Joseph Hermann
Encyclopedia
Joseph W. Hermann is a leading American wind band conductor and educator and is currently Director of Bands and Professor of Music at Tennessee Technological University
in Cookeville, Tennessee
. He is also the current President of the American Bandmasters Association
.
, where he studied under Don Marcoullier. At Drake, Herman experienced frequent theoretical study by returning guest lecturer Vincent Persichetti
. As a young clarinetist, he played principal clarinet in Karl King
's band in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Hermann also studied and interacted with legendary conductors Sir Georg Solti and John Paynter. Hermann also studied with Václav Nelhýbel
, with whom he remained close to until Nelhýbel's death, and John Boyd
, who worked with Hermann while transcribing the music of Karel Husa
for wind band. In college, Hermann became a Brother of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
. After college, Hermann taught secondary school, directing the Dowling High School Band in West Des Moines, Iowa
, and supervising the Des Moines Catholic Instrumental Music Program for the Diocese of Des Moines. Under his leadership, the school music program grew to unprecedented enrollment. In addition, he served as the Educational Director for Bands of America
and McCormick’s Enterprises, a music corporation in Chicago
, Illinois
. His college teaching positions include Director of Bands at East Tennessee State University
, Associate Director of Bands and the Director of the Pride of Arizona
Marching Band at the University of Arizona
, an Assistant Director of Bands and a Director of the Marching Hundred at Indiana University
, where he became an Honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi
. One of Hermann's students at Indiana was a young Richard Saucedo. He has appeared in over thirty states, Canada
, the Netherlands, Japan
, and other places around the world.
Boy's State Band for thirteen years. Since coming to Tech, Hermann increased the band's exposure, conducting the Tech bands for NPR
broadcasts, director resource CDs, and taking the bands to various conferences, including the 2008 ABA convention and the 1994 CBDNA convention. Hermann and the Tech Symphony band are responsible for numerous commissioned compositions from award winning composers including Donald Grantham
, Robert Jager, Greg Danner
, Thomas Sleeper
, and Rodney Waschka II
. Composers such as Adam Gorb, Robert W. Smith
, Gunther Schuller
, James Barnes
, Mark Camphouse
, John Zdechlik, Jared Spears, Eric Ewazen
, James Curnow
, Elliot Del Borgo
and Leroy Osmon have also visited and had residencies with the Tech band. Hermann's tenure at Tech has cemented him as a music educator of note, with many of his former students teaching and conducting in every facet of the wind band community. Hermann is also frequently published in journals and research documents concerning the entire scope of wind studies. Hermann and the TTU bands record frequently and are recording a CD of new music published by C. Alan Publications, which includes music by Greg Danner and Elliot Del Borgo. Hermann also oversees Tennessee Tech's annual Festival of Winds and Percussion that has featured guest conductors including Thomas Lee, Kenneth Bloomquist, Thomas Fraschillo, James Keene, James Croft, Frank Wickes, Stanley Michalski, Alan Bonner, John Bourgeois
, and Harry Begian
. Hermann and the Symphony Band have also appeared with guest soloists including Joseph Alessi
, Joseph Skillen, Tim Northcut, Phillip Barham
, Kelly Thomas, Bryce Edwards, and the Boston Brass.
, NBA, the Tennessee Bandmasters Association, has served as the editor for the New Music Reviews for the Tennessee Musician, and is a past board member of the Tennessee Music Educators Association. He is a member of Phi Beta Mu, a past President of the Pac-10 Band Directors Association, a past Province Governor for Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
, and holds honorary memberships in Kappa Kappa Psi
and Tau Beta Sigma
. In 2008, Herman received the Kappa Kappa Psi Distinguished Service to Music medal honoring leaders in wind studies. In 2009, Jeremy S. Martin, composer/arranger for the U.S. Air Force and TTU alumnus, composed a Suite for Band in honor of Mr. Hermann's twenty years as director of the Tech band program.
as well as conductors David Waybright of the University of Florida
, Wiliam J. Moody of the University of South Carolina
, and W.J. Julian, former Director of Bands at Tennessee Tech and the University of Tennessee
.
Performed with the Tennessee Tech Wind Ensemble, Phillip Barham
, soloist.
"Slide Ride: Works for Solo Trombone and Band" Mark Masters (6055 MCD), 2005
"Tennessee Tech Pride" Mark Masters (4371 MCD), 2003
"Discovery: Emerging and Celebrated Repertoire for Solo Saxophone and Band Volume I". Mark Masters (3918 MCD), 2002.
"Band Music of Distinction Volume V". Daehn Publications (DP1527)
Performed with the Tennessee Tech Symphony Band
"Jupiter". Independent through Tennessee Tech. 1995
"The Waters of Myth". Independent through Tennessee Tech. 1994
Recorded at the 1994 CBDNA convention at the Ohio State University.
