Dr. Jones is one of the most active and versatile symphonic conductors in America today, possessing a unique ability to work effectively with musicians at all levels of performing capability and experience. His conducting schedule averages over 100 concerts annually and includes a wide array of professional, festival, collegiate and student ensembles throughout North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia, ranging from the Minnesota Orchestra and the Minneapolis Pops to the Penang (Malaysia) Symphony, the Antofagasta (Chili) Symphony and the Symphony Orchestra of Lucerne (Switzerland). Jones has conducted over 80 All-State orchestras with additional festival/clinics in most of the 50 states and Canadian provinces.
The acknowledgement of his musical and academic expertise has led to invitations to serve extended conducting residencies at such institutions as the North Carolina School for the Arts, the University of Miami, Interlochen Academy for the Arts and Kansas City Conservatory. Recognition of Jones' outstanding gestural skills and score analysis has made him a sought-after teacher of conducting. He is a member of the conducting faculty at the International Workshops where he also serves as conductor of the International String Orchestra. He also is the founding artistic director of the critically acclaimed Conductors Workshop of America. In addition, Jones is a guest clinician for numerous conducting seminars for professional/educational associations internationally. A Texas native, Dr. Jones holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin, University of Iowa and Kansas State University, with additional studies at the Juilliard School of Music and the University of North Texas.
In 1972, Dr. Jones founded the Greater Twin Cities' Youth Symphonies (MN) which he guided to international acclaim during a 25-year tenure. An independent organization comprised of eight full orchestras involving over 1000 students annually, the program has become a model for youth orchestra structures worldwide.
For his untiring work on behalf of music and arts education, he has been honored with the David W. Preuss Leadership Award, the American String Teachers Associations Exceptional Leadership and Merit Award, the Sigma Alpha Iota Musician of the Year Award, WCCO Radio "Good Neighbor Award" and the State of Minnesota Governors' Proclamation of Dr. William LaRue Jones Day. He is listed in the International Who's Who in Music.
Jones is Music Director/Conductor of the Oshkosh Symphony Orchestra and Director of Orchestral Studies and Graduate Conducting at the University of Iowa. In addition he holds the titles of Founder and Conductor Laureate of Greater Twin Cities' Youth Symphonies and Conductor Emeritus of the 3M Symphony.
Professor Marvin J. Rabin is Emeritus Professor of Music
and director of the Wisconsin String and Orchestral
Development Program for the Department of Continuing Education in the Arts at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the founding conductor of the
Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras and the Greater Boston Youth Symphony
Orchestras.
Dr. Rabin is known internationally as a string development specialist and for
his leadership of youth orchestras. In great demand as a string clinician and
conducting specialist, he has served at many national and state music education
conventions and has conducted all-state high school orchestras, festivals and
workshops in forty-eight states, Canada, South America, Australia, New Zealand,
Malaysia and Europe. Dr. Rabin conducted the All-Northwestern Music Educators
National Conference orchestra three times and the All-Eastern MENC orchestra in
1977. He was twice guest conductor for the Canadian National Youth Orchestra
Festivals at Banff. Dr. Rabin conducted three tours of the "American Youth in
Concert" Symphony Orchestra in concerts at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall,
Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France, and England. He served as guest conductor
with the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony in Costa Rica and the Soviet Union.
After attending Transylvania College and graduating from the University of
Kentucky, he received Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of
Music and Doctorate degree from the University of Illinois. He has studied
conducting with Fritz Mahler, Richard Burgin and Pierre Monteux and has
participated in conducting symposiums under Richard Lert, Eugene Ormandy and
William Steinberg. His string pedagogy study has been with Paul Rolland, George
Bornoff, Kato Havas and Shinichi Suzuki.
Following his discharge from the United States Air Force as a pilot, Professor
Rabin returned to Louisville, Kentucky, as instrumental director in the public
schools and violist with the Louisville Symphony Orchestra. He later joined the
University of Kentucky Music Department where he played viola in the faculty
string quartet. While there, he developed the Central Kentucky Youth Symphony
Orchestra which received laurels for outstanding performances at the American
String Teachers Association National Conference, the Music Educators National
Conference and the Gala Youth Orchestra Festival at Carnegie Hall.
