2010 Kennedy Center Conductors Team
2010 Kennedy Center Conductors Team
Dr. Wayne A. Barr
Tuskegee University
National Conductor - Classical
Chair Conductors Team
Southeast Region
Dr. Wayne A. Barr is Director of Choral Activities at Tuskegee University. He earned degrees in church music and choral conducting from Westminster Choir College (B.M.), Southern Methodist University (M.M., M.S.M.), and The University of Michigan (D.M.A.). He has served as organist and choir director at churches in Alabama, Michigan, New Jersey and Texas. Before coming to Tuskegee University, Mr. Barr was Director of Music at the historic Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, and instructor of music at William Tyndale College in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
Dr. Curtis Everett Powell
National Conductor - Spirituals
Delaware State University
Northern Region
Dr. Curtis Everett Powell, a native of Fairfield, Alabama, Powell began his professional musical studies at the Alabama School of Fine Arts and was graduated in 1979. He studied with prominent music professors at Talladega College, Alabama State University, The University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music (New York), Howard University in Washington, DC, Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, The University of Oklahoma at Norman, and The University of Mississippi. Prior to his appointment as Director of Choral Activities at Delaware State University, Dr. Powell served on the music faculty at North Carolina A&T State University, Prairie View A&M University, and Lane College. In addition, he served as Coordinator of Music Ministry at the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama and Visiting Organist and Music Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr International Chapel at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He holds membership and has participated in many professional organizations in his field.
A member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated (AΦA), the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), the National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music (NASPAAM), the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM), the Music Educators National Conference (MENC), and Phi Mu Alpha (Professional Music Fraternity), Dr. Powell is listed in several biographical publications, some of which include: Who's Who in Entertainment, Personalities of the Americas, Personalities of the South, International Men of Achievement, The Society of Young American Professionals, and the Who's Who in American Education. He was thrice selected as one of the Outstanding Young Men of America and is now serving on the National Nominating Committee for the Outstanding Young Men of America Awards.
During 1990, Dr. Powell received a Proclamation of the Community Leaders of America for his outstanding service to the music profession. He served on the Board of Directors for the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham - the first alumnae to serve on the Board of Directors and recently served on the Board of Directors for the Jackson (TN) Symphony Orchestra. In 1989, he traveled with a special Choral Directors Tour of Italy as part of the Arts Development Agency in Princeton, New Jersey. During January 1995, Powell traveled on a tour of China and in January 1998 toured the United Kingdom. While in Texas, Powell served as the Texas Chair of the Committee on Ethnic and Multicultural Perspectives for the American Choral Directors Association. 1999 and 2003, respectively, he participated in a tour of Senegal and Ghana, West Africa. During 2007 he participated in a doctoral research program in higher education administration at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of Paris.
During 2008, Dr. Powell served as Eastern Regional Director for the 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Voices of History National Choir's premiere performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In addition, he served as Co-Chair of the 2009 HBCU Conductors Summit sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts
Professor D'Walla Simmons-Burke
Winston-Salem State University
National Conductor - African American Composers
Southern Region
Professor D'Walla Simmons-Burke has been the Director of Choral &Vocal Studies and Coordinator of the Choral/Vocal/Piano Area of the Fine Arts Department at Winston-Salem State University for 20 years. She has studied at Hampton Institute (University) (VA); The University of Illinois of Urbana-Champaign (IL); The University of South Carolina of Columbia (SC); and has pursued doctoral studies in Music Education with triple minors in Research Methodology, Administration Leadership and Music History, at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
She has studied voice with Anna L. Lumpkin (GA), Vernon Holliston (GA), Princess Brown (GA), Shelia Maye (VA), Samuel Roberson (VA), Dodi Protero (IL), William Warfield (IL), and mentor Roland M. Carter (TN). Professor Simmons-Burke has also held teaching positions in the Fulton County Public Schools (GA), Voorhees College (Denmark, SC). At Winston-Salem State University, Simmons-Burke is the founder of three of the four choral ensembles currently existing within the Fine Arts Department (Winston-Salem State University Women; Winston-Salem State University Men and the renowned Winston-Salem State University Burke Singers). She has performed as a soprano and in such operas as Treemonisha, Lost in the Stars, LaTraviata, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Telephone and The Old Maid and the Thief.