Tennessee Technological University
Tennessee Technological University, popularly known as Tennessee Tech, is an accredited public university located in Cookeville, Tennessee, US, a city approximately seventy miles east of Nashville. It was formerly known as Tennessee Polytechnic Institute , and before that as Dixie College, the...
in Cookeville, Tennessee
Cookeville, Tennessee
Cookeville is a city in Putnam County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 23,923 at the 2000 census. of Cookeville's population was 30,435, and the combined total of those living in Cookeville's in 2010 was 65,014. It is the county seat of Putnam County and home to Tennessee...
. He is also the current President of the American Bandmasters Association
American Bandmasters Association
The American Bandmasters Association was formed in 1929 by Edwin Franko Goldman to promote concert band music. Goldman sought to raise esteem for concert bands among musicians and audiences...
.
Biography
Hermann received his undergraduate and masters degrees from Drake UniversityDrake University
Drake University is a private, co-educational university located in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The institution offers a number of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and pharmacy. Today, Drake is one of the twenty-five oldest law schools in the country....
, where he studied under Don Marcoullier. At Drake, Herman experienced frequent theoretical study by returning guest lecturer Vincent Persichetti
Vincent Persichetti
Vincent Ludwig Persichetti was an American composer, teacher, and pianist. An important musical educator and writer, Persichetti was a native of Philadelphia...
. As a young clarinetist, he played principal clarinet in Karl King
Karl King
Karl L. King was a United States march music bandmaster and composer. He is best known as the composer of Barnum and Bailey's Favorite.-Biography:...
's band in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Hermann also studied and interacted with legendary conductors Sir Georg Solti and John Paynter. Hermann also studied with Václav Nelhýbel
Václav Nelhýbel
Václav Nelhýbel was a Czech-American composer, mainly of works for student performers. He is considered one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century....
, with whom he remained close to until Nelhýbel's death, and John Boyd
John Boyd
John Boyd may refer to:*John Boyd , American actor*Sir John Boyd , British ambassador and former master of Churchill College, Cambridge*John Boyd , science fiction author...
, who worked with Hermann while transcribing the music of Karel Husa
Karel Husa
Karel Husa is a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition...
for wind band. In college, Hermann became a Brother of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia is an American collegiate social fraternity for men with a special interest in music...
. After college, Hermann taught secondary school, directing the Dowling High School Band in West Des Moines, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, and supervising the Des Moines Catholic Instrumental Music Program for the Diocese of Des Moines. Under his leadership, the school music program grew to unprecedented enrollment. In addition, he served as the Educational Director for Bands of America
Bands of America
Bands of America , a division of Music for All, Inc., is an organization that promotes and organizes marching band competitions for high school students. Competitions include both Regional and Super Regional Championships as well as the Grand National Championships...
and McCormick’s Enterprises, a music corporation in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. His college teaching positions include Director of Bands at East Tennessee State University
East Tennessee State University
East Tennessee State University is an accredited American university located in Johnson City, Tennessee. It is part of the Tennessee Board of Regents system of colleges and universities, the nation's sixth largest system of public education, and is the fourth largest university in the state...
, Associate Director of Bands and the Director of the Pride of Arizona
The Pride of Arizona
The Pride of Arizona is the University of Arizona's marching band. The band was founded in 1902 as the UA ROTC Band and contained 12 members. Over the years, the band has performed in prestigious venues such as Super Bowl I and the Inaugural Parade of President James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. ...
Marching Band at the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
, an Assistant Director of Bands and a Director of the Marching Hundred at Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
, where he became an Honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi
Kappa Kappa Psi
Kappa Kappa Psi is a fraternity for college and university band members. It was founded on November 27, 1919 at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College in Stillwater, Oklahoma. William Scroggs, now regarded as the "Founder," together with "Mr. Kappa Kappa Psi" A...
. One of Hermann's students at Indiana was a young Richard Saucedo. He has appeared in over thirty states, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the Netherlands, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and other places around the world.
Tennessee Tech
In 1989, Hermann became the director of bands at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, TN. At Tech, he directs and oversees a comprehensive program that includes the University Wind Ensemble, Symphony Band, Concert Band, Golden Eagle Marching Band, Pep Band, and the Golden Eagle Brass, as well as directing the Tennessee American LegionAmerican Legion
The American Legion is a mutual-aid organization of veterans of the United States armed forces chartered by the United States Congress. It was founded to benefit those veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by Congress...
