Wind conducting workshop to feature noted director Allan McMurray

  Arts+Culture  

The La Sierra University Department of Music will host a wind conducting workshop featuring guest clinician Allan McMurray and clinician Giovanni Santos.

Dr. Allan McMurray will serve as guest clinician for the wind conducting workshop at La Sierra University. (Photo: courtesy of Allan McMurray)
Dr. Allan McMurray will serve as guest clinician for the wind conducting workshop at La Sierra University. (Photo: courtesy of Allan McMurray)
Giovanni Santos, La Sierra University's director of wind and percussion studies, will serve as a clinician along with Allan McMurray for a wind conducting workshop at La Sierra. (Photo: Natan Vigna)
Giovanni Santos, La Sierra University's director of wind and percussion studies, will serve as a clinician along with Allan McMurray for a wind conducting workshop at La Sierra. (Photo: Natan Vigna)

The workshop will be held Sun., Nov. 12, 8 a.m. -- 5 p.m. in Hole Memorial Auditorium. The event will offer opportunities for conductor participants, workshop ensemble participants, or observers of the workshop instruction.

McMurray is a recognized authority on teaching conducting who served more than 35 years as director of bands and chair of the conducting faculty at the University of Colorado. McMurray has guest conducted and taught conducting in 48 states and 15 countries around the world. He has also been a visiting professor and conductor at over 200 universities and conservatories worldwide.

McMurray has been praised by Pulitzer Prize-winning conductors Michael Colgrass, George Crumb, John Harbison, Karel Husa and Steven Stucky for his “interpretive and expressive conducting,” according to his website biography. McMurray’s awards include Distinguished Professor of the University of Colorado and the Bohumil Makovsky Award for Outstanding College Band Directors.

McMurray’s extensive career includes performances with the St. Louis Symphony, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Los Angeles Debut Orchestra, and guest conducting the Colorado Symphony, the Thai Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra. McMurray continues to conduct and teach and is currently writing an accompanying textbook for his internationally acclaimed DVD series titled “The Art of Conducting.”

Santos, a La Sierra alum, is an assistant professor and director of wind and percussion studies at La Sierra. His duties include direction of La Sierra’s Wind Ensemble and Big Band. Santos received his Master of Music from University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. Most recently, Santos led the La Sierra University Wind Ensemble on a European performance tour in June 2017. The Wind Ensemble was invited exclusively by Maestro Massimiliano Messieri to participate in two music festivals in Europe where they debuted Messieri’s original composition “Dreamland.” Santos will take the group to New York City next year for a performance at the famed Carnegie Hall.

Tickets for the wind conducting workshop are $95 for conducting participants and $30 for non-conducting participants. Registration and tickets are available at www.universe.com/events/conducting-workshop-at-la-sierra-university-tickets-8THD9X. For further information call 951-785-2036 or email gsantos@lasierra.edu. La Sierra University is located at 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside. A campus map is available at https://lasierra.edu/campus-map/.

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