In-Service Music Conference

Chris Gleason to serve as Keynote Clinician for Bandmasters

Chris Gleason is the art and creativity consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. He recently concluded 25 years as an instrumental music educator in East Troy, LaCrosse, and most recently Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. He is the 2017 Wisconsin Teacher of the Year and 2022 semi-finalist for the GRAMMY Music Educator Award and the first Wisconsin teacher to be named a finalist for National Teacher of the Year in 50 years. He was recently selected as one of five educators for the prestigious 2022 Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence by the NEA Foundation as well as a Top 50 Finalist for the 2021 Global Teacher Prize sponsored by the Varkey Foundation and UNESCO.

Gleason was selected from 8,000 nominations from 121 countries around the world. He was recently honored with the Wisconsin Badger’s Outstanding Educators Award and the Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award from his alma mater, UW-Eau Claire where he earned his BME degree in 1997. Gleason earned his Masters Degree from UW-LaCrosse in 2002 and is a Conn-Selmer Education Clinician.

Steven Cohen to serve as Artist in Residence

Steven Cohen has been heard internationally as a solo, orchestral, Broadway and chamber musician. Hailing from New York, he is in demand as a recital soloist, and has been a featured and guest artist at numerous horn events throughout the world. In February 2019, Cohen was featured on WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase, presenting an internationally broadcast recital. His appearance on the program marked the first horn recital presented on the program since the 1990s. Cohen was a Special Guest Artist at the 51st International Horn Symposium, as well as a Contributing Artist at the 45th, 48th and 50th symposia. He can be seen with Mannheim Steamroller and is featured with the group on their 2015 release, "Mannheim Steamroller Live”. From 2010-2012, Cohen was Principal Horn with The New 25th Anniversary Production of Les Misérables. 

Cohen’s love of the horn far extends just being a performer. As a lecturer, he has presented scholarship at the national and international level. His presentations have been presented at numerous International Horn Symposia, various national workshops, and universities worldwide. Aside from his presentations, Cohen is sought after as a clinician, presenting masterclasses at universities across the United States.

Cohen holds a Master of Music and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Cohen’s principal teachers include Philip Myers, Dr. Alan Mattingly and R. Allen Spanjer.

Tom Shelton to conduct the Elementary Festival Honor Choir

Tom T. Shelton, Jr. is a native of Greensboro, North Carolina and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he earned both a Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music in choral conducting. He is associate professor of sacred music at Westminster Choir College. Focusing on children’s and youth music at Westminster, he teaches classes in conducting, sacred music, music education and coordinates and conducts the Neighborhood Children’s Choir Program. In addition, he is the director of music for children’s and youth choirs at Princeton United Methodist Church.

Shelton has a passion for music education in all areas: church, school and community. He taught middle school choral music in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County for 18 years. During that time he was selected Teacher of the Year for both Atkins Middle School and Kernersville Middle School.  In 1999 the North Carolina Music Educators Association presented him with the North Carolina Middle School Music Teacher of the Year award. 

Shelton is active with the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), currently serving as the national president.  Other ACDA leadership positions have included southern division president (2011-2012), National R&S chair for Middle School/Junior High Choirs (2007-2009) and North Carolina president (2005-2007).

Shelton has conducted festivals and honor choirs in 20 states as well as Hong Kong. He has conducted Choral Festivals in Carnegie Hall, Honor Choirs for the Central Division ACDA and Southern Division ACDA, as well as All State Choirs in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina and South Carolina. He is the series director for the Music for Young Voices Series with GIA Publications and has over 50 compositions published by Choristers Guild, Colla Voce Music, G. Schirmer, Galaxy, GIA Publications, Growing in Grace Curriculum, Heritage Music Press, Hinshaw Music Company, Musicspoke.com, Santa Barbara Music Press and Walton Music. 

William Powell to serve as conductor of SDSU’s Festival of Song – Men’s Chorus 

William C. Powell is a professor of music and the director of choral activities at Auburn University (Alabama). His duties include conducting the Chamber Choir, Men's Chorus, Concert Choir and Gospel Choir and teaching choral-related courses.

Powell has guest conducted throughout the United States and abroad, including Australia, Italy and Eastern Europe. He serves as a regular adjudicator for various choral festivals such as Festival Disney. He also gives presentations for the National Association for Music Education, American Choral Directors Association, Intercollegiate Men's Choruses, College Music Society, Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities and the National Society of Music in Technology.

His choral arrangements are published by Hal Leonard Corporation, Gentry Publications, and Oxford University Press through which he and his wife, Rosephanye Powell, co-edited a collection titled "Spirituals for Upper Voices." He also has a choral series published by Gentry Publications.

An active member of the American Choral Directors Association, Powell has served as the repertoire and standards chair of the Committee on Ethnic and Multicultural Perspectives for the both the southwestern and southern divisions. He also holds memberships with the National Association for Music Education and the American Society of Composers and Publishers. 

Lynne Gackle to Serve as director for SDSU’s Festival of Song -Women’s Chorus

Lynne Gackle is a Professor Emeritus of Baylor University. Prior to her retirement she held the Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Music Chair and served as Baylor’s director of choral activities. Gackle holds degrees from LSU (B.M.E.) and the University of Miami (M.M./Ph.D). Recognized for her research on the female adolescent voice, Lynne is the author of Finding Ophelia’s Voice, Opening Ophelia’s Heart and is a contributing author for other books. She was awarded Baylor’s Outstanding Faculty Award in Research (2012) and the highly coveted Texas Choir Masters Award (2021).

She actively serves as a choral clinician and conductor, nationally and internationally. She has conducted All-State, festival choirs and clinics in more than 30 states, several regional ACDA honor choirs and two ACDA national honor choirs. Her choirs have performed at American Choral Directors Association state, regional, and national conferences as well as at the Music Educators National Conference Biennial Convention (currently known as NAFME). For the past 20 years, she has served as guest conductor for various National Honor Choirs at Carnegie Hall in New York City.