Headlines: Renowned Conductors to Lead the All-National Honor Ensemble

The National Association for Music Education’s (NAfME) premier national honor ensembles will be led by four award-winning conductors. The nation’s most elite high school musicians will vie for the opportunity to rehearse and perform in a one-of-a-kind national honor program.

The students must first compete at their local, district, and state level to become eligible.

The All-National Honor Ensembles consist of a concert band, orchestra, mixed chorus, and jazz ensemble; participating students are chosen by auditions. The concert band and symphony orchestra will each have approximately 150 instrumentalists, the jazz ensemble 20 instrumentalists, and the mixed chorus approximately 350 vocalists. Eligible students have qualified for their state-level honor ensemble program and competed against top students for a spot in these national honor ensembles.

Ensemble members will perform under the baton of four of the most prominent conductors in the United States. Jung-Ho Pak will lead the Symphony Orchestra. Pak is presently the artistic director and conductor of the Cape Symphony.

Eugene Corporon will lead the Concert Band. He is the conductor of the wind symphony and regents professor of Music at the University of North Texas.

The Mixed Choir will be led by Ann Howard-Jones, professor of music and director of choral activities at Boston University. She conducts the symphonic and chamber choruses, supervises conducting students in the concert chorus and the women’s chorale, teaches graduate choral conducting, and administers the MM and DMA programs in choral conducting.

The Jazz Band will be led by Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Sherman Irby and Todd Stoll. Irby is a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Stoll has more than 25 years of experience as an advocate, performer, educator, and promoter of great jazz music.

nafme.org