Professor Simmons-Burke has both performed with and conducted several symphony orchestras. In April, 2008, she conducted Gabriel Faure's Requiem with the New England Symphony and New England Symphony Chorale at Carnegie Hall. She returns to Carnegie Hall, January, 2010 to conduct her own Winston-Salem State University Choir in concert. Simmons-Burke has also traveled internationally with her choral ensembles. The Winston-Salem State University Choir, has performed and recorded (Somewhere Far Away; Albany Record Label), with the Dvořák Symphony in Prague, Czech Republic, under the baton of Maestro Julius P. Williams. This compact disc has recently been pre-nominated in five categories (Best Classical Album; Best Orchestra Performance; Best Choral Performance; Best Classical Vocal and Best Contemporary Composition). The renowned Winston-Salem State University Burke Singers have also traveled nationally and performed with Grammy Award Winner Patti Austin in concert. Under Simmons-Burke's baton, her choral ensembles have performed for such regional and national dignitaries as President George W. Bush; Kweisi Mfume; Susan Taylor; former North Carolina Governor James Hunt; Maya Angelou; Dick Gregory and Pope John Paul II, to name a few. Her exceptional and diverse vocal and choral pedagogies are continuously demonstrated through the outstanding students she has produced. As a result, Simmons-Burke has been the recipient of several teaching awards such as the Winston-Salem State University Patterson Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award and the Winston-Salem State University Cedric Rodney Service Award. D'Walla is also the recipient of numerous community service and performance awards.
Professor Simmons-Burke is listed in Outstanding Young Women of America and holds memberships in many other organizations such as the Music Educators National Conference; the American Choral Directors Association; the National Association of African American Studies; the National Association for the Study and Performance of African-American Music; The Intercollegiate Music Association (board member); the National Associations for African American, Asian, Hispanic, and Latino Studies; The Piedmont Opera Theatre (former board member); Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., The Moles, Inc. and The Links, Inc.
She is often sought after as a sacred music and multicultural music clinician/ lecturer and soloist in the area and neighboring states. Professor Simmons-Burke has also made numerous guest appearances as a guest conductor and adjudicator for high school and middle school All-State and All-County festivals, Collegiate Choral Festivals and In-Service Workshops. She is married to Fred A. Burke and they have two daughters (Tammy and Teresa) and two grandsons (Hunter and Carson).
Professor Jeremy Scott Winston
Wilberforce University
National Conductor - Jazz and Gospel
Southwest Region
Professor Jeremy Scott Winston, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, serves as the Ray Charles Distinguished Chair of Sacred and Choral Music at Wilberforce University. Appointed to this position by former congressman, Floyd H. Flake, at the early age of twenty-four, Jeremy sought out to recreate the nation's oldest Historically Black College music program to become a haven for multi-talented musicians. Jeremy has taken huge strides in this direction over the past four years of his appointment to this distinguished position. Breathing life anew into the fledgling program, Jeremy has increased enrollment of music majors over 700%, hired four world-class faculty members, put students in touch with renowned musicians including Kathleen Battle, Adolphus Hailstork, Donnie McClurkin, Rachelle Ferrell, Take6, and more.
As the conductor and director of The Award-Winning Wilberforce University Choir, Professor Winston has taken this ensemble to new heights. After being hailed as "The Best Collegiate Choir" and "The Best Overall Choir" by The National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM; oldest African-American music association) in October of 2005, The Choir has been in high demand throughout the country. Regularly performing in New York, NY; Baltimore, MD; Detroit, MI; Los Angeles, CA; and Las Vegas, NV; this choir is poised to begin the 'next big thing' in choral music. In October of 2006, Jeremy made history with the University by arranging and conducting The Choir on the title track of the major motion picture Amazing Grace with gospel vocalist, Chris Tomlin. Beginning to spread his wings in the local community, Jeremy sits on the Board of Trustees for The Dayton Opera Company and Unified Health Solutions. A current resident of the Maryland area, Mr. Winston recently appeared as guest conductor of The New England Youth Ensemble and The Nouve Camerata in a full performance of Handel's "Messiah". Traveling as a tenor soloist, Mr. Winston performed with the UCLA Chamber Orchestra and in Los Angeles, California in December 2003 and in January 2004, with the Morgan State University Choir in a visit to Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Professor Winston is married to the former Angelique Samuel of Queens, New York and is the proud father of his five-month-old Jordyn Sherell Winston. Through hard work, discipline, love of music and love of God, Mr. Winston is preparing one of America's oldest African American collegiate ensembles to emerge as one of the nation's top vocal ensembles.
REGIONAL CONDUCTORS
"The team that prepares the students for the Kennedy Center stage"
NORTHERN REGION
Dr. Eric Conway
Regional Conductor
Morgan State University
Dr. Eric Conway is currently the Director of the Morgan State University Choir as well as Chairperson of the Fine Arts Department. He has served as Associate Conductor and principal accompanist for the Morgan State University Choir for the past twenty years under the leadership of the late Nathan Carter.