Dr. Rabin taught at Boston University where he was the Founding Music
Director-Conductor of the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras. Under his
leadership, the Youth Orchestra played throughout New England
including performances at Symphony Hall in Boston. In 1962, the group
performed at the White House at the invitation of President and Mrs. John F.
Kennedy followed by a concert at Carnegie Hall, sponsored by UNICEF.
Dr. Rabin has served on the board of directors of the American Symphony
Orchestra League, the National School Orchestra Association, Music Arts
Development, Inc.; the American String Teacher Association and the Mid-West
International Band and Orchestra Clinic. He has also served on committees for
the National Association of Jazz Educators and the Music Educators National
Conference. In addition, he was a consultant for the Institute of Advanced Musical Studies in
Switzerland.
As a guest lecturer, he has taught at the Universities of Texas, Boston,
Loyola/New Orleans, Kansas State, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Vermont, New
Hampshire, Idaho, Denver, Michigan, Columbia, Catholic University of America,
Central Connecticut State University and others. Dr. Rabin received grants to
study the Suzuki string development program in Japan and the youth symphony
orchestra movement in seven European countries. Dr. Rabin is a recipient of the
Distinguished Alumni Award presented by Transylvania University for his service
in the field of music and the 1975 Distinguished Service Award from the American
String Teachers Association. Federations of music clubs in several states have
presented him with citations for his crusade for strings, his contributions to
contemporary music and support of music for youth. In 1977 he received the
Distinguished Service Award for meritorious service, the outstanding leadership
in music education from the Wisconsin Music Educators Association and
the University of Wisconsin-Extension Distinguished Service Award in 1984. In 1991 the
Wisconsin chapter of the American String Teachers Association gave Dr. Rabin
their first Distinguished Service Award. In 1992, the Mid-West International
Band and Orchestra Clinic awarded Dr. Rabin the Distinguished Medal of Honor and
in 2000 he received the coveted Wisconsin Governor's Award in Support of the
Arts. In 2001, the Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra established the "Rabin Youth
Arts Awards" to be given annually to individuals and organizations who are
outstanding in their support of youth arts programs in Dane Country. In 2001 ASTA/NSOA presented Marvin Rabin the first Paul Rolland Award and announced
that the National Board had created a new award in his honor: the Marvin J.
Rabin Award, to be given on an occasional basis to an individual or organization
who makes significant contributions to their community (local, regional or
professional) by their teaching and leadership. The Eastman School
of Music Sibley Library has established a Marvin Rabin Archive for his papers
professional and personal activies.
Dr. Rabin is the co-author of the manual and videotape "Guide to Orchestral
Bowings Through Musical Styles" and "Rabin on Strings", a 4-hour educational
videotape developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Rabin currently
serves with workshop faculties during the summer for the University of Wisconsin
- Madison, the Orchestral Institute of America, the International Music
Workshop, is visiting lecturer at Loyola College of Music-New Orleans and
Artistic Advisor for the Banff International Festival of Youth Orchestras.
Henry Charles Smith won the Grammy with the Philadelphia
Brass Quintet for the "Best Classical Record of the Year 1969". While on
the conducting staff of the Minnesota Orchestra, he conducted over 1000
concerts. As principal trombonist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, he
played more than 2000 concerts with Eugene Ormandy and many other of the 20th
century's greatest conductors. As trombone and euphonium soloist, as
chamber music player, and as writer and editor, his recordings and editions are
internationally known. His guest conducting includes the Detroit, Dallas,
Kansas City and National Symphony Orchestras, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra,
and the Indianapolis, San Antonio and Phoenix Symphonies.
He has served on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music, Indiana University, Temple University and the University of Texas. He is Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University.
Henry Charles Smith has conducted the Young Artist Orchestra at Tanglewood and was Music Director of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen for 16 years. He has just completed his 12th and final season as Music Director of the South Dakota Symphony.
Henry Smith was born in Philadelphia and presently lives in Bloomington, MN with his wife, Mary Jane. They have 3 children and 7 grandchildren, including newly adopted twin girls, born February 2, 2000, in Vietnam.