orchestra. He has been at both positions since 1988. At the collegiate level, he was an instructor at Indiana University in the jazz department taking the place of former faculty member Dominic Spera where he was a colleague of the renowned David Baker. At the collegiate level, David has also taught at Baldwin-Wallace College, Case Western Reserve University, University of Indianapolis, Cuyahoga Community College and IU/PU-Fort Wayne, and in the East Cleveland (OH) public schools. He judges solo contests and teaches privately as well.
Since the reason David got into music was because he loves making it, he has had the privilege of playing with jazz greats Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross, Clark Terry, Gary Burton, Nancy Wilson, Anthony Braxton and NEC faculty member John McNeil, one of the great underrated player/composers in jazz. He is a member of the Jazz Heritage Orchestra, a jazz ensemble led by former Count Basie lead trumpeter Dennis Reynolds, and subsidized by the Black Studies Department at Cleveland State University. Just this past year the JHO not only performed in concert with Benny Golson, but recorded a soon-to-be-released CD, the first of its kind, of Benny's jazz ensemble arrangements of his classic compositions such as "Along Came Betty" and "Stablemates." His teachers while at college included Eugene Rousseau (IU), Daniel Deffayet (Paris Conservatory), Larry Teal (University of Michigan) and Elaine Zajac (Michigan State) on saxophone, and David Baker and Jamey Aebersold for improvisation. He spent one year each as lead alto sax in the first and second jazz ensembles and Indiana University. There he recorded albums with David Baker, Harvey Phillips, Jim Beard (Wayne Shorter), Bob Hurst (the Marsalis brothers) and Shawn Pelton (Saturday Night Live) as a member of Baker's 21st Century Bebop Band. He is currently a member of the bass section of the Baldwin-Wallace College Men's Chorus and sung for many years as a member of the University Circle Chorale and the Interlochen Festival Chorus.
He is intensely interested in the educational and humanistic aspects of improvisation and any related research and prosaic writing. He has given presentations on the subject at over twenty workshops at state MENC conferences and national and international music therapy conferences (his wife, Lalene, is professor of Music Therapy at Baldwin-Wallace College.) He has previously been a MENC jazz mentor, and during the past year has been a contributor to online MENC discussion groups, with recent interest on upgrading the amount of jazz pedagogy included in the degree programs of college music education majors.
Guitar – Randy Haley
Randy Haley graduated from the University of Manitoba with a bachelor’s degree in Music and Education and has been teaching classroom guitar for 20 years. Mr. Haley currently teaches Guitar and Jazz Guitar Ensemble at J. H. Bruns Collegiate, and Guitar Pedagogy at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. In addition to acting as the PD Chair for the Manitoba Classroom Guitar Association, Randy also dedicates his time to composing and arranging for the guitar ensemble. He has been commissioned to arrange guitar ensemble music for the national Music Monday event and his arrangements and compositions have been performed and recorded throughout North America. Randy has presented guitar clinics in the U.S and Canada and his thoughts on guitar education are regularly featured in the Canadian Music Educators’ Journal.