He received his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University where he majored in Piano Performance and minored in Conducting. While at the Peabody, Conway was a recipient of the prestigious Liberace Scholarship, as well as a winner in the Yale Gordon Concerto Competition where earned the honor of playing Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra.
Some of his significant accomplishments as pianist include a tour of Eastern Africa, sponsored by the United States Information Agency. One of the highlights of the tour was a solo performance for Madagascan television and radio. He has performed as soloist with several orchestras including, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore Concert Artists, Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, Georgetown University Orchestra, and the Millbrook Orchestra in Shepardstown, West Virginia. In January, 2006 he performed Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall to wide acclaim.
Dr. Conway is also sought after as a collaborative artist. He has worked with several leading artists including Trevor Wye, Hillary Hahn, Daniel Heifetz, William Brown, Janice Chandler, to name a few. He is also an orchestral pianist for the Baltimore Symphony. In 1994 and 1997, he toured with the orchestra to Eastern Asia.
Dr. Conway's choral accomplishments include working closely with some of the greatest conductors of the 20th Century including Robert Shaw, Sir Nevelle Mariner, and Donald Neuen. In 2001, he was chorusmaster for the Baltimore Symphony Chorus' performance of the Verdi Requiem. He travels around the mid-Atlantic area giving Choral Master Classes and workshops for Collegiate and High School levels. In June of 2006, Dr. Conway was Chorusmaster for performances of Mahler Symphony #2, ending the tenure of Baltimore Symphony's music director, Yuri Temirkanov.
Most recently, he conducted the forces of both the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Soulful Symphony in the Meyerhoff Hall's Annual Martin Luther King Concert. In addition to his musical accomplishments, he holds degrees in both Accounting and Business Management and is also a Certified Public Accountant. Dr. Conway is married to Bessie Elizabeth Conway, and they are blessed to have three sons, Eric, Jr.; Christopher; and Ryan.
Dr. Johnella L. Edmonds
Regional Conductor
Virginia State University
Dr. Johnella L. Edmonds is an Assistant Professor of Music in the Department of Music, Art and Design at Virginia State University. She received the Bachelor Music Education degree from Howard University, and Master of Music degree in piano performance from the Catholic University of America. She studied choral conducting with Evelyn White, Warner Lawson, Frauke Hasseman, and Gunther Theuring, former director of the Vienna Boys Choir, in Vienna, Austria.
Dr. Edmonds is director of the Virginia State University Concert Choir, a position she assumed in 1984. Under her leadership, the choir has presented concerts in several prestigious venues including the Virginia Music Educators Association, Hot Springs, Virginia; Southern Division of the Music Educators National Conference, Louisville, KY; National Association for the Study and Performance of Afro-American Music-2009 Conference. Edmonds has prepared the VSU Concert Choir to perform with the internationally acclaimed Ethos Percussion Ensemble, Richmond and Petersburg Symphonies, and for the Smithsonian Institution's Wade in the Water series, Bernice Reagon, Curator Emerita. The conductor performs as a singer, pianist, and frequently serves as choral clinician and adjudicator for district music festivals in the Mid-Atlantic Region. She has presented workshops for educators and students in Virginia's public schools, colleges and universities.
Dr. Edmonds has appeared with the Richmond and Petersburg Symphony Orchestras as mezzo-soprano soloist in Handel's Messiah and Vaughan Williams' Hodie. In 2007, she created the role of Mrs. Tibbs in the Petersburg Symphony Orchestra's World Premiere of The Edge of Glory, an opera by the Petersburg composer Emory Waters. Prior to joining the Virginia State University music faculty, Edmonds served as Associate Director of Choral Activities at Tuskegee Institute (now University), and instructor in music education and piano for Saint Augustine's College, Raleigh, North Carolina. During her tenure at Virginia State University, she received the Ruth and Spencer Timms' Outstanding Faculty Award for excellence in teaching.
Dr. Edmonds holds membership in Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honorary, Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity, Pi Lambda Theta, and Alpha Mu Gamma. She is a member of the American Choral Directors Association and the Music Educators National Conference.
Dr. Grover Wilson, Jr.
