Peter Miller, a well-known Rutland musician and music teacher,
serves as the Lakes Region Youth Orchestra's Music Director.
Peter Miller initiated and has led the stringed instrument and
orchestra program for the Rutland (Vermont) Public Schools for the past
seven years, building a program of 200 students, the largest in the state. He also teaches for Castleton State
College. He had previously
directed public and private school string and orchestra programs for more
than 20 years in Massachusetts and Colorado. Groups under his direction have
been selected to perform for All-State and MENC (Music Educators National
Conference) conventions and have toured in the USA as well as Canada,
Great Britain and Bermuda.
He is a frequent clinician, conductor, panelist and adjudicator
at regional, state and national festivals and conferences.
Miller has served as president of the National School Orchestra
Association (NSOA), and co-chaired the ASTA (American String Teachers
Association) with NSOA Committee on School Orchestras and Strings. He has been a consulting editor
for American String Teacher, and
has been a frequent contributor to professional journals.
Miller was the Music Director for the Lakes Region Youth Orchestra from 1999 to 2003. He co-founded and directed the Cape Cod Youth Orchestra, and was the founding Music Director of the Cape Cod Ballet Society Orchestra. He was a violinist in the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra for 18 years. He has been recognized as the 2004 Vermont Arts Educator of the Year, as an Outstanding Arts Educator by the Massachusetts Alliance for Arts Education and has received an NSOA Distinguished Service Award. He has been included in national and international Who's Who listings for Music and Musicians as well as for Education and is currently listed in America's Registry of Outstanding Professionals.
Glenn Giles is Music Department Chair at Castleton State College. He previously
served as Fine Arts Supervisor for the Rutland City Schools, His
teaching assignments include: Middle School Concert Band Director, High School
Jazz Ensemble Director and brass instructor. He has taught in the Rutland area
for 30 years, and has directed the Rutland City Band; Proctor Community Chorus;
and the Lakes Region Youth Orchestra Junior Winds.
He currently conducts the Lakes Region Youth Orchestra Wind Ensemble. He is also Bass Trombonist in the Marble City Swing Band. Mr. Giles attended Lowell State College and Eastern Nazarene College in Massachusetts, and received a Bachelor of Science in Music Education degree from Castleton State College in Vermont. He received his Master of Music Degree in instrumental conducting at the University of Maine where he studied conducting with Dennis Cox, Curvin Farnham, Arnald Gabriel, Anthony Maiello, and John Williamson.
Glenn has been a guest conductor/clinician in the three Northern New England States. As an active member of the Vermont Music Educators Association, he has adjudicated for the Vermont All-State Music Festival and Green Mountain District Festival and is a past president of the association. Mr. Giles' other professional organizations and honors fraternities include the Music Educators National Conference, International Association of Jazz Educators, National Federation Interscholastic Music Association and Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society. He has taught low brass at Castleton since 2002.
Ellen Sager, a graduate of the Crane School of Music,
has been a private violin instructor and orchestra conductor for over 20
years. She founded the Green Mountain Youth Orchestra and Green Mountain
Music Camp located in Bennington, VT. She plays professionally with the
Dorset Trio and is a freelance violinist. Coaching and conducting young
musicians is her passion and the reason that she is with LRYO. Ellen
resides in Bennington with her husband Richard and son Jay.
Bear Irwin (Concert Band, Philharmonic Orchestra) began teaching instrumental music in 1970
and returned to teach instrumental music at Mill River Union High School
in the fall of 2003. Before returning to Mill River, Mr. Irwin taught
vocal and instrumental music at Enosburg Falls Junior-Senior High School
and Elementary School, Bakersfield Middle School, Montgomery Elementary
School (1970-74; 1984-92) Middlebury Union Junior and Senior High School
(1974-75), Mill River Union High School (1992-98) and Rutland Town School
(1993-2003). Bear also taught Senior High Methods and Brass Methods as
the Adjunct Faculty of Johnson State College and Castleton State College.
Bear has done graduate work at UVM, Central Connecticut State University
and Plymouth State College, studying with James Swearingen, Richard
Derosa and Craig Kirchoff. Mr. Irwin has served on the Vermont Music
Educators Association Executive Board as District Division Coordinator
(1998-2001) and as President since July 2001. He has also served as
Vice President (1990-95) and President (1995-98) of the International
Association of Jazz Educators Vermont Unit.
Bear has been the Manager of the Vermont All State Music Festival Jazz Ensemble since 2000 and has been a Staff Member/Clinician/Conductor at Jazz Vermont since 1986. Mr. Irwin is among the educators presented the Outstanding Vermont Teacher Award by the University of Vermont (1986 & 2000) and was named Vermont Educator of the Year by the Vermont VFW Auxiliary in 2000. Bear organizes, manages and plays lead trombone for the Vermont Jazz Ensemble since 1976 and he also performs with Satin ' Steel, Stolen Moments, Moments' Notice, Doctor Burma, Catamount Brass and other ensembles throughout Vermont while guest conducting or doing workshops and clinics several times a year.
Jim Sowards (Repertory Strings) began his music career on the double bass
performing in orchestras and chamber ensembles including the Utah
Symphony, Ballet West and Santa Fe Opera. He was awarded a Chicago
Symphony Civic Orchestra String Fellowship at Northwestern University
where he received a Master's degree in Music. He has performed and
taught workshops at music festivals in Colorado, California and New
Mexico and was director of the statewide Utah BassFest in 2004. For the
past 12 years, Mr. Sowards has taught orchestra in the Salt Lake City
public schools and coached advanced youth orchestras in Utah. He
relocated to Vermont in 2004 to teach strings at Rutland Intermediate
School.
Sherrill Blodget is Director of Choral Activities and head of applied vocal studies at Castleton State College in Castleton, Vermont, where she directs the Collegiate Chorale and Castleton Chamber Singers, teaches voice, conducting, and global music, and is vocal director for musical theater productions. She is active as an adjudicator, clinician and guest conductor, and is President Elect and R&S Chair for Community Choirs for Vermont ACDA and the Vermont representative on the National Board of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO).
Prior to her 2008 appointment at Castleton, Dr. Blodget directed high school choral and vocal programs, and university, community, and church choirs in Arizona, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Colorado, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. She has worked with a wide spectrum of ensembles from the University of Arizona Collegium musicum, focusing on renaissance and baroque works, to women's, men's, and mixed ensembles performing choral and choral-orchestral repertoire from the renaissance to the twentieth century.
Dr. Blodget earned her D.M.A. in choral conducting from the University of Arizona, M.M. in choral conducting from the University of Oregon, M.M. in music education from the Pennsylvania State University, and B.A. in music from Yale University.
Making Beautiful Music Since 1990!
Last modified: 05/03/11