 Marcus Neiman will bring his Sounds of Sousa Band to Hoover High School in their first performance of the 2013 season. The ensemble was created by Neiman in 1994 in an attempt to recreate concerts in the style of the great band director John Philip Sousa, who started his first professional concert band in 1894. Neiman’s current edition of The Sounds of Sousa Band is composed of 60 of the finest professional wind and percussion players in Northeastern Ohio. The ensemble has performed for over 500,000 since it’s first concert and has been featured throughout Ohio in halls large and small. Neiman has performed throughout the United States and traveled to Russian in 2004 to lecture on American bands and John Philip Sousa at the University of Moscow and conduct the Volga Concert Band in Saratov, Russia in October of 2004. Sharing the conductorial duties for the band will be Lake Local Schools band director Mark Tryon who serves Sounds of Sousa Band as associate conductor of bands. Neiman indicated that the Hoover concert will feature vocal soloist mezzo-soprano Denise Milner Howell; trombone soloist Justin Mason; and, guest conductor Hoover High School band director Ron Varn. Featured Soloists  In addition to performing, Ms. Howell is an active voice teacher. She currently teaches at Ashland University, and has served on the voice faculties of the University of Akron School of Music, and the State University of New York College at Fredonia. Ms. Howell earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in music education from Long Island University/CW Post College, and a Master of Music degree in vocal performance from New England Conservatory of Music. She lives in Sharon Township, Ohio with her husband, Gregg, their two sons, Miles and Wesley, and daughter, Eleanor.  During his stay at Eastman, Mason performed actively with its famous Philharmonia and Wind Ensemble. His participation in these ensembles included performances of a David Maslanka symphony with composer present and a homecoming concert featuring Eastman alumnus, Renee Flemming. The summer of 2009, Jacques Mauger, former Paris Opera House Trombonist and Paris Conservatoire Professor, invited Mason to a two-week-long masterclass in Celles sur Belle, France. Mason was the only American featured during its final concert. Active in the regional symphonic community, his appearances include guest substitutions with the Akron, Mansfield, Canton, Tuscarawas County, Altoona, Genesee and Solon Orchestras. In 2010, the American Wind Orchestra featured Mason as a tour soloist on Goldstein’s Colloquy. The work was performed at several venues, including South Padre Island, TX and Memphis, TN. Mason is a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda Honor Society, and has studied formally with Edward Zadrozny, Mark Lusk, and John Marcellus. He has been featured on masterclasses given by Steve Witser, Mark Babbit, Ron Barron, Norman Bolter, Jeannie Little, and the internationally acclaimed, Jacques Mauger. Conductors  He studied conducting from Mark S. Kelly, Alfred Reed, Claude T. Smith, and W. Francis MacBeth. He has conducted or performed in the pit orchestra for West Side Story, L’il Abner, Tom Sawyer, Guys and Dolls, Anything Goes, Wizard of Oz, Music Man, Aida, Peter Pan, Charlie Brown, Les Miserables, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Varn is a member of Ohio Music Education Association, National Association of Music Educators, Ohio Education Association, and North Canton Education Association. He is a practicing adjudicator for the Ohio Music Education Association both large group, and solo and ensemble adjudicated events. Varn’s ensembles are active adjudicated events and have performed for the OMEA State Conference, the Ohio Band Directors Conference, and the Bowling Green State University New Music Reading Clinic. His performance career includes study on his primary instrument with the late Edwin Betts, George Novak, and Vincent Chicowitz of the Chicago Symphony. He currently performs with the Camarata Brass Quintet. He has performed with the 1986 All American Statue of Liberty Marching Band. Varn resides in Uniontown, Ohio, is married to Ellen Varn and has three children, Michael, Maclaine, and Renee.   He attended the Akron Public Schools, received his bachelor of science in music education degree from The University of Akron, master of music in music education degree from The University of Michigan, postgraduate hours at The Kent State University, and The University of Akron. He was appointed as the interim assistant director of bands and administrator for the division of bands at the Hugh A. Glauser School of Music at Kent State University in May of 2010 for the academic year 2010-11. In addition to his duties with the division of bands, he also teaches their “Music Teaching as a Profession,” “Instrumental Methods for Choral-General Music Majors,” courses and supervises music education student teachers. His duties as include program development and outreach. Prior to that, Neiman was appointed to the position of part-time lecturer in January of 2004 for the music department at Case Western Reserve University with major responsibilities of teaching their “Foundations of Music Education” course and supervising music education student teachers and reserved in that post until the Spring of 2010. Neiman has served The Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) as a member of the governmental relations and adjudicated events committees, district president, vice-president, state chair for Music In Our Schools and public