In Memoriam


Gerald Loren Welker (1941-2007)


Gerald Loren Welker, age 65, of Tuscaloosa, died February 10, 2007, in Birmingham.


Dr. Welker was the


founding conductor of the Wind Ensemble at The University of Alabama. Born May 3, 1941 in Champaign, Ill., Dr. Welker received the bachelor of music degree in music education, the master of music degree in music literature, and the doctor of musical arts degree in performance from the Eastman School of Music. He earned the performer’s certificate in saxophone and served as principal saxophonist of the Eastman Wind Ensemble for four years. A former conducting student of Gunter Theuring in Vienna, Roger Wagner, and Frederick Fennell, he was the top-rated American conductor at the 1982 National Orchestral Conducting Competition. He has served previously on the conducting faculties of Union University, Appalachian State University, the University of Central Florida, and Murray State University. Formerly Music Director of the Paducah Symphony Orchestra and head of the instrumental ensemble programs at the University of Central Florida and Murray State University, he has guest conducted the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra and the Tuscaloosa Symphony on numerous occasions. An active clinician, Dr. Welker has conducted all-state and regional bands in numer- ous states as well as having given extensive appearances as a lecturer, reviewer, and adjudicator. He has con- ducted the world premiere performances of over forty compositions and served as a national adjudicator for the Young Composers’ Contest of the Music Teachers National Association. Welker was a member of the College Band Directors National Association, the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, the National Band Association, and the Music Educators National Conference. He recently conducted a perform- ance of the Quincy Symphony Orchestra, in Quincy, Ill.


He is survived by his wife, Leslie Glenn Welker (band director at Hillcrest Middle School in Tuscaloosa) of Tuscaloosa; daughter, Amy Pittman of Stow, Ohio; daughter, Adrienne Welker (saxophonist with the United States Navy Band in Washington, D.C. - graduate of Indiana University at Bloomington), of Alexandria, Va.; and son, Gerald Loren Welker, Jr. (French horn instrumentalist with the Air Force Band of Mid-America in Illinois, and graduate of the University of Alabama), of Scott AFB, Ill.


February 2007 ala breve 43


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