MVNU to host OMEA District 10 honor bands

MOUNT VERNON – Middle and high school honors bands will gather at Mount Vernon Nazarene University on Saturday, Dec. 4, for this year’s Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) District 10 education and performance seminar.

The event will feature 200 young musicians from Ashland, Coshocton, Delaware, Holmes, Knox, Licking, Morrow and Richland counties and over 50 participating schools. To be eligible for the OMEA Honors Band, students must be nominated by their director. High school students must also submit an audition featuring scales and an etude excerpt. Those chosen also take part in a rehearsal a week prior to the performance.

The day will feature a morning of instruction for both bands and will culminate with a final concert at 3:30 p.m. in the R.R. Hodges Chapel/Auditorium on the MVNU campus. The concert is free and open to the public. Face masks are strongly encouraged for the performance.

This year’s District 10 honor bands event will feature guest clinician Dr. Stephen Gage directing the high school band. Gage served as professor of music and director of bands and orchestra at Youngstown State University’s (YSU) Dana School of Music from 1993-2021. In September 2010, Gage was appointed the principal conductor of the W. D. Packard Concert Band, a professional concert band, in Warren, Ohio, and remains in this position. He recently retired after 28 seasons as the Edward Zacharias Memorial chair/conductor of the Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra. He has served as guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator of high school honor bands and orchestras as well as several university wind bands throughout the United States, Canada and Ireland.

Lisa Galvin will serve as clinician for the middle school band. She taught for 30 years in the Reynoldsburg and Hilliard City school districts. She enjoys an active career of creating all types of music, including solo, ensemble and large group concert, as well as marching band works for middle school, high school, college and community band programs. She joined the arranging staff of the Ohio State University Marching Band in 2008, and her music has been featured in several viral YouTube videos. She was a featured presenter at the inaugural Women Composers Symposium at OSU, and her music has been featured in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Fiesta Bowl and the International Women’s Brass Conference.