UNC Bands Alumni Reunion Brings Alumni to Campus
July 9, 2019
The third UNC Bands Alumni Reunion will bring over 150 University of Northern Colorado alumni back to campus for a Concerts Under the Stars performance at UNC’s Garden Theatre at 8 p.m. Sunday, July 21.
This year’s show marks a special occasion with two UNC band directors retiring after the event:
Kenneth Singleton, professor of Music and director of Bands, has been at UNC for 34 years.
He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida, and two master's degrees from the Yale University School of Music. His doctorate in tuba performance was the first awarded by Yale University in that area. An avid transcriber of brass music (over 1,000 titles) and a music editor for the Charles Ives Society, Singleton has nearly 50 publications to his credit, mainly works for band and wind ensemble.
Richard Mayne, professor of Music Education, associate director of Bands and director of Pride
of the Rockies Marching Band, has been at UNC for 27 years.
He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Arizona State University and a doctorate in music education from Ohio State University. He’s an elected member of the American Bandmasters Association and serves as conductor of the Fort Collins Wind Symphony. Mayne has served as n adjudicator, clinician, and conductor throughout the United States, Canada, and China, and Japan. Most recently he completed his second semester-long residence in Tokyo Japan conducting the Musashino Academia Musica Wind Ensemble.
Two Honored Alumni will be conducting the performance:
- Bruce Pearson ‘69, a 2017 UNC Honored Alumni, has been an international leader in band music education
for more than 30 years. His “Standard of Excellence” materials are the definitive
pedagogical method for new musicians, with most school band programs in the United
States using these books to teach new musicians. His new contribution, the “Tradition
of Excellence Comprehensive Band Method,” is a performance-centered curriculum that
seamlessly blends time-tested and innovative pedagogy with cutting-edge technology.
Pearson has also created materials for jazz ensembles and music theory instruction, in addition to his numerous compositions for concert band and jazz ensemble. He has more than 50 publications to his credit. Pearson is a composer, arranger, conductor and teacher of band music who has held clinics in all 50 states and internationally. Pearson has received several prestigious national awards for his work and has created a scholarship for band students at UNC intending to become music educators. - Lowell E. Graham '70 '71, a 1999 UNC Honored Alumni, director of Orchestral Activities and professor of Conducting
at the University of Texas at El Paso, was the first person to be awarded the Doctor
of Musical Arts degree in orchestral conducting from the Catholic University of America
in Washington, D.C. in 1977.
He was inducted into the UNC School of Music “Hall of Honor” in 1996, an honor bestowed on only 18 alumni and faculty who have achieved greatness of a musician, educators and humanitarians in the school’s first 100 years.
Howard Skinner, former director of UNC’s School of Music, dean of the College of Performing and Visual Arts, UNC president and conductor of the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra, will serve as the concert announcer.