Boy's State Band for thirteen years. Since coming to Tech, Hermann increased the band's exposure, conducting the Tech bands for NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
broadcasts, director resource CDs, and taking the bands to various conferences, including the 2008 ABA convention and the 1994 CBDNA convention. Hermann and the Tech Symphony band are responsible for numerous commissioned compositions from award winning composers including Donald Grantham
Donald Grantham
Donald Grantham is an American composer and music educator.Grantham was born in Duncan, Oklahoma. After receiving a Bachelor of Music from the University of Oklahoma, he went on to receive his MM and DMA from the University of Southern California. For two summers he studied under famed French...
, Robert Jager, Greg Danner
Greg Danner
Greg Danner is an award-winning contemporary American composer, educator, and professional musician. He is currently the composer-in-residence and professor at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee. He is the 2010 Composer's Guild Grand Prize winner.-Biography:Danner was born May 16,...
, Thomas Sleeper
Thomas Sleeper
Thomas M. Sleeper is a modern American composer and conductor. His music has been described as 'hauntingly mysterious' and 'richly lyrical'. He is currently the Director of Orchestral Activities and Conductor of the University of Miami Frost Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theater...
, and Rodney Waschka II
Rodney Waschka II
Rodney Waschka II is an American composer known for his algorithmic compositions and his theatrical works.-Biography:Waschka studied at Brooklyn College, at the Institute of Sonology, then newly part of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and earned his doctorate at the University of North Texas...
. Composers such as Adam Gorb, Robert W. Smith
Robert W. Smith
Robert W. Smith is an American composer, arranger, and teacher.-Biography:Smith was born in the small town of Daleville, Alabama on October 24 1958. He attended high school in Dadeville, after which he left for Troy State University, where he played lead trumpet in the Sound of the South Marching...
, Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller is an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, and jazz musician.- Biography and works :...
, James Barnes
James Barnes (composer)
James Charles Barnes is an American composer.Barnes studied composition and music theory at the University of Kansas, earning a Bachelor of Music in 1974, and Master of Music in 1975. He studied conducting privately with Zuohuang Chen...
, Mark Camphouse
Mark Camphouse
Mark Camphouse is an American composer and conductor who has written primarily for symphonic winds, but whose output also includes works for orchestra, choir and chamber brass....
, John Zdechlik, Jared Spears, Eric Ewazen
Eric Ewazen
Eric Ewazen is an American composer and teacher. Ewazen studied composition under Samuel Adler, Milton Babbitt, Gunther Schuller, Joseph Schwantner, Warren Benson, and Eugene Kurtz at the Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School...
, James Curnow
James Curnow
James Curnow is a well known music composer for concert bands, brass bands, vocal and instrumental solos & ensembles. He has composed many pieces for bands from beginning to advanced levels. Curnow has also written arrangements of music pieces such as Trumpet Voluntary...
, Elliot Del Borgo
Elliot del Borgo
Elliot A. del Borgo is an American composer for winds and strings. He is also in demand as a guest conductor. Though Del Borgo's primary instrument is trumpet, his love of percussion is apparent in his works, which typically focus around intricate percussion parts and an immense variety of...
and Leroy Osmon have also visited and had residencies with the Tech band. Hermann's tenure at Tech has cemented him as a music educator of note, with many of his former students teaching and conducting in every facet of the wind band community. Hermann is also frequently published in journals and research documents concerning the entire scope of wind studies. Hermann and the TTU bands record frequently and are recording a CD of new music published by C. Alan Publications, which includes music by Greg Danner and Elliot Del Borgo. Hermann also oversees Tennessee Tech's annual Festival of Winds and Percussion that has featured guest conductors including Thomas Lee, Kenneth Bloomquist, Thomas Fraschillo, James Keene, James Croft, Frank Wickes, Stanley Michalski, Alan Bonner, John Bourgeois
John Bourgeois
John Bourgeois is a bilingual actor, director and educator.-Life and career:John Bourgeois was born in Ottawa. He received his training at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London and Concordia University in Montreal, where he obtained a B.A...
, and Harry Begian
Harry Begian
Dr. Harry Begian was an American Band Director. Dr. Begian taught at both the secondary and collegiate level during his career.At the secondary level, Dr. Begian served as band director at Detroit's Cass Technical High School from 1947 through 1964. During Dr. Begian’s tenure at Cass Tech, the band...
. Hermann and the Symphony Band have also appeared with guest soloists including Joseph Alessi
Joseph Alessi
Joseph Alessi is a world-renowned, primarily classical, trombonist; he is the current Principal Trombone of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and an active soloist, teacher/clinician and recording artist. Alessi is considered the finest player in modern times....
, Joseph Skillen, Tim Northcut, Phillip Barham
Phillip Barham
Phillip Wayne Barham is a classical and jazz saxophonist and professor of saxophone at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee.-Biography:Barham was born in Dowagiac, Michigan...
, Kelly Thomas, Bryce Edwards, and the Boston Brass.