relations, state editor of their professional journal TRIAD, and state chair for their council of supervisors. He was elected by OMEAs membership to serve as state president from July 1, 1998 through July 1, 2000, and is currently OMEAs state historian. He was awarded OMEAs highest honor, the “Distinguished Service Award” on January 29th, 2010 at the Professional Development Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. Neiman has been published in Music Educators National Conference journal MEJ, The Instrumentalist, The School Musician, The Music Educator, OMEAs TRIAD, FANFARE magazine, and Bands of America Newsletter. His first book, edited for MENC, entitled Life in the Music Classroom, was published by MENC in April 1992. He is listed in Marquis “Who’s Who in America (58th Edition). Neiman has appeared with junior high/middle and high school, college and university, community bands, and American Federation of Musicians union professional bands as a guest conductor and in his characterization of famed bandmaster John Philip Sousa in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, (state of) Washington, and Wisconsin. On October 15, 2004, Neiman conducted the Volga Concert Band in Saratov, Russia in a Sousa-style concert following a week’s residence in Moscow and Saratov. In addition to conducting the Medina Community Band (since 1973), he formed his own professional touring band -- The Sounds of Sousa Band -- (in 1992) to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the formation of Sousa's first non-military band. To this date he has performed for over 200,000 people in the role of Sousa. Neiman is a member Local 24 (Akron), American Federation of Musicians. Neiman continues to conduct Medina Community Band, having served as the conductor longer than any other of the organization’s conductors (since the 1973 season), his goal has always been to preserve the presence and character of the traditional “town-band.” Over the years the band has commissioned works by Douglas Court, Robert Feldbush, Stuart Ling, Edmund J. Siennicki, Tadd Russo, and David Shaffer. The Sounds of Sousa Band Marcus Neiman, artistic director-conductor Mark Tryon, associate conductor Ron Varn, guest conductor Justin Mason, trombone soloist Denise Milner Howell, mezzo-soprano vocal soloist
Program – subject to change
When John Philip Sousa played his final concert with The United States Marine Band in the late 1890s, one newspaper reporter commented that “the skies opened up and cried as our little band director played his final concert on the White House lawn for a huge crowd of well-wishers. Their umbrellas sprung up like black mushrooms as the rain continued and the band played.” They certainly don't write like that anymore, do they? Sousa took a huge chance leaving the security of his military commission and directorship of the United States Marine Band. Yet, David Blakely, manager for such great ensembles as the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, (Patrick) Gilmore Band, and others, encouraged Sousa that he would become a wealthy man. Blakely was right, but it took at least one name change (from The New Marine Band, which the U.S. Congress didn't appreciate), to the final and more lasting name of simply, The Sousa Band, to get the entire process in motion. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mr. Sousa's starting his first professional band in 1892, Marcus L. Neiman decided to organize a professional level concert band in Northeastern Ohio capable of performing throughout the state and nation. His goal, simply stated, was to produce a band capable of bringing the sights and sounds of John Philip Sousa to a new generation of listeners. Thus was born Marcus Neiman & The Sounds of Sousa Band. The ensemble, called the great band from Ohio's Western Reserve, is the only professional touring concert band in Northeastern Ohio. Encouraged by life-long friends Mike Hadgis and Richard Keel, then both officers of the Akron (Ohio) American Federation of Musicians Local 24. With the help of his wife, Mary Ann, the two began recruiting members for the ensemble. The criteria was simplistic: (1) the finest wind and percussion players in the area; (2) a dedication to reproducing the music of the Sousa era; and, (3) the ability to be a team player and work for the general good of the band. In 2009, due in part to the changing economic times, the ensemble moved from an all-union ensemble to a non-union ensemble. The ensemble is currently in a reorganization process and rehearsing monthly. Concertizing in the Cincinnati area encouraged the Neiman's to use the same formula “down south” to recruit another roster of superior players. To date, the entire Sousa Band roster boasts a membership of well over 125 musicians from across the state of Ohio. The majority of the members of the ensemble are professional musicians, orchestra players, school instrumental music directors, or studio musicians. Almost all are capable of, or have performed as a soloist with Sounds of Sousa. “Our goal has been, and will continue to be to entertain our audience,” Neiman commented. We have expanded our operation from simply playing summer venue concerts to a full year season of engagements, educational concerts, as well as guest appearances. The band has performed in 33 of the 88 counties in Ohio, and in Indiana, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, (state of) Washington, and Wisconsin. The ensemble has performed engagements for an estimated 500,000 people.
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