Regional Conductor
North Carolina Central University
Dr. Grover Wilson, Jr. (M.A.), noted musician, choral director, clinician, adjudicator, writer and arranger, is a member of the distinguished music faculty at North Carolina Central University. Dr. Wilson also serves as Director of the NCCU Jubilee Singers, and Music Director for NCCU Spirit, a recruitment performance group. Since his faculty appointment in 1985, he has served in various roles in choral music including accompanist and assistant director. He was appointed Director of Choral Activities for the university in 2002 and served in that capacity until 2008.He holds degrees in Music and Education from NCCU and has done post-graduate studies in music and education at Georgia State University, UNC-Greensboro, NC and Duke University in Durham, NC. Dr. Wilson studied advanced conducting with Dr. Rod Eichenburger in the summer of 2008.
A former public school teacher, Dr. Wilson taught in Durham County (NC), Chapel Hill-Carrboro (NC), and served as Area III Music Supervisor and Specialist in Atlanta (GA) Public Schools. He also served as Music Instructor and Choral Director at Durham College and taught piano privately in Durham and Pittsboro, NC. Dr. Wilson has concertized throughout the United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He has performed with the North Carolina Symphony, the Durham Symphony Orchestra, in Carnegie Hall with the New Harlem Symphony Orchestra and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. He returned to Carnegie Hall in a debut concert as accompanist for Mezzo Soprano Sandy Thomas.
In 2007, Dr. Wilson had the distinct honor of conducting Mozart's Requiem with the Durham Symphony Orchestra in an "Evening of Classical Music". This event included the vocal talents of the North Carolina Central University Choirs, the Duke Chapel Choir and the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Durham. He is a member of the American Choral Directors' Association (ACDA), National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCOO), holds honorary membership in Alpha Psi Omega Service Fraternity, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Daphne M. Lennon Memorial Scholarship Foundation. A church musician for more than 46 years, he has served in numerous capacities in music ministry.
SOUTHWESTERN REGION
Dr. Gloria Harrison Quinlan
Regional Conductor
Huston Tillotson
Dr. Gloria Harrison Quinlan, a native of Houston, Texas, received the Bachelor of Music Education degree in Voice from Texas Southern University, the Master of Music in Voice from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice from The University of Texas at Austin. She has significant experience in teaching voice, conducting choirs, and administering a music department on the college and university level. After a position as Assistant Professor of Music at Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee, she was Associate Professor of Music at the University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and is presently Professor of Music and Chair of the Humanities and Fine Arts Department at Huston-Tillotson University, Austin, Texas.
Dr. Quinlan has enjoyed success as a performer, in opera, as a soloist with ensembles, and as a recitalist, throughout the United States and the Caribbean. Significant performances include: soprano soloist in a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Caribbean Chorale and Puerto Rico Symphony; soprano soloist with the Austin Civic Chorus and Symphonietta, the Capitol City Men's Chorus, Austin Singers in a performance of the Brahms Requiem and just recently recorded with the Trombone Choir of The Butler School of Music, University of Texas at Austin. She has also performed with the Scott Joplin Orchestra of Houston, Texas.
Dr. Quinlan has also received acclaim as a choral conductor. She founded the University Concert Choir at the University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, and VI. Her choir at Huston-Tillotson University performed for President Jimmy Carter. President George W. Bush invited the Huston-Tillotson Choir to perform at the opening of the Texas State Museum (a performance broadcast nationwide). Dr. Quinlan was also selected as the choir conductor for the Lady Bird Johnson funeral service. She studied voice with Ruth Stewart (Texas Southern University), Larry Day (Colorado State University) and the late Martha Deatherage (University of Texas), and coached with Gerard Souzay, the late Darryl Hobson-Byrd and the late David Garvey. Dr. Quinlan studied choral conducting with the late Ruthabel Rollins at TSU.
Honors include the Danforth Compton Fellowship, Graduate Opportunity Fellowship, and a Graduate Scholarship Award from General Conference, Seventh Day Adventist Church. She also received the Fine Arts Award as an outstanding Music Educator by the National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa, Inc., Delta Beta Chapter, and the Outstanding Achievement in Fine Arts award from the National Women of Achievement, Inc. She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Music Educators National Conference, Texas Music Educators Conference, American Choral Directors Association and Texas Choral Directors Association. Dr. Quinlan is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Dr. Quinlan and husband Quincy Quinlan make their home in Austin, Texas with their son Mykal.
SOUTHEASTERN REGION
Dr. Darryl Glenn Nettles
Tennessee State University
Regional Conductor
Dr. Darryl Glenn Nettles, a native of New York, was granted a Doctorate in Vocal Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. While in Illinois he was a student of Mignon Dunn of the Metropolitan Opera. He also studied with Heinz Rehfuss of the Paris National Theatre and with the renowned artist William Warfield.