American Bandmaster
In 1996, in recognition of outstanding service and achievements to music, Herman was elected into the American Bandmasters Association. As an ABA member, Hermann has served on various committees, overseen commissioning projects, and served on the Board of Directors. In 2007, Hermann was named Vice-President of the ABA, and in 2008 became the President-Elect. He assumed the Presidency during the ABA convention March 4–8 in College Station, Texas, succeeding Robert Jorgenson.Honors and awards
In addition to the ABA, Hermann is a member of CBDNA, MENCMENC: The National Association for Music Education
MENC: The National Association for Music Education is an organization of American music educators dedicated to advancing and preserving music education and as part of the core curriculum of schools in the United States...
, NBA, the Tennessee Bandmasters Association, has served as the editor for the New Music Reviews for the Tennessee Musician, and is a past board member of the Tennessee Music Educators Association. He is a member of Phi Beta Mu, a past President of the Pac-10 Band Directors Association, a past Province Governor for Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia is an American collegiate social fraternity for men with a special interest in music...
, and holds honorary memberships in Kappa Kappa Psi
Kappa Kappa Psi
Kappa Kappa Psi is a fraternity for college and university band members. It was founded on November 27, 1919 at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College in Stillwater, Oklahoma. William Scroggs, now regarded as the "Founder," together with "Mr. Kappa Kappa Psi" A...
and Tau Beta Sigma
Tau Beta Sigma
Tau Beta Sigma is a co-educational national honorary band sorority dedicated to serving college and university bands. The Sorority, headquartered at the historic Stillwater Station in Stillwater, Oklahoma, numbers over 3,500 active members in 145 active chapters, and over 40,000 alumni...
. In 2008, Herman received the Kappa Kappa Psi Distinguished Service to Music medal honoring leaders in wind studies. In 2009, Jeremy S. Martin, composer/arranger for the U.S. Air Force and TTU alumnus, composed a Suite for Band in honor of Mr. Hermann's twenty years as director of the Tech band program.
Personal life
Hermann is married and has two children. He resides in Cookeville. He is good friends with renown Tech tuba professor R. Winston MorrisR. Winston Morris
South Carolinian Ralph Winston Morris , known for his signature "soul patch", is the professor of Tuba and Euphonium at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee. He is editor of The Tuba Source Book and the Euphonium Source Book...
as well as conductors David Waybright of the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
, Wiliam J. Moody of the University of South Carolina
University of South Carolina
The University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with 7 surrounding satellite campuses. Its historic campus covers over in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House...
, and W.J. Julian, former Director of Bands at Tennessee Tech and the University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
.
Discography
"America's Millennium Tribute to Adolphe Sax Volume XII". Tucson: Arizona University Recordings (AUR 3129), 2007.- Summer Concerto by Rodney Waschka IIRodney Waschka IIRodney Waschka II is an American composer known for his algorithmic compositions and his theatrical works.-Biography:Waschka studied at Brooklyn College, at the Institute of Sonology, then newly part of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and earned his doctorate at the University of North Texas...
Performed with the Tennessee Tech Wind Ensemble, Phillip Barham
Phillip Barham
Phillip Wayne Barham is a classical and jazz saxophonist and professor of saxophone at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee.-Biography:Barham was born in Dowagiac, Michigan...
, soloist.
"Slide Ride: Works for Solo Trombone and Band" Mark Masters (6055 MCD), 2005
- Performed with the Tennessee Tech Symphony Band, Joshua Hauser, soloist.
"Tennessee Tech Pride" Mark Masters (4371 MCD), 2003
- Performed with the Tennessee Tech Symphony Band, Tim Northcut, soloist.
"Discovery: Emerging and Celebrated Repertoire for Solo Saxophone and Band Volume I". Mark Masters (3918 MCD), 2002.
- Performed with the Tennessee Tech Symphony Band, James Spinazolla, soloist.
"Band Music of Distinction Volume V". Daehn Publications (DP1527)
- Walls of Zion by Greg DannerGreg DannerGreg Danner is an award-winning contemporary American composer, educator, and professional musician. He is currently the composer-in-residence and professor at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee. He is the 2010 Composer's Guild Grand Prize winner.-Biography:Danner was born May 16,...
Performed with the Tennessee Tech Symphony Band
"Jupiter". Independent through Tennessee Tech. 1995
- Performed with the Tennessee Tech Symphony Band. Frank Wickes, guest conductor.
"The Waters of Myth". Independent through Tennessee Tech. 1994
Recorded at the 1994 CBDNA convention at the Ohio State University.
- Performed with the Tennessee Tech Symphony Band, Ray Cramer, guest conductor, Steven MeadSteven MeadSteven Mead is an English virtuoso euphonium soloist and teacher who has played an important role in achieving worldwide recognition of the instrument....
, guest soloist