In addition to his vocal studies, Dr. Nettles studied composition with Salvatore Martirano and has written countless vocal, choral, and instrumental works. He is the author of African American Concert Singers Before 1950 (McFarland and Company, Inc.).
Dr. Nettles has appeared with Opera Sacra of Buffalo, New York, the Western New York Opera, was an apprentice with the Greater Miami Opera, and most recently appeared with the Buffalo Opera Unlimited Company of New York. As tenor soloist DR Nettles performed with the Heartland Symphony of Minnesota, the Buffalo Philharmonic of New York, and the Nashville Symphony of Tennessee. He also served as rehearsal accompanist with Maestro Julius Rudel, the internationally celebrated conductor of opera. Dr. Nettles coached and performed with the legendary jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams and was chosen by her as featured soloist for the Western New York premiere of her jazz mass. His CD Reminiscing, a collection of jazz standards, was released in the fall of 2000. On the recording Dr. Nettles is both vocalist and pianist. A new CD project is in the making at present and will also feature jazz music.
Dr. Nettles is currently Coordinator of Vocal/Choral Studies in the Department of Music at Tennessee State University in Nashville. Prior to this appointment he served as Chairman of the Music Department and Coordinator of the Humanities/Fine Arts Division at Central Lakes College in Brainerd, Minnesota. Dr. Nettles teaches applied voice, opera history, opera workshop, choral conducting, vocal techniques, and vocal methods and conducts the University Choir and Meistersingers.
SOUTHERN REGION
Professor Damon H. Dandridge
Cheney University
Regional Conductor
2008 National Conductor
Professor Damon H. Dandridge is currently the Director of Choral Activities at Cheney University. He holds the Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from The Florida State University and the Bachelor of Music Education degree in Choral Music/Voice from South Carolina State University with additional studies at Boston University. Professor Dandridge has had the esteemed pleasure of working with some of the most influential African-American composers of our time including Dr. Brazeal W. Dennard, Dr. Roland M. Carter, Dr. André J. Thomas, and the late Mr. Moses G. Hogan. As an artist, Dandridge's choral arrangements have been met with worldwide acclaim. From across the United States to Korea, Australia, and Italy, his pieces have been featured at various all-state festivals and international festivals.
Professor Dandridge was the 2003 winner of the National Association of Negro Musician's Brantley Choral Arranging competition. Dandridge is a member of many organizations including ACDA, NANM, Phi Mu Alpha, and Kappa Alpha Psi, Fraternity, Inc. He joined the Cheney family in 2005.
Professor Marcus Rhodes
Florida A&M University
Regional Conductor
Professor Marcus Rhodes is a native of Little Rock, Arkansas. He has served as music teacher in the Monroe Public Schools, Monroe, LA, and the Dallas Independent School District, Dallas, TX. He is the former conductor of the University Choir, and coordinator of vocal studies at Grambling State University, Grambling, LA. Under his leadership the choir travel extensively including an international tour to Trinidad and Tobago, Port of Spain, and received many accolades from national and regional choral authorities. Professor Rhodes is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the National Association of Negro Musicians, the Music Educator’s National Conference, and other professional music associations. He earned the Bachelor of Arts Degree in music from Grambling State University and the Master of Music Performance Degree at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He has conducted university ensembles at Louisiana Tech University, the University of Louisiana at Monroe, and Grambling State University. Professor Rhodes was included in the Marquis Who’s Who Amongst University Educators in 2007. Professor Rhodes is serving his third year as regional conductor for the 105 Voices of History, National HBCU Choir in Washington, DC. He is currently assistant professor of vocal studies at Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL.
105 Voices Choral Director
Royzell L. Dillard
Director of University Choirs
Professor of Music Co-Music Director
The Hampton University
Professor Royzell L. Dillard is a native of Tennessee. Born in Nashville, then later moving to Memphis, Dillard was exposed to his first musical experiences in the public schools of Nashville and the A.M.E. church. He is currently the director of University Choirs and an assistant professor of music in the Department of Music at Hampton University. Professor Dillard is a graduate of Hampton Institute/University with degrees in psychology and music education. He has studied conducting, music history, voice, and educational psychology at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, The Catholic University School of Music, and at Memphis State University respectively. Currently, he is enrolled at Shenandoah Conservatory in a doctoral program in the area of music education.
Professor Dillard is celebrating over twenty years of service as the conductor and artistic director of the internationally acclaimed Hampton University Choirs, Dillard and the choirs are in constant demand. Whether Dillard is performing as a solo artist, as a clinician, adjudicator, workshop leader, or as the conductor of one of the Hampton Choirs, audiences are pleased with the outpouring
